“From the Archives” — Flags Displayed in The Basilica

There are four flags displayed in the nave of the Basilica of Saint Mary, two on each side wall. The United States and Commonwealth of Virginia flags are on the left side, as you face the altar. The U.S. flag is the design from 1795, the year Saint Mary parish was founded. It has 15 stars — one for each of the states at the time: the original 13 former colonies, plus Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792). The flag also has 15 stripes, reduced to 13 in 1818. There is a protocol for placement of the U.S. flag in places of worship. It should be placed outside the sanctuary, on the right side of the church (when looking from the altar). When the flag was first placed in our church years ago, it was on the opposite side and nobody noticed for decades. When a new (unfaded) flag was purchased for the church bicentennial in 1995, it was still placed on the same side. Finally, after the most recent renovation of the church, the U.S. flag was moved to the correct side of the church. The Virginia flag represents the Basilica’s location and its status as the first Catholic Church in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The parish was founded after Virginia adopted a state’s bill of rights, which guaranteed freedom of religion in the Commonwealth.

On the opposite side of the nave there are two more flags: the papal flag (the official flag of the Catholic Church), and the flag of the Basilica of Saint Mary, designed when the parish was named a minor Basilica. The Basilica flag contains symbols representing the history of the Catholic Church and our parish. The blue-and-white colors represent purity and piety, traditional colors of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The “AM” (Ave Maria) symbolizes Mary’s patronage of the parish. A British frigate (ca. 1650) symbolizes the City of Alexandria, a colonial port, and the Ark and the Dove, the ships that brought the first Catholic colonists to Maryland, the ancestral home of many Saint Mary founders and the original Jesuit priests who served here. The 10 stars on a blue field represent the Arlington Diocese and its patroness, Mary Queen of Heaven and Earth. The “IHS” (the Greek letters Iota, Eta, Sigma) symbolize the Holy Name of Jesus, a tribute to the Jesuit founders of our parish.

Perhaps it is just coincidental that the ecclesiastical flags are placed on one side, with the secular, state and national flags on the opposite side. But they do represent the separation of church and state, the reason many emigrants left Europe and settled in America.