Countries
San Marino
Also Known As Sammarinese
Europe
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San Marino, a landlocked microstate entirely surrounded by Italy on the slopes of Monte Titano, traces its founding by tradition to the Christian stonemason Marinus in the year 301, fleeing persecution of Christians on the nearby Dalmatian coast, and counts itself the world's oldest continuously governed republic on that basis. Roman Catholicism has been the near-universal faith of its small population throughout that history, expressed civically through churches used for state ceremonies and through the twin Captains Regent who preside over the republic in a system unbroken since the medieval commune. The republic was never formally proclaimed a confessional state and its modern constitution guarantees freedom of worship, but the Catholic Church holds a privileged public position alongside a small number of other recognized faiths: government-recognized religious groups are eligible to receive contributions individual taxpayers earmark from their income tax, and Catholic clergy and buildings figure prominently in the state's own ceremonial life. San Marino's tiny size and total encirclement by Italy have kept it religiously homogeneous even as small communities of Jehovah's Witnesses, Baha'is, Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Christians and the Waldensian Church have settled there in recent decades, protected by the same constitutional guarantees that never disturbed the Catholic Church's practical primacy.
Facts
Law and State
Establishment StatusPrivileged Never Established 3 State Funding MechanismReligious groups recognized by the San Marino government are eligible to receive contributions from income tax that individual taxpayers may earmark to them, a status the Catholic Church holds alongside several minority faiths including the Baha'i Faith and the Waldensian Church. 3 Registration or Recognition RegimeA religious organization gains legal recognition through the Court of San Marino by submitting evidence of its not for profit activity together with annual reports; the court may audit or inspect a recognized organization, demand further documentation, or investigate a complaint from a member or an outside party. Recognition carries a tax benefit available to religious and nonreligious groups alike: a taxpayer may direct 0.3 percent of their income tax payment to the Catholic Church or to another registered nonprofit religious or charitable organization of their choosing. 3 Concordat BasisSan Marino and the Holy See signed a Concordat on 2 April 1992, the instrument that appears today on the Secretariat of State's own register as the microstate's agreement with the Vatican. It is a full concordat rather than a narrower agreement, consistent with San Marino's standing as one of Europe's smallest states and one whose population and public life have historically been overwhelmingly Catholic. 4 Geography
Latitude43.933333 degrees north 2 Status
Legal StatusThe Declaration of Citizen Rights and Fundamental Principles, which holds constitutional status, provides for freedom of religion and prohibits religious discrimination and restrictions on religious freedom other than for the protection of public order and general welfare; San Marino has no constitutionally proclaimed state religion, but religious groups recognized by the government, a status the Catholic Church holds alongside several minority faiths, are eligible to receive contributions individual taxpayers earmark from their income tax. 3 Demographics
Religious CompositionOverwhelmingly Roman Catholic by tradition and government reporting, with small communities of Jehovah's Witnesses, Baha'is, Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Christians and the Waldensian Church reflecting recent immigration (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1 Government
Government Type Sovereignty StatusSovereign UN member state 2 Established Year Location
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Religion and History in San Marino
San Marino traces its founding, by tradition, to the Christian stonemason Marinus in the year 301, who is said to have fled to Monte Titano to escape the persecution of Christians on the nearby Dalmatian coast. On that foundation the republic counts itself the oldest continuously governed state in the world, a claim bound up from the start with a specifically Christian origin story. Roman Catholicism has remained the near-universal faith of San Marino's small population throughout its history, expressed civically through churches used for state ceremonies and through the twin Captains Regent who have presided over the republic in a system unbroken since the medieval commune.
San Marino was never formally proclaimed a confessional state, and its modern constitution guarantees freedom of worship for all residents. The republic's tiny size and total encirclement by Italy long kept it religiously homogeneous, but recent decades have brought small communities of Jehovah's Witnesses, Baha'is, Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Christians and the Waldensian Church, protected by the same constitutional guarantees that have never disturbed the Catholic Church's practical primacy in San Marino's public life.
State Recognition and Tax-Funded Religion in San Marino
San Marino's Declaration of Citizen Rights and Fundamental Principles, which holds constitutional status, guarantees freedom of religion and prohibits restrictions on religious practice beyond what public order and general welfare require. The republic has no constitutionally proclaimed state religion, and on paper its legal architecture treats every faith identically. In practice, government recognition confers a concrete benefit: religious groups the state formally recognizes are eligible to receive contributions that individual taxpayers earmark to them directly from their income tax, an arrangement resembling similar church-tax mechanisms elsewhere in Europe.
That recognized status is not confined to the Catholic Church. San Marino extends it to several minority faiths as well, including the Baha'i Faith and the Waldensian Church, a Protestant tradition with deep historical roots in nearby Italy. The result is a funding mechanism that formally treats San Marino's Catholic majority and its small recognized minorities on the same institutional footing, even as the republic's own founding legend and civic ceremony remain unmistakably Catholic in character.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names San Marino directly: "agreement facts for Bolivia, Brazil, San Marino, Paraguay, Ivory Coast and El Salvador."
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