42 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



Christian art, lilies have had precedence of every 

 other growing thing. 



The earliest use of the lily by the artists of the 

 Christian Church was to indicate the delights of 

 Paradise. Raban Maur, Archbishop of Mayence 

 in 847, writes of lilies as the symbols of celestial 

 beatitude, and that is apparently what they repre- 

 sent in the mosaics of Rome, Ravenna and the 

 Baptistery of Florence, where they spring from 

 the ground in the scenes which represent Heaven. 



But by the tenth century the Church had 

 commenced to adopt the pre-Christian employ- 

 ment of the lily as the symbol of purity, and the 

 rose gradually took the lily's place as the flower 

 of heavenly bliss. 



The lily of sacred art is the lilium candidum, 

 sometimes called the Madonna lily, or the lily of 

 Saint Catharine. It is said to be a native of the 

 Levant, but appears to have spread with Roman 

 civilization throughout Europe. The suggestion 

 of abstract purity is arresting and direct. The 

 stalk is straight and upright, the leaves narrow, 

 plain, almost austere. At the top of the long 

 stalk the flowers cluster, each chalice-shaped, and 

 sending to the sky a perfume which is singularly 



