StThomas Aquinas school principal Serge Rosato was honoured with a "rare" medal from thePope on Friday during a moving service at the school to commemorate a year on from the fires.

During the ceremony, Sydney Archbishop-elect Anthony Fisher, delivered a message from PopeFrancis honouring the "heroic" Mr Rosato by awarding him the Gold Papal Medal, theBenemerenti medal, for his "exceptional" service and "great leadership to hiscommunity" while his own home burnt to the ground. It was originally an award given tosoldiers in the Papal Army and has been bestowed since 1832.

Archbishop-elect Fisher said he had only learned that morning of the medal.

"I asked for it and we had heard nothing - incredibly it arrived today," he told theGazette after the service.

"It's a very unusual [honour]. In Rome they got a sense that something special happenedhere."

Mr Rosato lost his home while he was evacuating the 550 children from St Thomas's. The firehad come through a valley between St Columba's Catholic College [where Mr Rosato's17-year-old twins were in lockdown for five hours] and St Thomas Aquinas, and was believed to bestarted by powerlines in Linksview Road.

Mr Rosato said he "had a strong sense thatwe didn't have a lot of time before it would be at the school".

He led his students and staff on a 2.5km walk to safety while flames closed in around theschool, walking past Paulwood Avenue and on to Hawkesbury Road where several homes burned and outto the Winmalee Shopping Centre. Three children had asthma attacks and one disabled child had to becarried by a teacher almost the entire way during the exodus out to the shops, where donuts andother goodies were offered while they waited out the firestorm.

"The actions of Mr Serge Rosato were heroic and exceptional," said Archbishop-electAnthony Fisher.

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Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Ecclesia_et_Pontifice)

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Bushfire hero Serge Rosato awarded medal from the Pope(www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/2638879/bushfire-hero-serge-rosato-awarded-medal-from-the-pope/?cs=1180)