The Fleur de Lys.

Stefan Georgeta
25 min readApr 20, 2022

In Christianity, lilies symbolize purity and chastity, which may be why the fleur-de-lys historically represents the Virgin Mary. Coins from the 11th century, noble seals, statues, and stained-glass windows depict Mary holding the flower.Fleur de lys, written and fleur de lys is a lily that is used as a decorative design or symbol.Fleur de lys was used in the heraldry of many European nations, but is associated especially with France, especially in its monarchical period. Fleur de lys became “at the same time religious, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic and symbolic.” , especially in French heraldry. Fleur de lys has been used by French royalty throughout history to represent the Catholic saints of France. In particular, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph are often depicted with a lily.Fleur de lys is represented in Unicode at U + 269C ⚜ in the Miscellaneous Symbols block.

Fleur de lys is considered a stylized version of the species Iris pseudacorus or Iris florentina. However, lily and iris are two different plants, unrelated phylogenetically and taxonomically. Lily is the name usually associated with the stylized flower in Florentine heraldic devices. Flower-like decorative ornaments have appeared in works of art from the earliest human civilizations. from which the name of our own Fleur -de -lys may derive. What gives some color to this hypothesis, which I have already proposed, is that the French or the…

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