Inspired by a government order that regions should have their own flags, Penza has designed a gold and green banner with an image of Jesus in the center.
The flag, a radical departure from Penza's coat of arms with three distinctive sheaves of wheat, is ruffling the feathers of non-Christian groups even though it has yet to be approved by the federal government, which gets the final say on all flags.
On the simple flag, a large head of Jesus stares out from a gold background. A green stripe runs along its left side.
Yury Leptev, the deputy head of Penza's committee on social politics, said it was a legend not the Bible that had prompted the regional government to put an image of Jesus on its flag. According to the legend, Ivan the Terrible stopped in Penza on a journey through central Russia and promised to present an icon of Jesus on his way back. Although Ivan took a different route back, one of his aides presented the promised icon to the locals, Leptev said.
NTV television reported that Jesus was Penza's runner-up to President Vladimir Putin, who was dropped when someone in the local administration pointed out that no region had a flag depicting a Russian leader.
No other regional flags have images of religious leaders either.
The Moscow Times December 11, 2002 [âñÿ ñòàòüÿ]
