 | |
| In Christian symbolism the violet meant humility and constancy, Violets are often seen in medieval art and are a sign of Christ's humility. It was grown in medieval monastery gardens as a protection from evil. The tale is told that all violets were white until Mary turned from watching Christ on the cross, at which point all the violets became purple to echo her mourning - one reason that purple remains the ecclesiastical colour of mourning. | "I think the King is but a man, as I am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me". William Shakespeare, Henry V. |
| Country folk have always held the violet in great esteem as a sweet smelling humble yet important bloom A William Bullein wrote in 1562: "God send thee Heart's Ease, for it is much better with poverty to have the same, than to be a Kynge with a miserable mind. Pray God give thee but one handful of Heavenly Heart's Ease which passeth all the pleasant flowers that grow in this worlde". | The monks of the Middle Ages called the little pansy, Viola tricolor, the Herb of the Trinity (Herba Trinitatus) and used it to make a type of cordial because of its sweet scent. The leaves of the sweet violet, Viola Odorata, have been valued from antiquity. The medieval herbalists considered them as having antiseptic properties and credited an infusion of them as an embrocation for soothing pain and, in some cases, of even halting the growth of malignant tumours. Centuries earlier, the ancient Roman naturalist writer Pliny had described the curative properties of such violets, often prescribing them for gout and spleen disorders. |
