C. S. Lewis called himself “a votary of the blue flower.” I came across the Lewis quote in a book I read this spring. The quote caught my attention because I did not know the meaning of the word ‘votary.’ I wondered if it had anything to do with a similar word, votive. A votive is a receptacle, usually glass, for a short stocky ‘votive’ candle, the type left by parishioners at a vigil or an altar. It turns out that a votary is a person; an adherent or follower, dedicated to a calling — even a nun or monk. Both words have religious overtones, from a Latin base meaning vow.
So why would C. S. Lewis call himself a “votary of the blue flower”? As author Jennifer Rothschild explains, the blue flower symbolizes longing in English literature (Heaven, 2025). She writes, “it symbolizes a desire, yearning and love of the eternal.” Lewis was a scholar of English literature, well familiar with its deepest imagery. Lewis committed himself to real Christian faith at the age of 33. He wrote of his love of the eternal in an autobiography, “Surprised by Joy,” twenty-four years later. I think Lewis loved deep and symbolic literature, loved God and His timeless truths, and began to yearn for heaven, his forever home.
I found it interesting to be reading Rothschild’s “Heaven” (a topical Bible study) so soon after my Dad’s passing and through a season of planning a remembrance of him with my family. His Memorial Service is this coming weekend. We would appreciate prayer for everyone’s travel and that our efforts would honor my father and point us all to his legacy of faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you.
He hath set eternity into the hearts of men. Ecclesiastes 3 v 11
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