1219 - Francis and the Sultan - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 2019 - 95 Euro Cent

In 2019, the Roman Catholic Church and the Franciscan Orders, together with Muslim clergy and Arab heads of state, celebrate the 800th anniversary of the birth of the Franciscan Order in Rome. In 1219, in the midst of the turmoil of the Crusades, Francis of Assisi, who was later canonized, visited the Sultan al-Kamil Muhammad al-Malik near the Egyptian port city of Damiette to convert him to Christianity and end the armed conflicts. The new stamp, issued in October 2019, commemorates this peaceful encounter between the founder of the Order and the political and spiritual leader of the Muslims, which is sometimes referred to as the "birth of the dialogue between Christianity and Islam". With their practised example of inter-religious dialogue and their "encounter instead of confrontation", St. Francis and Sultan al-Kamil are to this day exemplary models for respect and tolerance and for peaceful exchange with the foreign and the other.