In late October, the Vatican released a new mascot for the 2025 Year of Jubilee: the little pilgrim Luce, who was created in the popular anime style. Within days of her reveal, Luce became a prime source of inspiration for Catholic and anime artists alike, who created many beautiful tributes to Luce on art sites and social media. Of course, the connection to anime also drew in cosplayers, who have been showing off their homemade Luce costumes.
The figure of Luce is a simple one, but each piece of her outfit is wrapped in symbolic meaning: her yellow raincoat bears the Vatican colors while protecting her from the elements, and the green sailboat embroidered on its front points to the waves of life that can be hard to navigate. Her boots are a little dirty to show that she has been walking the roads of life, further supported by her pilgrim’s walking stick.
Furthermore, her hair and eyes are colored blue to represent hope, and the gleam shining in her eyes looks similar to a conch shell, which is the symbol of the pilgrim. Her rosary symbolizes the need for pilgrims to develop in prayer. She wears her rosary as a necklace, which is common in some places and frowned on in others, but it seems to be a practical choice for a pilgrim on the road. Her name itself is Italian for light (pronounced loo to rhyme with shoe, and chay like chain.)
Fan artists took to Luce immediately, peppering original illustrations of Luce in various situations, most of which are quite wholesome and respectful of the faith.
YouTuber Roy S put together a video roundup of some of the best art and memes of Luce:
The images range in quality, but each tribute to Luce speaks to the reach of this little mascot’s influence. Furthermore, the lack of lore attached to Luce means that she can wind up in a variety of settings and be placed alongside a bunch of characters from different shows. Some of the best images are those that feature Jesus; our favorite from the above list comes at about :50 seconds in, when Luce is putting bandages on Jesus’ face.
In another brief roundup of Luce art we can see the breadth of the art expanding, showing off impressive submissions. Some of them look like screen shots from high budget anime shows, while others bear an attention to detail that must have taken hours to achieve.
The cosplayers have been busy as well. While the character of Luce has only been around for a month, the prize for best Luce cosplay may need to go to a girl by the name of Neneko, who has captured the quiet innocence of Luce.
In another video, she shows that her wig was repurposed from her cosplay costume of the character Rei, from Neon Genesis Evangelion, who also has blue hair in a similar style. Our favorite video of hers, however, is a fun little exchange at a cosplay conference in which she ran into a group of men dressed as crusaders:
Another cosplayer also made a nod to the similarities between Luce and Rei’s hair. This one, however, sang the theme song of Evangelion, set to different lyrics that, while in Spanish, reference the Vatican:
We’re not even sure why this one was needed, but someone felt that there should be a 10-hour video of Luce simply standing there and waving while happy music plays:
There’s seemingly no end to the fun that fans are having with the Vatican’s jubilee mascot. The reception of Luce has made us excited to see just what’s in store for the little pilgrim throughout the 2025 Year of Jubilee.
Do you have a favorite piece of Luce art? Share it with Aletiea on our Facebook page!
And today we celebrate...