The Crown of Thorns
Christ’s suffering in his Passion, mocked as a king by the soldiers (Matthew 27:29).
After Pilate had Jesus scourged, the soldiers “plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand,” and knelt before him in mockery, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matthew 27:29). The crown meant for scorn became the sign of a King who reigns through suffering love.
Ecce Homo. Pilate brought Jesus out to the crowd wearing the crown and the purple robe, and said, “Behold the man!” (John 19:5). Statues of the Ecce Homo show him crowned with thorns, bound, holding the reed.
On the crucifix. Most crucifixes show Christ still wearing the crown on the cross.
Around the Sacred Heart. A ring of thorns around the Heart of Jesus is the wound that sin gives to his love.
St Rita of Cascia. In 1443, praying before a crucifix, Rita received on her forehead a wound from one of its thorns, which she bore for the rest of her life.
The relic. The crown venerated as Christ’s was brought to Paris by King St Louis IX, who built the Sainte-Chapelle to keep it. It is now kept in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.
Where you’ll see it
The Passion and the martyrs
All symbols →
Arrows
The martyrdom of St Sebastian, shot with arrows for his faith; long invoked against plague.
The Gridiron
The martyrdom of St Lawrence, deacon of Rome, put to death on a gridiron in 258.
The Skull
“Remember that you will die” (memento mori): a call to penance. At the foot of the Cross it is Adam’s skull, on Golgotha, the Place of the Skull.
A statue with the crown of thorns?
Every statue is made from scratch in our studio in Mangalore.