Msgr Hugh O'Flaherty disguised himself from Nazi secret police and set up safe houses in Rome between 1943 and 1944.

One of the safe houses was right next to the secret police's main headquarters in Rome.

A plaque in his honour was unveiled at the Teutonic (German College) at the Vatican on Sunday.

A commemorative Mass was celebrated at the German College.

Msgr O'Flaherty became known as the "Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican".

By using fake IDs, disguises and operating a communications network inside and outside the Vatican, he was able to outfox Nazi efforts to capture him.

The priest was able to give refuge to 6500 Jewish refugees and Allied POWs, hiding them in houses, convents and monasteries across Rome and even inside the Vatican itself.

Ironically, much of his clandestine operation was conducted from within the Vatican's German College, where Mgr O'Flaherty lived for 22 years.

Speaking at the unveiling of the plaque, Ireland ambassador Emma Madigan said the priest's compassion was not bounded by lines of nationality or religious community.

Quoting Pope Francis, she said there are people who "do not grow accustomed to evil. Who defeat it with good".

She thanked Msgr O'Flaherty, who died in 1963, on behalf of all those he saved.

"There are occasions when quite ordinary people find themselves in very dark times. When people whose great passions are golf and Kerry football, find themselves, in Joyce's phrase, in the midst of history that has become ‘a nightmare from which we are trying to awake'," the ambassador said.

"Directed and sustained by his faith, he gave up the comfort and security he had, to try and lead as many people as possible out of that nightmare."

"Happily for so many people, Mgr O'Flaherty united that faith and that compassion with apparently bottomless courage and resourcefulness. Some would put that down to his Kerry roots!"

Sources

• Premier.org.uk
• Catholic Ireland
• Image: Irish Central

"The pilgrims' tomb" is a common grave, just a few yards from the tombs of bishops, royalty and intelligentsia.

Herteleer is buried there, his name engraved on the tombstone of plot No. 106, along with five other pilgrims.

The Teutonic Cemetery, known officially as the "Camposanto of the Teutons and the Flemish," lies in the shadow of St. Peter's Basilica and on ground that was once part of the Circus of Nero, where early Christians were martyred.

According to tradition, the cemetery chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows marks the spot where St. Peter was killed.

Pope Leo III gave the land to Charlemagne, who used it to build a hospice for pilgrims, a church, and a burial ground for German and Flemish-speaking pilgrims in Rome.

For more than 1,200 years, this land has remained in the hands of the German people and its mission has remained intact. However, in 1876, the hospice was replaced by the Teutonic College, a residence for German priests studying in Rome.

"It's a little piece of paradise," said Paul Badde, a German journalist and a member of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Mercy, which is dedicated to the care of the cemetery and the adjoining Church of Our Lady of Mercy.

"Here we have palm trees and orange trees, which you don't find in Germany."

The lush grounds include flowering plants, holly, aloe and cedars. Four life-size marble statues line one side. The 14 Stations of the Cross, made with majolica tiles, were installed in the last century.

German members of the Roman Curia had founded the confraternity in 1454, when the church and cemetery were in major disrepair. Today, the confraternity's members include both German clerics and laymen. Continue reading

Sources

• Vassallomalta
• Image: Photos of St Peter's