thumb|Anulus piscatoris of [[Pope Leo XIII]]
The Ring of the Fisherman (Latin: Anulus piscatoris; Italian: Anello Piscatorio), also known as the Piscatory Ring, is an official part of the regalia worn by the pope, who according to Catholic practice and tradition is the head of the Catholic Church and successor of Saint Peter, who was a fisherman by trade. It used to feature a bas-relief of Peter fishing from a boat, a symbolism derived from the tradition that the apostles were "fishers of men" (Mark 1:17). The Fisherman's Ring is a signet that was used until 1842 to seal official documents signed by the pope but is now used only ceremonially.
History
A letter written by Pope Clement IV to his nephew in the 13th century includes the earliest known mention of the Ring of the Fisherman, which was used for sealing the pope's private correspondence. Public documents, by contrast, were sealed by stamping a different papal seal onto lead which was attached to the document. Such documents were historically called papal bulls, named after the stamped bulla (seal) of lead.
The ring has been lost or stolen at various times. In a 1588 letter, the Spanish ambassador to Rome, Count Olivares, reported to Philip IV that a papal cup-bearer had stolen the Fisherman's Ring from Sixtus V. In 1797, after Napoleon's troops occupied Rome, the ring of Pius VI was briefly taken by French soldiers The ring was returned to Pius VI the next day, due to the ritual's connotations of clericalism and temporal power. (For example, Benedictus XVI for Benedict XVI.) Past popes have used rings of various designs reflecting their own tastes. Pope Leo XIV uses the papal ring constantly. At his inauguration he was given a gold ring, which he uses during liturgical celebrations, but outside of them he uses an identical silver ring.
Presentation and use
During the ceremony of a papal coronation or papal inauguration, the Camerlengo traditionally slips the ring on the ring finger of the new pope's right hand. Benedict XVI had the dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, give him the ring, which he then placed upon himself. Pope Francis was likewise bestowed his ring by Sodano at his installation. On the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV, it was Luis Antonio Tagle, the junior among the Latin-Rite Cardinal-Bishops, who placed the ring on the new Pope, instead of the Dean, Giovanni Battista Re.
Benedict XVI wore the Fisherman's Ring daily, but other contemporary popes, including Benedict's successor Francis, wore it only during certain ceremonies. The practice of destroying a late pope's signet ring originated as a means to prevent the issuance of forged documents during the sede vacante (the interregnum between the death of one pope and the election of another).
The apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis, which governs procedures during the sede vacante, directs the College of Cardinals to "arrange for the destruction of the fisherman's ring and of the lead seal with which Apostolic Letters are dispatched" during a meeting of the general congregation of cardinals, but does not set a specific time when the destruction must occur. However, the ritual typically occurs during a meeting of the general congregation of cardinals that precedes the conclave to elect a successor.
The broken Fisherman's Ring of Pius IX is part of the Alice and Louis Koch Collection of 2,500 rings at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich.
Upon the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013, the first papal resignation in more than six hundred years, Benedict's signet ring was not destroyed but was instead defaced by applying two deep cuts in the shape of a cross using a chisel. The ring and seals of Pope Francis were cut with a chisel by a laywoman in front of the College of Cardinals at their last General Congregation on May 6, 2025, as seen in a video posted by Vatican News.