The cleric who has been the face of the famous Hot Priest Calendar has admitted that he is not really a priest.
The glossy Roman Calendar, bought by thousands of tourists every year, has become a cult souvenir thanks to its clean-cut models in black collars, many sporting flowing hair and chiselled looks more suited to fashion campaigns than the Vatican.
Now, one of the calendar's best-known stars has admitted he was only pretending to be a man of the cloth.
'It was a joke,' said Giovanni Galizia, 39, who was just 17 when a photographer asked him to dress as a priest for a photoshoot.
Galizia, who reportedly works as a flight attendant in Verona, has appeared on the calendar cover for years, including the newly released 2027 edition.
His youthful image has become so closely associated with the publication that some tourists reportedly mistake him for a real Roman priest.
The calendar was created by Venetian photographer, Piero Pazzi, who has previously acknowledged using photographs of young men dressed in religious robes during Spanish Holy Week processions, despite them not being priests, or even being photographed in Rome.
'There is an old Spanish saying: 'It's not the painter who makes an icon sacred but the person who venerates it',' he has said.
The cleric who has been the face of the famous Hot Priest Calendar has admitted that he is not really a priest
'It was a joke,' said Giovanni Galizia, 39, who was just 17 when a photographer asked him to dress as a priest for a photoshoot
The publication has become known for its glamorous portrayals of clergy, with this year's featured priests including a blond-haired model likened to a Baywatch extra.
Speaking after being identified by Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Galizia defended his participation in the project and said the contrast between religion and youthful attractiveness was part of its appeal.
'It winks a bit at the dynamic between the sacred and the profane, because it is clear that seeing a world that is distant and in some ways so lofty as the ecclesiastical world with such a fresh-faced young man, creates a kind of dissonance,' he said.
Galizia also admitted he enjoyed the attention the calendar generated, adding that 'managing to be sexy in a priest's collar is no small feat'.
Pazzi has reportedly struggled over the years to recruit genuinely photogenic priests for the publication, despite claiming that around a third of this year's models are real clergy.
One priest who did gain a large following online was Milan's Alberto Ravagnani, 32, whose gym videos attracted thousands of followers before he left the priesthood earlier this year, saying he had grown tired of celibacy.
Despite the controversy, the calendars continue to sell briskly in Rome's souvenir shops, where they are displayed alongside gladiator helmets and plastic crucifixes.
One shopkeeper on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II said demand for the calendars remained high, particularly among tourists from Latin America.
'It's a steady seller,' he said.
Galizia, who reportedly works as a flight attendant in Verona, has appeared on the calendar cover for years, including the newly released 2027 edition
The vendor added that a rival calendar featuring Pope Leo was proving equally popular.
'South Americans go for the hot priests, but everyone is buying Pope Leo,' he added.
The American pontiff, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, is reportedly known for keeping fit and is said to have installed a gym inside the papal apartment.
Before becoming pope last year, he was reportedly a regular at the Omega gym opposite the Vatican.
Gym owner Alessandro Tamburlani said members of the clergy were frequent visitors.
'Priests do work out here, as well as bishops and cardinals,' he said.
Without naming names, he added: 'We had one American bishop who was more muscular than a bodybuilder.'