page_title: Vicarius Filii Dei
section_title: Is this a Papal title?
hierarchical_section_title: Vicarius Filii Dei / Origins and uses of the phrase / Is this a Papal title?
caption_attribution_description: English: Pope´s Tiara in Vatican City. Čeština: Papežská tiára ve Vatikánu, Řím
context_page_description: Vicarius Filii Dei is a phrase first used in the forged medieval Donation of Constantine to refer to Saint Peter, a leader of the Early Christian Church and regarded as the first Pope by the Catholic Church.
context_section_description: After the "Donation of Constantine", the title "Vicariuis Filii Dei" appeared again in Our Sunday Visitor, a Catholic journal. An article in the April 18, 1915, issue of Our Sunday Visitor had the following question and answer: "What are the letters on the Pope's crown, and what do they signify, if anything?" "The letters on the Pope's crown are these: Vicarius Filii Dei, which is a Latin for 'Vicar of the Son of God'." This has been used by some groups as evidence for the claim that the phrase appears on the papal tiara (see below). However, the writer of the article later withdrew his statements. A rebuttal was mentioned in a 1922 edition of the journal: "The Pope claims to be the vicar of the Son of God, while the Latin words for this designation are not inscribed, as anti-Catholics maintain, on the Pope's tiara."
  The Protestant writer Andreas Helwig suggested that Vicarius Filii Dei was an expansion of the historical title Vicarius Christi, rather than an official title used by the Popes themselves. His interpretation did not become common until about the time of the French Revolution. Some later Protestant figures claimed that Vicarius Filii Dei was an official title of the Pope, with some saying that this title appeared on the papal tiara and/or a mitre.
  Catholic apologists answer the Protestant claims by noting that Vicarius Filii Dei has never been an official Papal title. Catholics answer the claims that "Vicarius Filii Dei" is written on the Papal Tiara by stating that a simple inspection of the more than 20 papal tiaras still in existence—including those in use in 1866 during the reign of Pope Pius IX when Uriah Smith made his claim—shows that none have this inscription, nor is there any evidence that any of the earlier papal tiaras destroyed by invading French troops in 1798 had it.
  While its use is often denied and its validity even disputed by some Catholic theologians, the consistent use of the term can be verified in papal canons and other Catholic publications. These usages date back many centuries.
caption: An example of a papal tiara. Contrary to some claims, no tiara has ever been inscribed with the phrase Vicarius Filii Dei.[5]
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