Vatican and Mongolia’s Chinggis Khaan Museum sign MoU for joint research on Mongol Empire history during President Khürelsükh’s audience with Pope Leo XIV.
Newsroom (11/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a ceremony rich with historical resonance, the Vatican Apostolic Library and the Chinggis Khaan National Museum in Ulaanbaatar have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at deepening scholarly collaboration on the legacy of the Mongol Empire and its centuries-old ties with the Catholic Church.
The agreement was formalised last Thursday during the state visit of Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh to the Holy See, where he was received in audience by Pope Leo XIV. It marks the first meeting at head-of-state level between Mongolia and the Vatican in thirteen years.
The MoU establishes cooperation in four principal areas: exchange programmes for scholars and experts focused on the history of the Mongol Empire – the second-largest contiguous empire in history – sharing expertise in manuscript preservation, bibliography, library science, archival management, and information technology; and the organisation of joint conferences, academic meetings, and collaborative research projects.
The accord is the latest fruit of diplomatic relations formally established on 4 April 1992 and significantly strengthened by Pope Francis’s historic apostolic journey to Mongolia from 31 August to 4 September 2023 – the first ever by a Roman pontiff to the Central Asian nation. That visit, at the personal invitation of President Khürelsükh, highlighted Mongolia’s small but growing Catholic community in a country wedged between Russia and China.
Historical contacts between the Holy See and the Mongol rulers date back eight centuries. Among the most significant documents preserved in the Vatican collections are the 1245 letter of Pope Innocent IV to Khan Güyüg and the Great Khan’s reply the following year – exchanges that remain crucial primary sources for understanding 13th-century diplomacy between Europe and the steppe empires.
The newly inaugurated Chinggis Khaan National Museum, which opened in 2022, spans six floors and houses more than 12,000 artefacts – the world’s largest collection dedicated to Mongolian history from the era of Genghis Khan to successor states. Many objects were previously held in Russia, the United States, or Mongolian state archives. The museum has made the training of specialists and the study of documents scattered worldwide a core part of its mission.
The Vatican Apostolic Library, one of humanity’s oldest and most precious repositories, safeguards over 1.6 million printed books and approximately 80,000 manuscripts covering religion, science, art, anthropology, and history.
During his Roman visit, President Khürelsükh also met Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, and paid respects at the tomb of Pope Francis in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore – the same pontiff he had personally welcomed in Ulaanbaatar two years earlier.
Over the past three decades, cooperation between Mongolia and the Holy See has expanded into culture, education, healthcare, and humanitarian assistance, reflecting a relationship that bridges continents and centuries in the pursuit of shared historical understanding.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Asianews.it
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