passionflower

Seeing the flower, missionaries took heart. It reminded them of Christ’s Passion and the compelling reason they were toiling about looking for souls in moist jungles. This is what they saw in the physical aspects of flower and plant:

Purple: the color of penance and sacrifice
Five sepals and five petals: the ten Apostles who neither betrayed Our Lord like Judas nor publicly denied Him like Peter (note that the missionaries weren’t trying to slur Peter—who, unlike Judas, repented and became a great saint!)
Three stigma: the nails piercing Jesus’ hands and feet
Five anthers: His five wounds
Circlet of corona filaments: the crown of the thorns
Three-pointed leaves: the Holy Trinity
Vine: God’s attachment to the earth

The missionaries used the flower to teach people about the Passion. They sent descriptions of this miraculous plant back home. The Spanish people came to know it as, “The Flower of the Five Wounds.” Since then, the flower’s name in almost every language has reflected its beautiful representation of the Passion.

Credit for educating me goes to Catholiccompany.com.

photo credit: Oliver P. Quillia/CC BY 3.0