Jesus' name misspelled by Vatican on medal honoring pope

Holy typo!

On Tuesday, the Vatican put 6,000 medals on sale, commemorating the Pope Francis' first year as head of the Catholic Church.

Then they were quickly recalled because a name was embarrassingly misspelled.

Jesus' name came out "Lesus" in the Latin inscription of one of the pope's favorite quotes along the rim on the back.

"Iesus," with a capital 'I' was the spelling in ancient Latin that corresponds to the modern English "Jesus," a check of Scriptures on the Vatican website confirms. (The 'J' wasn't introduced into English until the Middle Ages.)

The four copies that sold before the recall are likely to become collectors' items.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.