Fleur de lys

Legend tells that the lily (Fleur de lys) sprung from the tears shed by Eve as she left the Garden of Eden (just as that unrelated flower, the lily of the valley, was said to have grown from the tears of the Mary, the mother of Jesus at the foot of the Cross).

It has been the symbol of purity and was accordingly readily adopted by the Church to associate the Virgin Mary's sanctity with events of special significance.

Explanations include the shape having been developed from the image of a dove descending, which is the symbol of the Holy Ghost.

It is not rare, until the end of the 12th century, to see Jesus Christ represented amidst more or less stylised lilies or fleurons, whose design also recall the Trinity of the Chrismon (Tree) (Christ's monogram).Then, slowly, on this Christic content is added a Marial symbolic, linked to the development of the Cult of Mary, and to which the next verse of the Song of Solomon is related (2:2): "sicut lilium inter spinas, sic amica mea inter lilias" ("as the lily [stands out] among the thorns, thus my love [stands out] among the lilies"), as well as many parts of the Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church, where the lily is presented as symbol of purity, virginity and chastity. In iconography, the fleur-de-lis becomes the favorite attribute in the Glorification/Assumption of Mary.(Exsample.)

The fleur-de-lis is a symbol of the Holy Trinity. It is also a symbol of Ressurection and Assumption. The fleur-de-lis represent the Tree of Life. The Angel Gabriel is often pictured with the lily in his hand in the Annunciation of Christ's birth.