Within the white inescutcheon, the five small blue shields with their five white bezants representing the five wounds of Christ (Portuguese: Cinco Chagas) when crucified and are popularly associated with the “Miracle of Ourique”.[9] The story associated with this miracle tells that before the Battle of Ourique on 25 July 1139, an old hermit appeared before Count Afonso Henriques (future Afonso I) as a divine messenger. He foretold Afonso’s victory and assured him that God was watching over him and his peers. The messenger advised him to walk away from his camp, alone, if he heard a nearby chapel bell tolling, in the following night. In doing so, he witnessed an apparition of Jesus on the cross. Ecstatic, Afonso heard Jesus promising victories for the coming battles, as well as God’s wish to act through Afonso, and his descendants, in order to create an empire which would carry his name to unknown lands, thus choosing the Portuguese to perform great tasks.[10]
Boosted by this spiritual experience, Afonso won the battle against an outnumbering enemy. Legend has it that Afonso killed the five Moorish kings of the Seville, Badajoz, Elvas, Évora and Beja taifas, before decimating the enemy troops. Hence, in gratitude to Jesus, he incorporated five shields arranged in a cross—representing his divine-led victory over the five enemy kings—with each one carrying Christ’s five wounds in the form of silver bezants. The sum of all bezants (doubling the ones in the central shield) would give thirty, symbolizing Judas Iscariot’s thirty pieces of silver.[10]
by NukeouT
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Sounds like “aliens” appeared to the leader of the Christian Portuguese army fighting the Islamic Moors on the Iberian peninsula, told him he will win his battles and asked to act “through” him (and descendants) on Earth to create an important empire / perform important tasks on Earth
This is now commemorated in the center of the modern Portuguese flag according to the Wikipedia article on the flag!