Botany
Oleaceae
Already known in Roman times, the olive tree is a small tree or, if it grows in a natural environment, a shrub with grayish bark. Its leaves are opposite and lanceolate, with a full edge, and gray on the underside. It has white-corolla flowers and green-black fruit (drupe), larger in cultivated species, pulpy and rich in oil. The tree grows throughout the Mediterranean region, up to 900 meters of altitude.
History
As for the chestnut and cypress, fame and studies on the olive tree are closely linked to the economic use that has always been made of it and to the great importance from a landscape viewpoint. Yet even this tree, so familiar to our eyes, is originally from Western Asia despite the fact that it had been already cultivated during the time of Tarquinius Priscus (616-578 BC). The area of origin of the olive tree is probably found in Asia Minor. Thanks to the different Mediterranean peoples (Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans), it spread throughout the Mediterranean basin. In 3000 BC, Crete exported olive oil to Egypt. Some fossilized olive branches were found in Egyptian tombs dating back more than 4000 years ago. Phoenicians initiated its cultivation in Greece and Italy in the 16th century BC, and most likely in southern Spain and France too. However, it was the Greeks that around the 4th century BC widely planted it in the colonies of Magna Graecia (especially Calabria) and spread it even further in all those Mediterranean regions that had with them a very strong cultural connection. With the advent of the Roman empire, the olive tree experienced one of its greatest moments of glory, extending its range to areas that until then, due to the unfavorable climate, its cultivation had been marginal or non-existent. Finally, at the end of the 15th century, olive trees were introduced into the New World soon after its discovery. The first olive trees arrived in the Antilles from the port of Seville, and since 1560 olive plantations have been present in Mexico and later also in Peru, California, Chile, and Argentina.
The Tree at Castelgandolfo
The oil produced in Castel Gandolfo comes from four main types of olive trees: Pendolino, Frantoio, Rosciola and Vernina. Pendolino and Frantoio commonly grow throughout Italy, while Rosciola and Vernina are typical in Lazio and central Italy. In the olive grove there is also a plant belonging to the Pigeon Egg variety, an almost forgotten cultivation that actually produces excellent table olives.
Two trees in the olive grove of the Pontifical Villas have a peculiar meaning. The first one is a tree of the Taggiasca variety, a gift coming from the Ligurian city of Taggia. The other is a magnificent tree with a deep religious and symbolic significance, arriving directly from the Garden of Gethsemane and donated to Pope Paul VI by King Hussein of Jordan. He was the first successor of St. Peter to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in January 1964, while the Church was celebrating the Second Vatican Council. At the Holy Sepulchre he paused in recollection on the empty tomb of Christ, where he placed a golden olive branch brought from Rome. Here he celebrated the Holy Mass, the memorial of the Passion, and said his prayer for unity. Pope Francis, like Paul VI before him, also planted an olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemane. A gesture, along with Bergoglio’s prayer for peace with Abu Mazen and Shimon Peres, that is a wish for peace and prosperity for the Holy Land.
General symbolism
The olive tree is part of the “seven trees” dear to the Camaldolese monks and was described in 1080 in the Constitutiones by Blessed Rodolfo to hand down the teaching of St. Romuald (Olive tree for the fruitfulness of works of joy, peace and mercy). The olive tree is a symbol of peace, both religious and pagan. In pagan mythology, it is a tree sacred to Minerva, and a symbol of Athena and the city of Athens.
In Rabanus Maurus it symbolizes Christ in the Church «Sicut olivam speciosam vocabit Dominus nomen tuum». It also signifies the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin (Corona duodecima coronarum Virginis Mariae written by the Franciscan Agricola), and sometimes replaces the Lilium candidum in the Annunciation. It describes the virtuous man (Psalm 52:8: “I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust forever in the goodness of God”).
In Genesis, it is a symbol of God’s peace with man (in the Old Testament, the dove announcing the end of the Great Flood carries an olive branch in its mouth). It is a plant of forgiveness (I ask God “to prepare our hearts to encounter our brothers and sisters, so that we may overcome our differences rooted in political thinking, language, culture and religion. Let us ask him to anoint our whole being with the balm of his mercy, which heals the injuries caused by mistakes, misunderstandings and disputes. And let us ask him for the grace to send us forth, in humility and meekness, along the demanding but enriching path of seeking peace”, Fratelli tutti 254). It is a sacred plant employed in the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem, and in the New Testament it is the royal plant used to welcome Christ entering Jerusalem, thus symbolizing Christ himself and therefore as a consequence the Church.
A garden of olive trees (the Gethsemane Garden) is the last place where Christ prays before His Passion. In the Acts of the Apostles, attributed to Luke as their author from earliest times, in the initial chapter (1:11) he places the Ascension on the Mount of Olives on the 40th day after Easter. Kings and priests are anointed with oil, and even today oil is used for celebrations and for many Sacraments, such as the oil of catechumens at Baptism, Holy Chrism for Confirmation and also Holy Orders, and in the anointing for healing, a symbol here of purification from sin. Christ himself is often called the Lord’s Anointed One (The Sacraments are a privileged way in which nature is assumed by God and transformed into a mediation of supernatural life. Through worship we are invited to embrace the world on a different level. Water, oil, fire and colors are taken up with all their symbolic power and are incorporated into praise, LS 253).
Medicinal importance
The fresh leaves of the plant have been demonstrated to be favorably effective against cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure (diuretic and vasodilator effect). In addition, the decoction of dried olive leaves is used against gout and rheumatism. Olive oil is fundamental in a diet, and not only. It is a precious food both for its vitamin component with antioxidant activity and for its fatty acids. It is also used as an excipient for many galenic preparations and special medicines. In folk medicine, olive leaves are used to treat arteriosclerosis, hypotonia, gout, hypertension, rheumatism and diabetes mellitus, as well as a remedy against fever. Oil taken from the plant, on the other hand, is used in traditional medicine as an internal remedy to treat the inflammation of the digestive system. Externally, however, folk medicine uses this oil in the treatment of eczema, burn (including sunburn) and rheumatism.
The olive tree is also used in homeopathic medicine as a remedy against fever, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, etc.
Extra virgin olive oil provides vitamins, antioxidants, phytosterols and monounsaturated fatty acids. Therefore, as a substitute for saturated lipid portions of animal origin (fats contained in cheeses, meats and fatty derivatives, eggs, etc.), it can provide a significant nutritional advantage.
The Tree in the Pope mission
The olive tree, with its very profound symbolism of peace and its great therapeutic properties, represents the mission of the Church to promote peace in the world and, in general, to heal the deep wounds caused by war and injustice.
“It took a pope like Francis to concretely invoke, with tangible signs, that peace that is much needed in a forgotten Middle East which, whether you like it or not, concerns all of us, Christians, Jews or Muslims, with no difference. The choice, not only symbolic, was to “plant”, in the Vatican gardens, an olive tree to be raised and grown; an olive tree, or perhaps it would have been better to say without mincing words the peace that, like the gnarled tree, needs to be cared for attentively and nourished daily. That piece of Vatican City, from the historic date of 8 June 2014, will bear witness to it before history. And since “to make peace it takes courage much more than to make war”, now it is up to us, to all of us.”
Thank you Francesco, Shimon, Mahomud, Bartolomeo.