Honoring Liberty

October 28, 2025

In the Republic of San Marino, just inside the entrance of Castello della Guaita, there is a small church with Liberty standing proudly on the altar. I was surprised to see her standing there.

San Marino is the oldest republic in the world. It was founded in AD 301 when a monk named Saint Marinus, a former stone mason from Croatia, built a church there on Mount Titano and established a community.

Today, San Marino has land area of 23.5 square miles in the Apennine Mountains and is completed encompassed by Italy. It has three towers: Guaita, Cesta, and Montale, and each one is topped with a metal sculpture in the shape of an ostrich feather. The feathers, or pennacchi, symbolize and celebrate the country’s liberty.

The people of San Marino take great pride in their Liberty.

The feathers and the three towers are also depicted on San Marino’s flag, coat of arms, and even on their license plates, along with the word Libertas:

So, how did San Marino manage to maintain it’s liberty all this time?
It’s a long history, and I won’t be able to do it justice here. You can read more about it here and here.

But here two key points:

First, in 1815, they avoided being taken over by the Austrian Empire, and were perhaps disregarded, because they had refused to become an ally of France and Napoleon.

Then, in July of 1849, when Giuseppe Garibaldi was working to unite Italy despite the efforts of Austria and the French, he sought refuge in San Marino after being surrounded by four armies.

Garibaldi entered San Marino with his wife, Anita and 1,500 of his men. He met with Captain Regent Domenico Maria Belzoppi and asked “for asylum and some bread”. Belzoppi welcomed him, and Garibaldi’s men were sheltered by the good people of San Marino. On July 31, 1849, a local guide helped Garibaldi and his wife, along with 150 of their soldiers, to evade some 12,000 Austrian troops as they made their way down to the Adriatic and fled to Venice by sea. (One source stated that Anita died during this escape.) The Austrians were a bit put off when then discovered Garibaldi had fled. They entered San Marino and threatened the people who had helped Garibaldi, but the people of San Marino continued to shelter Garibaldi’s men.

In gratitude for their hospitality and support, Garibaldi allowed San Marino to continue as a free and independent republic when the Kingdom of Italy was established in March of 1861.

Even President Lincoln congratulated the Captains Regent of San Marino. In a congratulatory letter he sent in May, 1861, he said “Though the extent of your dominions is small, your State is nevertheless one of the most honored in all history. It has proved by its experience the truth, so full of encouragement to the friends of Humanity, that a Government founded on republican principles can be administered so as to be secure and durable.”

A democratically elected republic can be durable, and San Marino has proven it.

But speaking of honoring Liberty… It’s our Statue of Liberty’s birthday today.

On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated to the United States in New York Harbor. Today is her 139th birthday. Happy Birthday, Lady Liberty!

“…Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

Our Statue of Liberty was a gift from France, commemorating our alliance during the American Revolution and celebrating not only our democracy, but the abolition of slavery. She was designed by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi and was possibly modeled after a beautiful Frenchwoman named Isabelle Boyer. Lady Liberty’s real name is Liberty Enlightening the World, and a plaque on the pedestal is inscribed with a section of the poem, The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

A few years ago, I wrote a short play called Just As We Are, where one of the characters quoted this poem. The two characters were discussing the lamp-lit golden door, the torch of freedom, and the near collapse of our American ideals as they build a wall along the southern border. One of them asks: Shouldn’t they try to keep the door open? Or should they really flee across the border themselves to find a better life? It was satire when I wrote it. I had no idea then how many people would start to consider leaving the United States, or how many of our sacred liberties would be tested or violated on a daily basis. But here we are.

Another Statue of Liberty in the Republic of San Marino

The Republic of San Marino has a constitutional structure called the Grand and General Council. This is a democratically elected legislature which selects TWO heads of state every six months from opposing political parties.

They are called the Captains Regent, and they serve concurrently, together, with equal powers.

Wouldn’t that be interesting?