Wednesday whimsy - why does the pope have a crown like a beehive?

By Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson

By MatthiasKabel - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6738633

Well it looks like one to me. Anyway, Wikipedia says it is a tiara as

The name tiara refers to the entire headpiece, including the various crowns, circlets, and diadems that have adorned it through the ages, while the three-tiered form that it took in the 14th century is also called the triregnum or the triple crown, and sometimes as the triple tiara.

Later it says

Most of the surviving (three-crown) papal tiaras have the shape of a circular beehive…..Some were sharply conical, others bulbous.

See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_tiara

Here is perhaps a more obvious example of a beehive shape.

Pope Innocent III (1198–1216) in early papal tiara. Fresco at the Benedictine monastery at Sacro Speco (it), about 1219

I gather

From 1143 to 1963, the papal tiara was solemnly placed on the pope’s head during a papal coronation.

And

Actual use of the papal tiara has declined since the reign of Pope Paul VI, the last pope to have a coronation ceremony.

It is derived from a conical Phrygian cap or frigium and if you follow the Wiki sublink is also known as Thracian cap and liberty cap, a soft conical cap with the apex bent over.

As the sublink says it has become associated with the

pursuit of liberty first in the American Revolution and then in the French Revolution

However, the main Wiki link says it is shaped like a candle-extinguisher. Hmm…

Of the three crowns, the second

is said to have been added by Pope Boniface VIII as signifying both his spiritual and temporal power, since he declared that God had set him over kings and kingdoms.

However, as to the symbolism Wikipedia says there is no certainty.

Some link it to the threefold authority of the “Supreme Pontiff: Universal Pastor (top), Universal Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction (middle) and Temporal Power (bottom)”.

Others interpret the three tiers as meaning “father of princes and kings, ruler of the world, vicar of Christ”.

So given that the pope usurps the authority of Jesus Christ, extinguishing the light and liberty we have in Christ seems suitable.

I will look at the supreme pontiff and Vicar of Christ claims in more detail separately otherwise this post will be too long,

But for now I must give the real reason why the crown, strictly tiara, is shaped like a beehive.

It is quite simple; the pope is supposed to be a holy man so the papal tiara symbolises he must be on his best beehive-iour!

Look out for the sign of Baldmichael, he will be back!

P.S. If you need more humour to lighten your darkness then try my World Menu on WordPress and search for THE LAUGH ORDER.

If you wish to continue the Catholic theme there’s this.

Sunday Smirk – Why does the Roman Catholic Church not believe in contraception?

Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson. When not posting pages or paging posties, trying to be a good husband, and getting over a long term health issue, I am putting the world to rights. I have nothing better to do, so why not? But of course that includes dancing, being funny (in more than one sense), poking fun at life, poking fun at myself, deflating the pompous, reflating the sad. Seeking to heal the whole of the soul (and body where possible). In short making life as good as it possibly can be for others as well as myself. You can’t say fairer than that. But if you can, please say. People need to know.