Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty - International Stamp

Centenary of the Ordination to the Priesthood of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty.

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty – who was born and raised in Ireland’s south-west – was ordained in Rome in 1925 and appointed to the Vatican Diplomatic Service. He would serve in various international postings, including Haiti and Czechoslovakia, before returning to Rome to work in the Holy Office in 1938.

At first, when Italy entered the Second World War on the same side as Germany, a lot of people doubted the stories they were hearing of Nazi atrocities, assuming that they were Allied propaganda. Gradually, however, the terrible things that were happening came to light – and O’Flaherty became determined to do something about them.

From the autumn of 1942, O’Flaherty worked with The Organisation – an enormous network of partisans risking their own lives and well-being – to save 6,500 Jews and anti-fascists from Nazi concentration and prisoner of war camps.

Our stamp issue, commemorating the hundredth anniversary of his ordination to priesthood, celebrates the work of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty with a design featuring a drawing of O’Flaherty himself, juxtaposed with a flock of birds.

Product code 2512W