Pope to inaugurate exhibition cycle at Vatican Apostolic Library
Pope Leo XIV will inaugurate the first chapter of the exhibition cycle “AQVA. Catastrophe and Wonder” at the Vatican Apostolic Library on September 14. The exhibition, curated by Library officials, will run from September 25, 2026, to May 14, 2027, and features works by French artist JR, American typographer Bill Moran, and Italian chef Fulvio Pierangelini. The show explores water as both a threat and a resource, reinterpreting the Library’s historic collections through contemporary artistic practices. The Vatican Apostolic Library, an institution belonging to the Pope, will open its collections to scholars worldwide and hosts the event to foster dialogue between contemporary art and its centuries‑old heritage.
3 months ago
Pope Leo XIV will inaugurate the first chapter of the “Catastrophe and Wonder” exhibition cycle, titled AQVA, at the Vatican Apostolic Library on 14 September 2026, coinciding with his 71st birthday. The exhibit, which runs for visitors from 25 September 2026 through 14 May 2027, explores water as both a threat and a vital resource through contemporary artworks that dialogue with the Library’s historic collections. 1 2
The “AQVA Catastrophe and Wonder” exhibition will be opened by the Pope at 11 a.m. on 14 September 2026. It is the inaugural chapter of a larger exhibition cycle that will continue until May 2027. 1
Three contemporary creators are featured: French street‑artist JR, American typographer Bill Moran, and Italian chef‑artist Fulvio Pierangelini. Their works reinterpret the Library’s manuscripts and artifacts to highlight water’s dual character as a peril and a source of life. 1 2
Monsignor Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, the Librarian and Archivist of the Holy Roman Church, explained that the Pope wishes the exhibition to “foster dialogue between contemporary art and the Library’s centuries‑old heritage,” emphasizing a “home where past and future meet as friends.” This reflects Leo XIV’s recurring call for fidelity to both tradition and innovation. 1 2
The Library, an ancient papal institution, houses manuscripts, printed volumes, coins, medals, prints, drawings, maps and photographs. Its origins trace back to the 4th‑century papal Scrinium, with a modern structure established by Pope Sixtus IV in 1475 and earlier opened to scholars by Pope Nicholas V in the mid‑15th century. 1
After the inauguration, the exhibition will be open to the public on selected days from 25 September 2026 until 14 May 2027. 1 2
The AQVA show continues the Vatican’s recent push to integrate contemporary art into its cultural mission. In 2025 the Library presented the “En Route” exhibition, linking historic travel documents with modern artistic interpretations, and the Dicastery for Culture and Education inaugurated the Conciliazione 5 gallery during the Jubilee Year. The Holy See has also participated in the Venice Biennale since 2013. 2*
Investigate the Catholic Church’s historic use of water as a symbol of life and purification
Water occupies a privileged place in Catholic sacramental symbolism because it is both a basic human sign of life and, in God’s saving history, a scriptural sign of purification and new birth. The Church’s historic practice of using water—above all in Baptism and in baptismal-water blessings—draws on a continuous thread: creation → Old Testament cleansing → Christ’s “living water” → the outpouring of the Spirit → Christian initiation.
Catholic teaching begins the story of water’s symbolism in God’s creative action. In the Catechism, water is presented as “humble and wonderful,” and it is said to be “the source of life and fruitfulness” from the start of the world.
The Church links this to Scripture’s depiction of the Spirit’s role at creation: the divine Spirit “breathed on the waters,” making them “the wellspring of all holiness.”
This life-symbol becomes concrete in Israel’s sacred memory. For example, Exodus records God’s provision of abundant water at Elim (“twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees”), where the people camp “by the water.”
Later prophetic imagery intensifies the “water as life” theme into a healing, life-bestowing river. Ezekiel’s vision describes water flowing from the sanctuary, becoming fresh, and bringing life wherever it goes, including healing through its leaves.
Alongside life, Scripture also treats water as a symbol (and in some cases an instrument) of purification—especially in contexts involving ritual defilement.
Numbers 19 provides a detailed purification ritual: the text speaks of “water for cleansing” associated with sprinkling, washing, and bathing, and it distinguishes those who are cleansed from those who remain unclean if they do not undergo the prescribed purifications.
This Old Testament background matters historically for Catholic sacramental practice: it demonstrates that water is not only a natural sign of refreshment, but also a covenant sign of cleansing, capable of expressing the need to be made fit for God and his holy presence.
The Church also reads the prophets as pointing toward God’s deeper purification. Pope Francis highlights a “coalescing” of messianic prophecies around “the imagery of purifying water”: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean… a new spirit I will put within you.”
This prophetic framing is important because it shows that Christian purification is not merely psychological or moral; it is portrayed as God’s action that grants a transformed inner life (“a new spirit”).
In the New Testament, water-symbolism becomes personal and Christological. In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman about “living water.” He contrasts ordinary thirst-quenching water with a gift that becomes an inner source:
This teaching is historically foundational for Christian baptismal symbolism: water is no longer only a sign of physical life or ritual cleansing; it becomes a sign of participation in Christ’s life and ultimately “eternal life.”
Pope Francis, in Desiderio Desideravi, gives a sweeping “salvation-history” reading of the Church’s baptismal-water blessing. He notes that the prayer reveals that God “created water precisely with Baptism in mind,” and that God’s saving action repeatedly uses water “with precise intention.”
He explicitly traces a sequence:
This is the Catholic historic rationale: the Church’s use of baptismal water is not random symbolism but a liturgical re-presentation of the same saving pattern God used in the history of salvation.
The Catechism explains that in Baptism, water is a sacramental sign that does what it signifies by God’s grace. It describes water as “a rich symbol of the grace” given in Baptism, especially in the Easter Vigil’s blessing of baptismal water.
The Catechism teaches directly about the Spirit’s action: the symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit’s action in Baptism, “since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of new birth.”
It even links this to water imagery already present at the level of creation and human birth (“the gestation of our first birth took place in water”), and it insists that Baptism truly signifies that birth into divine life is given “in the Holy Spirit.”
The Catechism also explains the meaning of Baptism’s central rite: to baptize means to “plunge” or “immerse,” and this immersion “symbolizes the catechumen’s burial into Christ’s death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him.”
And it explicitly develops the “purification/death” symbolism of different kinds of water: “If water springing up from the earth symbolizes life, the water of the sea is a symbol of death and so can represent the mystery of the cross. By this symbolism Baptism signifies communion with Christ’s death.”
The Catechism grounds this sacramental practice in the Church’s apostolic beginning: “From the very day of Pentecost the Church has celebrated and administered holy Baptism.”
So historically, Catholic baptismal water practice is presented not as a later invention but as part of the Church’s earliest evangelizing mission, connected to repentance and the forgiveness of sins, and received in connection with faith.
The Church’s historic use of water-symbolism is also visible in patristic catechesis. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, speaking in a catechetical lecture, uses “living water” language to show that the gospel’s promise is not just outward washing but Spirit-given life:
This patristic witness aligns with the Catechism’s claim that baptismal water becomes efficacious through the Spirit and signifies new birth into divine life.
Catholic symbolism also extends from the act of baptism to the imagery of the Spirit descending and remaining. The Catechism notes that, at the end of the flood, the dove returns with an olive branch as a sign that the earth is habitable again—an image connected to Baptism.
Then it connects the dove to Christ’s baptism: when Christ comes up from the water, “the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove,” comes down and remains with him, and the Spirit comes down and remains “in the purified hearts of the baptized.”
The Catechism even notes a concrete ecclesial practice of visual symbolism: in some churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove, and iconography uses the dove to suggest the Spirit.
This underlines a key historical point: water symbolism in Catholic life is not only about cleansing the body; it points to interior purification and Spirit-filled inhabitation.
Historically, the Catholic Church’s use of water as a symbol of life and purification is rooted in a unified theological reading: creation presents water as life-giving and Spirit-overshadowed; Israel’s purification rites show water’s cleansing dimension; the prophets envision life-giving, healing waters that cleanse; Christ gives “living water” that wells up to eternal life; and Baptism makes water, by the invocation of the Holy Spirit, the “efficacious sacramental sign of new birth.”