The Spy Who Came for Christmas

A flower bloomed

In the middle of a cold winter’s night,

A rose that Mary gave us,

A small child,

Who dispels the darkness,

Relieves our sorrows,

And saves us from sin and death.

— paraphrase of a fifteenth-century German hymn, “The Christmas Rose”

In the Middle Ages, councils debating confidential matters hung a rose from the ceiling and swore not to reveal what they discussed sub rosa, under the rose. This association of a rose with secrecy dates back to a Greek myth in which the god of love gave a rose to the god of silence, bribing him to stay quiet about the sins of the other gods. To this day, the rose remains an emblem of the spy profession.

— from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Espionage