In Brittany the Vervain is known as the Herb of the Cross. John White, writing in 1624, says of it--
“Hallow’d be thou Vervain, as thou growest in the ground, For in the Mount of Calvary thou first was found. Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ And staunchedst His bleeding wound. In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I take thee from the ground.”
In the Flax-fields of Flanders, there grows a plant called the _Roodselken_, the red spots on the leaves of which betoken the blood which fell on it from the Cross, and which neither rain nor snow has since been able to wash off. In Cheshire a similar legend is attached to the _Orchis maculata_, which is there called Gethsemane.
“Those deep unwrought marks, The villager will tell thee, Are the flower’s portion from the atoning blood On Calvary shed. Beneath the Cross it grew.”
In Palestine there exists a notion that the red Anemone grew at the foot of the Cross, and hence the flower bears the name of the “Blood-drops of Christ.” The Wood Sorrel is introduced in their paintings of the Crucifixion by the early Italian painters, perhaps as symbolizing the Trinity with its triple leaf.
Whilst wearily bearing His Cross on the way to Calvary, our Lord passed by the door of St. Veronica, who, with womanly compassion, wiped with her kerchief the drops of agony from His brow. The Redeemer’s features remained miraculously impressed on the linen, and from that time the flowers of the wayside Speedwell have ever borne a representation of the precious relic. In Brittany it is said that whilst Christ was bearing His Cross a little robin took from His mocking crown one of the thorns, steeped in His blood, which dyed the robin’s breast; henceforth the robin has always been the friend of man.
“Bearing His cross, while Christ passed forth forlorn, His God-like forehead by the mock crown torn, A little bird took from that crown one thorn, To soothe the dear Redeemer’s throbbing head, That bird did what she could; His blood, ’tis said, Down dropping, dyed her bosom red.”--_J. H. Abrahall._
The early Spanish settlers of South America saw in the _Flor de las cinco llagas_, the Flower of the Five Wounds, or Passion Flower, a marvellous floral emblem of the mysteries of Christ’s Passion, and the Jesuits eagerly adopted it as likely to prove useful in winning souls to their faith.