# Palm and olive branches

**Rami benedetti**

**Known today as.** Branches blessed on Palm Sunday.

Kind: Sacramental

## What did Canale use it for?

Taken home, “that into whatever place they shall be brought, the dwellers there may obtain Your blessing”; blessed olive in amulet packets (Treatise Two).

## What does modern science say?

Still blessed and kept in homes, often tucked behind a crucifix.

## What did the older authorities say?

**The Catholic Encyclopedia.** The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that “in pre-Christian times the palm was regarded as a symbol of victory,” adopted by Christians as “a symbol of the victory of the faithful over the enemies of the soul,” whence the martyrs' “palm of martyrdom.” On 10 April 1688 the Congregation of Rites “decided … that the palm when found depicted on catacomb tombs was to be regarded as a proof that a martyr had been interred there,” an opinion later found “untenable,” since “the palm was represented not only on tombs of the post-persecution era, but even on pagan tombs.” Blessed palms stand with holy water and Agnus Deis among the sacramentals.

## Sources

- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Palm in Christian Symbolism.” newadvent.org/cathen/11432a.htm
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Lourdes, Notre-Dame de.” newadvent.org/cathen/09389b.htm

---

*Palm and olive branches.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/palm-and-olive-branches

Historical description, not medical advice.