John Stokes would have loved the blog! The former Quaker
and engineer, whose life changed when he learned about the Mary Garden at Woods
Hole on Cape Cod, would have been one of the first bloggers.
John and his friend, Edward McTague, visited that
Mary Garden, dedicated to Our Lady and filled with flowers named after her, and
conceived the idea of promoting “the restoration of old medieval religious
names, symbolisms and uses of flowers – especially those associating them with
the Blessed Virgin - to present-day
religion and gardening.”
They envisioned many gardens with Mary’s flowers and
set about to encourage their development. In 1951 they founded Mary’s Gardens
in Philadelphia as a means for publicizing and restoring the old Mary flower
tradition. They advertised in Catholic publications and through the Mary’s
Gardens Catalog offered “seeds, bulbs, plants, shrines and literature.”
This was long before the internet and blogging. John
corresponded with those who ordered the seeds and plants, traveled to garden
shows and wrote articles for Catholic publications to encourage the creation of
Mary’s gardens.
He was elated when the internet emerged and on September
8, 1995, set about establishing a website, Mary’s Gardens, which increased his
presence and ability to reach a greater audience.
I met John Stokes in June, 1996, when my husband and
I traveled to Woods Hole to visit that first Mary Garden. He had come from
Philadelphia to meet us and we spent the day together, talking about his work
and his dreams. I had been inspired by him and was considering the possibility
of writing a book about Mary Gardens (Mary’s
Flowers: Gardens, Legends and Meditations was published in 1999 and is
currently in its third printing).
The Mary’s Gardens website grew and grew under
John’s enthusiastic and prayerful guidance. It became a bit unwieldy and
confusing: John sometimes placed the same article in several categories, perhaps
to encourage easy access. He also imbedded articles within articles! Recently I
was charged with revamping the site and was able to streamline it, eliminate
duplication and bring the imbedded articles to light. Some of the section
titles were changed to better reflect content and facilitate searches. The
reorganized website should be on-line within the next few months.
John Stokes died in 2007. In his will he left the
website to the Marian Library at the University of Dayton.
There is so much to discover on the website! In
future blogs I will highlight some of the jewels found there. I will tell you
about some of my favorite sections and articles, and identify those that relate
to the seasons, feast days and holy days and our liturgical year.
Meanwhile, I invite you to join me in continuing the
prayerful legacy of honoring Mary in the simple everyday of flowers and
gardens. There is an old German saying,
“Three things are left from paradise: The flowers with their fragrance, the
stars with their brilliance, and the eyes of a little child.” We can imagine
our Blessed Mother as she looked into the eyes of her little child, walked
through the flowers of her homeland, and looked to the distant stars. Sometimes
our hearts need the joy of beauty that John Stokes wished to preserve for us.
