OBOLO DI SAN PIETRO (DENARO DI S. PIETRO). — In the Middle Ages, denaro di S. Pietro meant the annual canon paid to the Holy See by States and Lordships that had placed themselves under its particular protection. This money was either brought directly to Rome or deposited in the hands of papal legates.
The following recognized this particular form of subjection to the Holy See and therefore paid denaro di S. Pietro: England (7th century), where the payment was abolished in 1534, restored by Mary Tudor, and abolished again by Elizabeth; the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1059), Denmark (1063), the Spanish kingdoms (1073), Bohemia (1075), Croatia and Dalmatia (1076), Portugal (1144), and the Scandinavian kingdoms, where denaro di S. Pietro was collected until the Reformation.
After the progressive dispossession of the Pope of the territories of the former Papal States, the expression « denaro di S. Pietro » or, as it was called, « O. di S. P. » served to replace the revenues previously secured through the proceeds of the contributions of the Papal States.
In 1859 the Holy See found itself closing its budget with a deficit of 80,000 scudi; it was enough to launch the idea (apparently due to Montalembert) for the various peoples of the earth to compete in making their contribution to the Holy Father, with the clergy and episcopate in the forefront. It was then decided to organize the flow of money by creating a dicastery that took the name of the administration of the O. di S. P. In Rome an archconfraternity was founded under the title of St Peter (apostolic letter of 31 October 1860), presided over by the cardinal vicar, with all affiliations authorized by special statutes approved by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. The purpose of the confraternity was to find people to collect the offerings and transmit them to the Roman pontiff. The dioceses, in noble competition, either created particular organizations and regulations (in Paris, for example, the organization took the name of Oeuvre du denier de St-Pierre, created on the model of the Opera della Propagazione della Fede) or established associations on the model of that of Rome. The result confirmed the usefulness of this widespread organization and of the related regulations. Special committees arose in the individual parishes, presided over by the curate (or parish priest), to whom the proceeds of the collections were paid, together with a list of the donors, so that they could be remitted to the bishop.
Thus the papal finances were able to recover what was taken from them by the successive occupations.
With the encyclical Saepe, Venerabiles Fratres (5 August 1871), Pius IX gave the institution official consecration.
After 20 September 1870, the same organization was maintained: the O. di S. P., merged with the Treasury, came under the authority of Cardinal Antonelli, Secretary of State. Having ascended to the pontificate, Leo XIII established a Commission of Cardinals to assist the cardinal Secretary of State in the administration of the Obolo and of the Property of the Holy See. Its first concern was to make the administration of the palace and of the O. di S. P. more independent of the Secretariat of State and of the Prefecture of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces, ordering the nuncios and apostolic delegates that matters concerning the O. di S. P. be handled in separate correspondence. For this purpose the Holy Father issued the two motu proprio of 11 December 1880 and 23 May 1882. On 3 July 1882, the treasury of the Apostolic Dataria also passed into the patrimony of the administration of the O. di S. P. and of the property of the Holy See. On 1 April 1887, the treasury of the O. di S. P. was also given internal regulations consisting of 27 articles; new regulations were issued in 1891 and 1894.
The apostolic constitution Sapienti Consilio of 29 June 1908, which reorganized the Roman Curia, brought no innovations to the administration of the O. di S. P. (AAS, 1 [1909], pp. 7–108), which also remained unchanged under Benedict XV and Pius XI until December 1926, when the Prefecture of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces was united with the General Administration of the Property of the Holy See (motu proprio of 16 December 1926). From then on, no separate administration of the O. di S. P. was mentioned; it too, together with its employees, became part of the General Administration of the Property of the Holy See.