The flag of Europe, which always has twelve stars, and its Christian influences

The blue flag with twelve yellow stars is today the emblem of the European Union, but many European citizens are unaware of its origin.

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Following an idea formulated by Winston Churchill in 1946, the Treaty of London was signed on May 5, 1949, establishing the Council of Europe, an international organization currently made up of 46 countries: all those that make up the European continent, with four exceptions: Belarus (expelled in 1997 in protest against the dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko), the Vatican City (which is not a member but has observer status), and Russia (expelled in 2022 for the invasion of Ukraine). After its founding, in 1950 the Council of Europe launched a competition to design a flag, receiving more than 150 proposals, many of them created by amateurs.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe selected two proposals. One of them was authored by the Spanish liberal Salvador de Madariaga (1886-1978), founder of the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). Its design, presented in 1951, was a blue background flag with eight-pointed stars representing the capitals of European countries, with the city of Strasbourg, headquarters of the Council of Europe, represented by a larger star.

The other selected flag was a work by the Franco-German painter Arsène Heitz (1908-1989), then employed by the postal service of the Council of Europe, who had submitted 21 proposals to the competition between 1952 and 1955. Four of his sketches included flags with a circle of 12 five-pointed stars, with another five-pointed star in the center. Others were circles of 15 stars.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe chose a flag with a circle of 12 five-pointed stars, based on several of the designs submitted by Heitz to the competition, although the final design was created by Paul Michel Gabriel Lévy, a Belgian Catholic journalist of Jewish origin (he had converted to Catholicism in 1940), a Holocaust survivor, and at that time the Council's information director. Lévy was the chairman of the competition committee that selected the flag.

In 2012, from Vatican Insider, Giacomo Galeazzi noted: "The meaning of the flag echoes an image of devotion to the Virgin Mary from the twelfth chapter of Revelation: 'And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head'."

Galeazzi refers to Lévy, noting that he was "very sensitive to the biblical symbolism related to the number 12: this number, in ancient symbolism, represents perfection and fullness; the tribes of Israel are 12; the months of the year as well; the Apostles; the Tablets of the Roman Law." The Italian journalist adds: "Heitz was inspired by the 'Miraculous Medal' he wore around his neck: a medal minted after the apparition of the Virgin to Saint Catherine Labouré in 1830. It was the Virgin herself who indicated to the nun that she should depict on her medal the 12 stars of the crown of the woman of the Apocalypse."

Galeazzi notes that "Arsène Heitz did not reveal the biblical origin of the symbol to the competition committee (he would admit it later), but maintained that the number 12, according to ancestral knowledge, was a "symbol of fullness"; this interpretation convinced the committee". In 1998, Thomas Pinzka wrote in the German newspaper Die Welt about the flag selection process:

"All designs that included a cross, following the example of the Scandinavian flags, were rejected by the socialists as being ideologically biased and too Christian. One day, Lévi was out for a walk when he came across a statue of the Virgin Mary wearing a crown of stars. Bathed in sunlight, the golden stars shone beautifully against the bright blue sky. Lévi then contacted Count Benvenuti, a Venetian Christian Democrat and then Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and suggested that twelve golden stars on a blue background be proposed as the motif for the European flag. Benvenuti was enthusiastic, and shortly afterward, the proposal was accepted by all. Thus, to this day, Mary's golden crown of stars adorns the European flag in all the member states of the European Union."

For years, Heitz and Lévy disputed the authorship of the design. Today, the Council of Europe's website includes Heitz's arguments before the committee in favor of this design:

"Against the background of blue sky, the stars form a circle, symbolising union. The number of stars is fixed, twelve being the symbol of perfection and completeness and bringing to mind the apostles, the sons of Jacob, the labours of Hercules, the months in the year, etc."

The same website indicates that the new flag was approved on December 9, 1955, the day after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In 1983, the European Parliament approved the adoption of the Council of Europe's flag as the flag of the European Community, which in 1993 changed its name to the European Union.

The iconography of the Immaculate Conception coincides with the description of the Virgin Mary in the Book of Revelation, which is believed to have inspired the design of the European flag, with a crown of twelve stars and a moon beneath her feet. This is how she appears, for example, in the famous painting by the Spanish painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1618-1682) that you can see above, a painting created between 1675 and 1680.

Furthermore, in Strasbourg Cathedral there is an image of the Virgin Mary with a crown of 12 six-pointed golden stars (above). It is a carving created between 1858 and 1859, so it is quite possible that Heitz and Lévy, who were devout Catholics and worked in Strasbourg, saw it at some point.

Does this mean the European flag is a Catholic symbol? No. What it means is that its creators were influenced by Catholicism when designing it, and that the intention was obviously to represent all Europeans, not just those of a particular religion. In any case, Europe has undeniable Christian roots, and it's normal that its flag is influenced by these religious and cultural foundations of our continent, even if that bothers some people.

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Main photo: Alexandre Lallemand.