The Indoor Papal Slippers Were Made of Red Velvet or Silk and Were Heavily Decorated in Gold Braid, with a Gold Cross in the Middle. Throughout Church History...
The indoor Papal Slippers were made of red velvet or silk and were heavily decorated in gold braid, with a gold cross in the middle. Throughout Church history, the color red has been deliberately chosen to represent the blood of Catholic martyrs spilt through the centuries following in the footsteps of Christ.
Who makes the red shoes for the Pope?
The shoes, actually three pairs, two burgundy and one brown, were a gift to the Pope during his trip last year to Mexico. Armando Martin Dueñas is the Catholic cobbler who made the pope's new favorite footwear. Martin Dueñas hails from the Mexican city of Leon, which has a 400-year history of shoe making.
But Pope Benedict XVI, a fan of tradition, restored the red leather. It remains to be seen whether the new precedent-setting pope — the first Francis, Latin American, and Jesuit — will also be the first pope in recent history to regularly wear black shoes.
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