Vatican pulls misspelled 'Jesus' medals

William M. Dermody Jr. | USA TODAY

The Vatican has pulled back thousands of medals commemorating Pope Francis' ascension to the papacy because the name of Jesus is misspelled.

The medals, which have often been minted for a new pope and are bought by collectors worldwide, named the Christian savior as "Lesus" in an inscription on the edge.

The medals were struck in gold, silver and bronze by the Italian state mint before the mistake was noticed, according to the BBC. They went on sale Tuesday.

The Vatican said it withdrew 6,000 of the flawed medals from sale. But four of the medals were bought before that happened and could become valuable because of the error, according to the Telegraph newspaper.

The medals depict Pope Francis and a phrase in Latin that inspired him to become a priest: "Jesus therefore sees the tax collector, and since he sees by having mercy and by choosing, he says to him, 'follow me'." The "J" is that phrase appears as an "L" on the medal.

Social media users cracked jokes about this new religious figure, "Lesus" Christ. "I blame the Lesuits," said one tweet.