In my local crafters club, The Torrance Craftsmen’s Guild, we have a great number of talented artists. While recently participating in a craft show, I had the time to leave my booth and browse – to check out some of the goodies that our craft club members had made and were up for sale. Lena’s booth is one of my favorites. She makes beautifully crocheted pieces of wearable art, sews flowing ‘butterfly’ blouses, and makes creative jewelry with small seed beads (those little beads intimidate me!). At her table I spied a lovely beaded bracelet with the most unusual combination of colors – yellow, green, purple, and white. After many compliments on her creativity and use of colors, she shared a confession with me – while out strolling in Kenneth Hahn Park, Lena came upon the most unusual and curious looking flower, one she had never seen before. She was inspired by the colors and decided to rush home and make something using those colors, capturing the flower’s beauty forever in her mind.
Well, I too happen to love color. In fact, color is what initially got me hooked on stones and beads. Anyhow, I stared at that pretty little bracelet for awhile, and then it hit me – I KNEW the flower Lena had seen! I hurriedly went back to my booth, rummaged thru my photo greeting cards (yes, I do a bit of photography as well), and found a picture of that flower. It is called a Passion Flower – Passiflora. I knew this because the passion flower had always been a favorite of mine and as a kid I looked forward to the flowers blooming on our fence vine. I rushed the photo card back to Lena to confirm my thoughts. BINGO!
What follows is the story of the Passion Flower.
In the 1500’s when the Spanish missionaries saw this flower it reminded them of the Passion of Christ. These are the representations:
- the 10 petals and sepals represent the 10 faithful apostles (less Peter and Judas)
- the flower’s radial filaments, which can number more than 100, represent Jesus’ crown of thorns
- the 3 stigmata represent the 3 nails
- the chalice shaped ovary (below the stigmata) represents the Holy Grail
- the 5 anthers (below the ovary) represent the 5 wounds
- the tendrils of the plant represent the whips used
Given that today is Good Friday, I thought today would be a fitting time to share this story, a flower’s story of the Passion of the Christ.
Oh, yes – Lena was thrilled to finally know the name of the uniquely beautiful flower she saw that day in the park! And, I believe, she charmingly captured the flower’s colors in her pretty little bracelet.
Happy Easter to all.
