Go to Home Page
                                                Intro Mary Garden

The Passion Flower
                   .


The symbolism of the Passion Flower, a native genus of the
tropical Americas, was discerned by a Mexican Augustinian friar,
Emmanuel de Villegas, who reported it in Europe in the year 1610.

It includes the following:

The spiraled tendrils     - the Lash of Christ's Scourging

The central flower column - the pillar of the Scourging

The 72 radial filaments   - the Crown of Thorns

The top 3 stigma          - the 3 Nails

The lower 5 anthers       - the 5 wounds

The leaves (some species) - the head of the Centaurian's Spear

The red stains            - Christ's Blood Drops

The Round Fruit           - The World Christ came to save



The Passion Flower is unique among the old religious flower
symbols in that the date of its origin is known, and also in that
its multiple symbolism combines a number of symbols found in
flowers individually in the prior traditions of the rural
countrysides of Christendom.

Such symbols gave a specific focus of Christian faith to the
religious sense of nature, and also provided a visual means of
teaching the Gospel in an era where there were no printed
catechisms.

Passion flowers, known throughout the world, are grown as
greenhouse plants in temperate climates, and often set out in the
garden in summer.


Copyright Mary's Gardens 1996