In the Cathedral of Andria, Italy, the Relic of the Holy Thorn from Jesus’ Crown of Thorns has changed color, according to the Bishop: Here’s the story with photos from this year, 2020.

In the past, the Thorn has also changed color. Click through this link and scroll down for before and after photos of the change of color from Good Friday, March 25th of 2016.

The meaning of the change of color, during the pandemic, I think is that we are experiencing a suffering from the threshold of the first part of the tribulation. The tribulation is the Church’s Passion and Crucifixion. The crowning of thorns occurs relatively early in the Passion, before Jesus walked to Cavalry, carrying His Cross. But the pandemic is only one thorn from the crown of thorns (i.e. of sufferings) that the Church and the world are now experiencing and will experience.

So the meaning is that the pandemic’s sufferings are comparatively less than many other sufferings the world and Church will soon experience, during the approaching tribulation. Now we are on the threshold of the End Times, of the tribulation. We have not yet experienced all the thorns of the Church’s crown of thorns. There will be more thorns this year and next, and there will be other much greater sufferings of the Church’s Passion, clearly imitating, in Her Sufferings, the Sufferings of Her Lord and Savior.

Other thorns of suffering are coming soon. That is the message of the changing of color of the thorn. Notice, too, that this time the thorn did not change color as much as it usually does, indicating that this is only the threshold.

As for the usual meaning of the change of color, which usually occurs when the Annunciation and the Passion fall upon the same day: the lightening of part of the thorn indicates the joy of the Annunciation, and the darkening indicates the suffering of the Passion.

Ronald L Conte Jr