Mary’s Stars on the European Flag                                    Study No. 226

 

n December 8, 1955, on the Catholic “Feast of The Immaculate Conception of Mary Our Co-redeemer,” the European Ministers’ delegates officially adopted the European flag, twelve stars on a blue background, designed by Arsene Heitz, who, today, is an octogenarian artist in Strasbourg.

 

Recently Heitz revealed to a French magazine the reason for his inspiration. According to the artist, he thought of the twelve stars in a circle on a blue background, exactly the way it is represented in traditional iconography of this image of the Immaculate Conception. A devotee of the Virgin Mary, Heitz never misses praying a daily Rosary. Heitz noticed the words of the Apocalypse, “And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven; a woman clothed with sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars,” Revelation 12:1.  As a devout Catholic, he applies this to Mary, whom Catholics worship.

The European Union’s flag consists of twelve stars, inspired by the halo of twelve stars that appear around the Madonna in Catholic pictures of her.  And, that is how a profoundly religious symbol came to be the official European Union flag.

A former secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Leon Marchal, affirmed that the stars are those of “the woman of the Apocalypse.”  Enthusiastically he explained, “It’s wonderful that we have gotten back to the Introit of the new Mass of the Assumption.  It’s the corona stellarum duodecim (the crown of the twelve stars) of the woman of the Apocalypse.” The Catholic Church has always claimed that she represents the Virgin Mary, “the mother of God.” This means that the European flag is a Catholic flag.

The EU, which now has fifteen member countries, has confirmed that the number of stars will always stay at twelve, which indicates that the stars do not represent countries. A leaflet, “Building Europe Together,” given to visitors to EU headquarters in Brussels, says: “The European flag (is) a shared flag, blue with twelve gold stars symbolizing completeness. The number will remain twelve no matter how many countries there are in the European Union.”

The Marian (Mary worship) symbol of twelve stars is on every license plate of the European Union and every banknote in Europe.  Vatican-issued Euro coins have the Pope’s image with twelve stars.

So important is Mary in Catholic worship, that on September 2, 1958, Archbishop Montini of Milan (the later Pope Pius XII) released on the mountain Serenissima a twenty-meter high statue of Mary and called it “Our Beloved Lady, Ruler of Europe.” Pope Pius XII called Mary “Mother of all Nations” and called on March 3, 1953, for a reunion of nations. Bishop Dr. Graber said on September 9, 1978: “I’ve asked for a Marian European International. . . .  We pray and ask in silence that the western world one day will be as it was: a IMPERIUM MARIANUM [Mary’s Imperial Kingdom].”

The Beast is riding, to be dominated by the woman who rides the Beast, Revelation 17.  Read the book, A Woman Rides the Beast:  the Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days, by Dave Hunt, 580 pp., B214, $11.00, or the corresponding VHS NTSC 58-minute video, V214, for $20.00.  Also, The Papacy, by J.A. Wylie, 95 pp., $9.00.  Order from: Giving & Sharing, PO Box 100, Neck City, MO 64849.

                                                                    — based on an article by Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi Ω