Kapampangan artist and Presidential Merit Awardee for Ecclesiastical Art Willy Layug, of Betis district in Guagua town, has created a handcrafted ferula as a special gift for Pope Leo XIV.
The ferula, a gift given by the clergy of the Archdiocese of Manila, was presented by Cardinal Jose Advincula during his meeting with the Holy Father during a General Audience in Rome on Wednesday, Oct. 15.
The papal staff stands 170 centimeters tall and is made of teak wood. It is collapsible into three sections, with the corpus, the figure representing the body of Christ, carved from a single piece of wood.
Unlike the crosier used by bishops, the ferula is capped by a cross.
Layug, known for his intricate ecclesiastical sculptures displayed in churches across the Philippines and abroad, said he was deeply honored to craft the gift for the pontiff.
"We have incorporated some Filipiniana motifs in the staff so that the Holy Father will have certain remembrance of the Philippines whenever he uses it," Layug said
The son of a simple boatman who started sculpting at five years old using clay, Layug created the image of Our Lady of Palo used by Pope Francis in the Holy Mass in Tacloban.