Oops! Misspelled 'Jesus' In Pope Francis Pontificate Medals Prompts Vatican Withdrawal

By Jobs & Hire Staff Reporter | Oct 11, 2013 01:27 PM EDT

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Misspelled Jesus - It is the most unlikely of events, but it did happen. The Vatican is now withdrawing Pope Francis' pontificate medals from the market after identifying a major flaw on the coins: 'Jesus' was misspelled.

According to Reuters, thousands of official papal medals have been retrieved by the Vatican after discovering that the Latin inscription around the edge misspelled Jesus into "Lesus."

The papal medals were produced in three varieties: gold, silver, and bronze by the Italian State Mint. They began rolling in official Vatican stores last October 8. They were made in honor of Pope Francis' first pontificate year

Two days after it went on sale, someone pointed out the glaring error on the most important name in the inscription.

"Vidit ergo Jesus publicanum, et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi, 'Sequere me'" the inscription, which was taken from a meditation by Venerable Bede in the 8th century and was said to be Pope Francis' papal motto, reads. It is translated in English as,  "Jesus therefore sees the tax collector, and since he sees by having mercy and by choosing, he says to him, 'follow me'".

Inquisitr reported that the reason why the phrase was very meaningful and close to Pope Francis' heart was because it was the same words that inspired him to pursue priesthood and devote himself to God.

Although this is very embarrassing for the church, the Italian media reported that the rare medals would fetch high prices in the market later on, citing that four people, who made purchases prior to Vatican's move to withdraw the items from the official stores, may have been, after all, very lucky.

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