It is a woody vine with unusual blossoms. Roman Catholic priests of the latter part of the 1500s named the flower for the Passion (death and suffering) of Jesus Christ.
The priest suggested that the five sepals and five petals of the flower which are similar in appearance, represent the disciples without Peter and Judas.
If you liked this legend, please follow this writer, HERE
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Lovely flower and thank you for telling the story
sounds like a reach. betcha there was a pagan tradition surrounding the flower so the Vatican decided to rebrand it…
Who can say Alex? But you are most likely on the money with that idea. Thanks for commenting.
de nada. the Greeks had a lot of myths about flowers, but none about that flower as far as I know
It is an interesting legend, although it has long been argued as to its origin.
That is true, Doc, My source is Google and I’m sure there are other legends. Would you care to share one on this page for the sake of interest shown in it here? What makes this flower in the image significant to me, is that I planted one seed, 9 years ago which grew into a huge vine yielding many harvests. I also took my last few steps in that year, before my life-changing, below-knee amputation and swapping my one-man cellphone sales and repair business for a disability pension and a wheelchair for a car. Down-sizing is not all doom and gloom because people get by comfortably on a fraction of the stuff we accumulate in a lifetime.
One of the legends is it is a flower that weeps.
That sounds as if it was some reference to the Passion. Thanks for the information Doc.
I knew it was connected with the Passion of Christ but did not know the details. I had these vines and thanks to my gardener he did deep pruning and killed them. We have seen loads of passio fruits from these vines. They taste glorious
I thought it was a South-African gardener flaw, peculiar to Africa!
I love the flower and have heard the story.
Yes I know the flower very well.
If it’s a Bible story then it should be in the Bible. But there is no such story in the Bible. Always loved that flower though.
Oh, silly me! for using the incorrect terminology for my heading, perhaps I should have tried to make this article introduction fit in stead: “Roman Catholic Priests of the Latter Part of the 1500s Named the Flower for the Passion (death and suffering) of Jesus Christ.”
Perhaps. There are a lot of Catholic relics and legends that are not in the Bible. Even the Catholics don’t refer to them as being a part of the Bible.
You sure got that one right, I agree with you.