John Paul II was beatified on May 1, 2011 — a unusually fast track to beatification driven personally by Benedict XVI, who waived the standard five-year waiting period after death. The ceremony drew an estimated 1.5 million pilgrims to Rome, the largest gathering in the Vatican's recorded history to that point. Cook Islands issued heavily into the commemorative market during this period, licensing religious and historical subjects with little connection to the territory itself.
The Latin "Beatus" in the title is precise: this was struck before his 2014 canonization, fixing the coin firmly in the fourteen-month window between beatification and full sainthood.
John Paul II was beatified on May 1, 2011 — a unusually fast track to beatification driven personally by Benedict XVI, who waived the standard five-year waiting period after death. The ceremony drew an estimated 1.5 million pilgrims to Rome, the largest gathering in the Vatican's recorded history to that point. Cook Islands issued heavily into the commemorative market during this period, licensing religious and historical subjects with little connection to the territory itself.
The Latin "Beatus" in the title is precise: this was struck before his 2014 canonization, fixing the coin firmly in the fourteen-month window between beatification and full sainthood.