St. Paul of the
Cross, founder of the Passionists described how, in a type of vision he
saw Mary, the Mother of Jesus dressed in black with a badge over her
heart. That badge was to develop into the Passionist ‘Sign’ as we
know it today.
The ‘Sign’ consists of a heart shape, the symbol
of Love, surmounted by a white Cross, a reminder of the Suffering Love
shown by Jesus for us on the Cross.
The words in the heart are:-
JESU – the name of Jesus in Hebrew
XPI – contracted form of Christ in Greek
PASSIO – the word Passion in Latin.
The text reads – ‘The Passion of Jesus Christ’
written in three languages Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The main languages
in the time of Jesus.
Underneath the lettering are three nails –
representing the nails used to fix Christ to the Cross.
Passionists wear the ‘Sign’ over
the heart and in the recent past wore a second ‘Sign’ on a cloak
covering the upper arm. It recalled the Bible text -
‘Set me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm. For Love is strong as death’. (cf. Song of
Songs ch.6)
