Hoveniersgilde van Maastricht, gildepenning van Joannes Blonden 1706

This is a guild medal for the Maastricht gardeners' guild, featuring Saint Urban, their patron saint. Here we see Saint Urban enthroned, holding a staff, surrounded by symbols of growth and devotion. Saint Urban, a pope from the 3rd century, is invoked here as a symbol of fertility, the flourishing of gardens, and the cyclical renewal of nature. But why Urban? The choice echoes ancient pagan rituals connecting leaders with agricultural abundance. Think of the Roman emperors linked to Ceres, goddess of agriculture. Over time, the figure of the Pope as the embodiment of a divine conduit echoes through centuries in an altered form. The staff, too, is reminiscent of the scepters of kings and gods, symbols of power and authority now re-imagined as tools of cultivation. This potent blend of Christian and pagan symbolism, this dance of past and present, embodies the enduring human connection to the earth, a connection that resurfaces in our collective consciousness time and again.