During an audience with Pope Leo XIV on Friday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov presented the pontiff with an omophorion, a bishop’s liturgical vestment, with an early Christian symbol of the Good Shepherd embroidered on it, according to the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA).

The Pope received the Prime Minister at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. Zhelyazkov is leading a Bulgarian delegation on a traditional annual visit to Rome and Vatican City ahead of May 24, the Day of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, of the Bulgarian Alphabet, Education and Culture and of Slav Letters.

The omophorion was made in Bulgaria specially for the occasion by Nina Dimitrova, a renowned expert on church vestments. In his last public appearance on Easter 2025, Leo’s predecessor Francis wore such an omophorion, which he had received as a present in 2019 while on a visit to Bulgaria.

The symbols embroidered on the omophorion have a deep spiritual meaning. There is a cross, which stands for God’s unconditional love and Jesus’s sacrifice, by which he took upon himself the sins of humanity, as well as the victory over death and the hope of Resurrection. There is also an image of a rose, a trademark of Bulgaria, a symbol of beauty, industriousness and love, a bridge between earthly and heavenly things, and also representing the notions of eternity, revival and spiritual power.

Furthermore, the vestment carries images of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, spiritual pillars of the Christian faith, who are central to the Roman Catholic Church. Peter, depicted with keys in his hands, stands for spiritual and papal authority. He is the apostle from whom the Pope inherits his authority. Paul stands for the mission of the Church in the world, and the book in his hand symbolizes his epistles and the foundations of Christian theology. As a dual symbol, Peter and Paul personify two principles of the Church: the resilience and the continuity represented by Peter and the missionary spirit and inspiration associated with Paul.

Pietro Parolin, the Cardinal Secretary of State of Vatican City, received from the Bulgarian delegation an icon of Holy Prince Boris-Mihail, the monarch who converted the Bulgarians to Christianity in the 9th century. The icon was hand-made in Bulgaria by the eminent artist Zhelyo Zhelev. Icons by him have been presented as gifts from the Bulgarian government to diplomats as well as Pope John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.