Honoring Mary, Our Mother, in May

In the northern hemisphere, May is often called Mary’s month, the month dedicated to the Mother of God. It’s also the month we celebrate Mother’s Day, and honor our own mothers.

I like May because here in the Midwest, winter is definitely over, with spring well on its way to summer. Early spring flowers have been blooming, first the daffodils and now tulips. Trees and shrubs are flowering.

Yesterday I walked along the wildflower paths at Cox Arboretum Metro-Park in Dayton, just a few minutes from my home. My thoughts went to Mary, walking to visit Elizabeth. What flowers did she see?

I was reminded of the early spring blossoms of columbine, and the legend that it sprang up wherever Mary’s feet touched the ground when she was on her way to visit Elizabeth. The flower reflected the innocence of the Virgin Mary. In England the flower was called Our Lady’s Shoes and Our Lady’s Flower. The name comes from Columba, the Latin word for dove, as the blossom, usually with pink or purple and white petals, resembles five doves clustered together.

We are told that during the Middle Ages, the faithful saw reminders of Mary, the Mother of God, in the flowers and herbs growing around them. Violets were symbols of her humility, lilies her purity and roses her glory. They called her “Flower of Flowers,” and named plants after her. Marigolds were Mary’s Gold, clematis was the Virgin’s Bower and lavender was Our Lady’s Drying Plant.
People were so devoted to Mary they decorated her altars with flowers on her feast days. Poets and popes praised her in hymns, as in this 15th-century Ave Maria:

Heil be thou, Marie, that aff flour of all
As roose in eerbir so reed.

In the last century, prior to the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960’s, the faithful also honored Mary with flowers. May crownings were the tradition in Catholic schools during Mary’s month, and makeshift home altars bearing an image of Mary were decorated with the choicest home-grown blossoms.
Those traditions have almost disappeared, but the medieval custom of finding reminders of Mary’s attributes, glory and sorrows in flowers and herbs has left a legacy that can enrich our lives in this millennium.

More than 30 flowers and herbs bear legends about Mary’s life. Many of the plants can be easily grown in your own Mary Garden, a garden dedicated to Mary and containing her image and plants associated with her by name or legend. They are found in Mary Gardens throughout the world, should you want to make a pilgrimage in Mary’s honor. The legends and reflections are found in my book, Mary’s Flowers: Gardens, Legends and Meditations, first published by St. Anthony Messenger Press and now available from Tau Publications.

(Portions of the above first appeared in "Honoring Mary in Your Garden" in the May 2000 issue of St. Anthony Messenger Press.)
For information about Mary Gardens in this country and elsewhere, go to the Mary Gardens web site, Mary's Gardens home, campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/m_garden/marygardensmain.html‎