The European Union flag has Mariano origin

Twelve gold stars arranged in the form of a crown on a blue background: this is the flag of the European Union, whose origin dates back to 1955.

According to him Official Site From the European Union, these stars represent the ideals of “unity, solidarity and harmony” among the peoples of Europe. However, it specifies that the number of stars does not refer to the Member States of the European Union, which are currently 27.

Although its official meaning refers to these ideals, there is the hypothesis that its design could be inspired by the crown of the Immaculate Conception. Although this interpretation has not been officially confirmed and the debate is still open, various testimonies have fed their origin of religious background.

The twelve stars of the Immaculate Conception

The number of stars coincides with one of the most widespread Marian icons of the Catholic Church: the twelve stars of the crown of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.

In 1955, the Council of Europe launched a contest to choose its flag. Among all the proposals they received, they finally chose that of the painter Arsène Heitz, a Frenchman who worked in the council of council, in Strasbourg.

One of the hypotheses defends that Heitz revealed that “the flag of Europe is the flag of Our Lady”, in statements to the Magazine Magazine In 1987. Thus, this French Catholic would have been inspired by the image of the Virgin who appeared in 1830 in Paris to Santa Catalina Labouré, a religious of the daughters of charity.

During those appearances, the Virgin asked the creation of a medal with her image, known today as the Miraculous Medal, which represents Mary with extended arms, rays of light coming out of her hands and stepping on a snake.

This icon anticipated the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, becoming one of the most widespread Marian symbols worldwide.

The head of the Virgin is adorned with a crown of twelve stars, whose origin is attributed to the passage of the Apocalypse (12,1), in which the Apostle San Juan writes: “A great signal appeared in the sky: a woman dressed in the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

The design of the flag proposed by Heitz was approved by the Ministerial Committee of the European Council on December 8, 1955, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and in 1984 It began to be an official flag of the institutions of the European Union.

A debate still open

Currently, the Council of Europe He points to Heitz as the official author Of the flag, although it also points out that “some designs included religious images, such as references to the Virgin Mary, but were set aside to maintain the secular character of the flag.”

On the other hand, there are those who refer to Heitz as “co -author” and highlight the intervention in the design of Paul MG Lévy, an official of the Council of Europe who contributed to unlink their origin from any religious reference.

On this debate, still opened, recently referred to the vice president of the Council of Ministers of Italy, Antonio Tajani, who in a letter to the director published by the newspaper Happen, He pointed out that the European flag “is blue as the mantle of the Virgin.”

He stressed that this similarity “is not accidental” and said in the publication of July 2 that Arsène Heitz, author of the sketch, was “deeply devout.”

“Of course, the Council of Europe and then the European Union adopted this image with a secular meaning”, as a “perfection and fullness symbol,” he explained.

Given this, the Italian politician asked: “Where does the idea that the number 12 represents perfection and fullness, if it is not of the Jewish and Christian tradition, from the 12 tribes of Israel, through the 12 apostles, to the image of the apocalypse that symbolizes Mary (…), in the Holy Scriptures the number 12 has a recurring symbolic value.”

Although he clarified that “this does not mean that the European Parliament would like to adopt a religious symbol,” he said that “to what extent and in what way the Judeo-Christian roots (and with them the Greco-Roman) have modeled the culture, the way of thinking, the very symbols of our European civilization.”

The Italian politician concluded his writing recalling the “beautiful definition” that Benedict XVI made of Europe during a Speech in Berlin in 2011:

“The culture of Europe was born from the encounter between Jerusalem, Athens and Rome; of the encounter between faith in the God of Israel, the philosophical reason of the Greeks and the legal thought of Rome. This triple encounter configures the intimate identity of Europe. With the certainty of the responsibility of man before God and recognizing the inviolable dignity of man, of each man, this encounter has set the criteria of law; historical ”.