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Significance of the pinecone (Catholicism)

  • 14-09-2011 1:03am
    #1
    tuxy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,983 ✭✭✭✭


    There is a pinecone monument in the Vatican, also the pope has a pinecone on his staff. For some reason this intrigued me. My understanding of the bible and Catholicism is limited. Can anyone explain the symbolic important of the pinecone to Catholism?

    pinecone.jpg

    Cone08.jpg


Comments

  • #2
    John Doe1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,921 ✭✭✭John Doe1


    I'm a very immature troll.


  • #3
    scriba
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 875 ✭✭✭scriba


    Great question. I study the writings of the Fathers, and I've never come across any exegetical treatment of the pine cone. I had a brief look, and St Ambrose discusses it in his Hexameron (a book on the six days of creation as told in Genesis). See here:

    http://books.google.ie/books?id=w5f_dYLVGicC&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=pine+cone+ambrose&source=bl&ots=tmABVPxKWq&sig=r9RnceXybsXkwr8uoEnV4jxClRI&hl=en&ei=KZRwTqSoAYiEhQe1uoizCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

    But he does not discuss it in relation specifically to the Church, or to Christian leadership, which I would have expected. Short answer, I don't know, but I hope someone else might! :)


  • #4
    scriba
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 875 ✭✭✭scriba


    Of course, the pine cone is a seed, and thus is an image of the availability of salvation for all men, like the parable of the mustard seed. Maybe that's it?


  • #5
    SonOfAdam
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 172 ✭✭SonOfAdam


    It's a pagan symbol representing eternal life


  • #6
    Cybercelesta
    Closed Accounts Posts: 118 ✭✭Cybercelesta


    It's no more than a work of art!

    [SIZE=-1]"The colossal bronze pine cone was cast in the 1st or 2nd century by Publius Cincius Salvius who left his name on the base. Prior to being moved to the Court of the Pigna the jumbo pine cone was situated in the Campus Martius, in the area that is still called "Pigna", where it served as a fountain, water gushing from holes in the scales of the cone. Possibly towards the end of the 8th century it was moved to the entrance hall of the medieval St. Peter's, in the center of the fountain covered by and ornate baldachin, identified in Renaissance drawings. Finally, in 1608, during the construction of the present basilica, the giant pine cone fountain was dismantled and placed where it is today. [/SIZE]"

    http://touritaly.org/tours/vaticanmuseum/Vatican06.htm


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  • #7
    Monty.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 696 ✭✭✭Monty.


    The pine cone can also be used as a simple symbol for the season of advent, if that’s too disappointing for you, you can choose one of the many dozens of different Dan Brown / David Icke fictional conspiracy theories out there.


  • #8
    Cybercelesta
    Closed Accounts Posts: 118 ✭✭Cybercelesta


    Funny....now that I look closer it's almost looks like the shape of a mitre! :p


  • #9
    Keaton
    Closed Accounts Posts: 254 ✭✭Keaton


    SonOfAdam wrote: »
    It's a pagan symbol representing eternal life

    God made pine cones.


  • #10
    alex73
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭alex73


    Well having lived in Rome... It may just be a symbol of Pino Romano... Roman pine tree? There are after all hundreds of thousands of them all over Rome.


  • #11
    Monty.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 696 ✭✭✭Monty.


    alex73 wrote: »
    Well having lived in Rome... It may just be a symbol of Pino Romano... Roman pine tree? There are after all hundreds of thousands of them all over Rome.

    Oh no, not exciting enough, surely those trees were planted there by the timber masons to fund the illuminati?


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  • #12
    alex73
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭alex73


    Monty. wrote: »
    Oh no, not exciting enough, surely those trees were planted there by the timber masons to fund the illuminati?

    Of course... Sorry I forgot the conspircy... But that would be telling.:D


  • #13
    Monty.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 696 ✭✭✭Monty.


    alex73 wrote: »
    Of course... Sorry I forgot the conspircy... But that would be telling.:D

    Yes don't forget to knock four times on the pine door.


  • #14
    SonOfAdam
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 172 ✭✭SonOfAdam


    Keaton wrote: »
    God made pine cones.


    God made everything - are you suggesting that something God made cannot be used as pagan symbols ?


  • #15
    gimmebroadband
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,267 ✭✭✭gimmebroadband


    SonOfAdam wrote: »
    God made everything - are you suggesting that something God made cannot be used as pagan symbols ?

    He never suggested anything about paganism, why would you think he did?


  • #16
    SonOfAdam
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 172 ✭✭SonOfAdam


    gimmebroadband wrote:
    He never suggested anything about paganism, why would you think he did?

    I made the reference to paganism. In his reply he inferred that as God made the pinecone it couldn't be pagan - at least that's what I got from his comment :)


  • #17
    Cybercelesta
    Closed Accounts Posts: 118 ✭✭Cybercelesta


    SonOfAdam wrote: »
    I made the reference to paganism. In his reply he inferred that as God made the pinecone it couldn't be pagan - at least that's what I got from his comment :)

    I don't think the pinecone has any religion, never mind paganism! :pac:


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