"Chocolate is a divine, celestial drink, the sweat of the stars, the vital seed, divine nectar, the drink of the gods, panacea and universal medicine." -Geronimo Piperni, quoted by Antonio Lavedán, Spanish Army surgeon, 1796.

Last week, the public saw Pope Francis like they have never seen him before, and he was sweeter than ever -literally- as he was presented with a life-size, chocolate replica of himself.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, the Pope was given the chocolate statue, made of 1.5 tons of cocoa, as a gift during his general audience at St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, according to Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

The pontiff received the gift from master chocolatier Mirco Della Vecchia, who spent 30 days chiseling the delicious figure with his team of students on a chocolatier course at the Accademia of Maestri Cioccolatieri, near Venice, CNATreviso reports.

The 1.5 tons of divine decadence, otherwise known as cocoa, came from the Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, which has been dubbed "the closest thing to Eden on earth," by Lonely Planet, and the same amount of chocolate was donated to the Catholic charity organization, Caritas.

What makes Lake Atitlan in Guatemala so renown for its chocolate? It's history.

"Although not all scientists agree on the origin of the cacao plant, the consensus is that it is a native of the rainforests of Venezuela and the Amazon and was brought to Central America millennia ago by traders. The earliest evidence of human consumption of cacao in Guatemala comes from a site in the northeast section of the country, where a 3,500-year-old pottery vessel tested positive for remnants of the obroma cacao. Exactly how the Olmec were consuming cacao has not been determined, but they might have been mixing it with native wild honey and chili."

The chocolatiers worked on the chocolate Pope with sculptor Paul Moro Belluno, who is renowned for his ability to make sculptures from unusual materials.

Mirco Della Vecchia is not new to such sweet initiatives -- he's has already racked up 12 Guinness world records -- including the creation of the longest chocolate bar and the tallest ice cream cone.

"The largest ice cream cone measured 9 ft 2.63 inches in height and was achieved by Mirco Della Vecchia and Andrea Andrighetti (both Italy) during an event organized by Rimini Fiera and sponsored by Sigep, Fabbri, Incisoria Imar, Icam, Martellato (all Italy), at Rimini Fiera, in Rimini, Italy, on Jan. 22, 2011," according to the Guinness world records. "The internal cone was made of wafer and covered with a 700 kg white chocolate cone then decorated with 2000 round wafer biscuits." Talk about brain freeze! I'd stick to the chocolate Pope, whose ingredients hail from Guatemala!