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Intro Mary Garden
Flower Symbols of Mary's Sorrows
John S. Stokes Jr.
The Flowers of Mary's Sorrows most frequently grown in Mary Gardens
are:
Mary's Sword (of Sorrow):
- from Simeon's prophecy to Mary at the Presentation of the
Child Jesus in the Temple that her soul would be pierced by
a sword that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.
- Iris (spear-like foliage)
Mary's Tears
- from legends that flowers with tear-drop resemblance sprang
up where Mary's tears fell on the ground at the foot of the
Cross.
- Virginia Spiderwort (blue tear-like fluid from spent
blooms)
- Ladies Mantle (drops of water remaining on leaves from
rain)
- Lily-of-the-Valley (small tear-like white blooms)
- Gromwell (small tear-like white blooms)
- Quaking Grass (tear-like seed clumps)
- Job's Tears (round tear-like seeds. Used for
stringing Rosary beads, and thus known in Spain also
as Lagrimas de Rosario, Rosary Tears)
- Larkspur (tear-like buds)
- Sundew (tear-like drops of rain water on flower
filaments}
also,
- Lungwort (blue flower eyes, with reddish buds, seen
together to symbolize Mary's eyes red from crying).
and
Mary's (torn) Tresses (of Hair)
- recalling the popular folk tradition that Mary tore out
locks of her hair in her agonizing sorrow at the foot of
the Cross.
- Ladies Tresses
- Quaking Grass
- Maidenhair Fern
- Yellow Bedstraw
- Asparagus Fern
(Photos of all above-listed plants, and also of many others,
viewable through links in the" Miniature Flower Photos" listing
- accessible under OVERVIEW on the Mary's Gardens website home
page)
Also, additionally, from the research, but photos not yet posted:
Mary's Tresses
- Maidenhair
- Travelers' Joy
- Dodder
- Dryas
- Fire Weed
- Hemp Nettle
- Barley
- St. Johnswort
- Kennelworth Ivy
- Toadflax
- Rush
- Shield Fern
- Calliandra
- Bulrush
- Shaving Brush
The number of flowers named as symbols of Mary's Tresses or Hair,
and the accompanying legend of her tearing of these from her head
at the foot of the Cross, evidently served - together with the many
flower symbols of her Tears - to fill the desire of the medieval
faithful for outwards signs honoring, and quickening reflection on,
the intensity of Mary's co-redemptive interior motherly sufferings
as the sword of sorrow over Jesus' suffering piercing her soul
Like other religious flower symbols, those of Mary's sorrows were
discovered and named in accordance with the medieval doctrine of
Signatures - that in the unity of the creation of the spiritual and
the material, of heaven and earth, through the eternal Word of God,
mirrors are to be found in nature of the persons, events and
objects of Revelation.
Some flower symbols, such as Mary's Sword (of sorrow), were
recognized and named directly from words of scripture; while
others, such as those of her tears and her torn locks of hair, came
through popular legends derived from scripture and popular
tradition.
Some legends have come down directly from the early days of the
Church, while others were introduced in Europe together with
purported relics brought from the Holy Land by returning crusaders
and pilgrims. As described in Benedicta Ward's "Miracles and the
Medieval Mind" (1982), a number of such relics were taken on tour
on the continent in 1112 and in England in 1113, accompanied by
many miracles. Among these relics were those of Mary's smock,
slippers and tresses; and also objects bearing traces of her
milkdrops, while nursing the infant Jesus, and of her teardrops,
while standing at the foot of the Cross - for all of which, flower
symbols were discovered and named, for continuation of the
reflection introduced by the touring relics.
For most of the life of the Church - before the popular
introduction of printing, literacy and schools in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries - such flower symbols of Mary were widely
available supports for religious instruction, also serving to
quicken Marian reflection, prayer and meditation when they were
encountered daily in the course of the predominantly rural life of
the period.
Today, the spiritual unction of these centuries-old symbolical
flowers continues to quicken our spiritual life as we recognize and
care for them in gardens, and see them in ornamental bouquets and
plantings, and in the countrysides.
As the flower legends were spread throughout medieval Europe
through the centuries by wandering minstrels, poets and players,
and by missionaries and mendicant preachers, different locally
growing flowers were seen and named to recall the same legends in
different places - accounting for the numbers of flowers found in
the research for the same symbolism, such as for Mary's hair.
Significantly, some of this religious flower symbolism was so
widely established that, as gardening books were written, the
symbolic names were adopted as the general common names for the
plants, and have thus come down to us in the present day - names
which also were extended to plants of like forms introduced to
Europe from other continents. Among these were Ladies Tresses,
Ladyslippers (extended to tropical orchids) and Ladies Mantle
("lady" and "ladies" in the names of plants were introduced,
according to the Oxford English Dictionary, as foreshortenings of
the original "Our Lady's"). The Milk Thistle was so widely
recognized as symbol of Mary's milkdrope (from the white markings
on its leaves) that botanists, in their classification of plants,
gave it the scientific name of "Silybum Marianum" (Mary's Thistle).
Legends also tell of Mary's early pondering of her motherly sorrows
to come, prophecied by Simeon. Thus, the legend of "Our Lady's
Little Brushes" - Fuller's Teasel seed heads - tells that as Mary
brushed the hair of the infant Jesus she pondered in her heart that
this hair would one day be bloodied. Similarly, the legend of the
(English) Daisy - "Mother of God's Flower" - tells that when at the
Nazareth home of the Holy Family some blood drops from a cut on the
boy Jesus' hand fell on them, some of the petals of the all white
blooms of this flower turned red, and so continued to bloom - in
viewing which Mary ever pondered in her heart Jesus' prophecied
redemptive sacrifice.
Others of Mary's sorrows, for which we have not as yet found
specific flower symbols, are (*)
Servite Rosary of Our Lady's Seven Sorrows
1 The prophecy of Simeon
* 2 The flight into Egypt.
* 3 The loss of the Child Jesus in the temple.
* 4 The meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross.
5 The Crucifixion.
* 6 The taking down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross.
* 7 The burial of Jesus
Numerous flowers recognized and named as symbols of Christ's
Passion and Cross - some of which have likewise been adopted in
secular namings, such as Crown of Thorns and the Passion Flower -
are grown in Mary Gardens likewise as symbols of Mary's Sorrowful
Mysteries, as meditated on in the Rosary.
Because of Mary's interior motherly participation in Christ's
Passion and Cross, the many flower symbols of these are also seen
to recall her co-redemptive motherly sorrows.
Thus,
The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary
1 Agony in the Garden
- St. Johnswort - Christ's (bloody) Sweat
2 Scourging at the Pillar
- Red Millfoil - Christ's (bloodied) Back
3 Crowning with Thorns
- Crown of Thorns
4 Carrying of the Cross
- Tigridia - Christ's (bloodied) Knee, from his falls
5 Crucifixion
- Wild Geranium slender seed pods - Christ's Nails
- Poppy - Christ's Blood Drops
- Passion Flower - multiple symbolism of Christ's
Passion
See also The Garden Way of the Cross
The Passion Flower is of special interest because there exist
historical records of its discovery growing in Mexico by European
missionaries, and of its introduction into Europe, as set forth in
the website article "The Passion Flower" - accessible through a
link under GARDEN PRAYER & MEDITATION on the website home page.
The Church prohibits reference to or symbolism of "Mary's Cross",
the Cross being uniquely Christ's. However, in the research there
are the tiny cross-shaped flowers of Sweet Alyssum, named "Mary's
Little Cross", as symbol of the interior Cross of Christ borne in
her heart and soul.
In general, Mary was perceived, in accordance with the prophecy of
Simeon, as sharing in Christ's suffering spiritually and
emotionally, through the sword of sorrow piercing her soul, but not
physically. One exception found in the research was the Gaelic
flower naming of "Allus Muire" or "Mary's Sweat" for St. Johnswort,
- elsewhere named "Christ's (bloody) Sweat", from the tiny red dots
on its blooms. A unique medieval symbol of Mary's envisaged direct
sharing in Christ's sufferings.
We are to understand that it is because of the totality of Mary's
participative sorrowful motherly union with Christ's Passion and
Death, that she is Co-redemptrix in his redemption of the world,
as he took upon himself all its sins and their effects, and thus
all human sufferings and sorrows, including her motherly
sorrowings. These sins and their effects assumed by him were
banished into the outer darkness through the death of his body, so
that in the thus cleansed, redeemed, world, the building of the
earthly Peaceable Kingdom could be resumed, with our sanctified
sharing and participation, in grace - in accordance with the divine
will for the culmination of Creation.
Mary's co-redemption is a dimension of her blessed, prerogatived,
fully unitive sharing in the divine action - a sharing which is the
divine Creational purpose and will for us all. In this she shares
in Christ's Redemptive action at the foot of the Cross, as she
shared previously in the procreating and parental action of the
Father through her Divine Motherhood of Christ, and as she was also
to share - through her universal motherly, queenly mediation - in
all the sanctifying, renewing and Kingdomal action of her spouse,
the Holy Spirit.
It is for reason of God's selection and endowment of Mary for
elevation to full, unique union with the divine action - through
her immaculate purity, her utter humility, and her total assent -
that we venerate and love her, imitate her, and pray to her as the
pure personal instrument through whom God is enabled to share all
his action in the world, as our spiritual mother. We are reminded
of St. Francis Xavier's discovery that when, in praying before the
crucifix each evening he envisioned Mary at the foot of the cross,
co-redeeming and mediating grace, the number of graced missionary
conversions through his preaching the next day was increased.
As Christ's redemptive Passion and Cross are continued each day in
all the Masses of the world, so also is Mary's co-redemptive
participation with him in them through the sorrows of her motherly
heart and soul in heaven - on which we reflect through the flowers
of her sword, tears, torn tresses and of other sorrowful symbolism.
In this, as at Calvary, she is the model for our compassion for
Christ's sufferings, as we enter into them redemptively in union
with her sorrows; and as we embrace our own pains and sorrows as
those also of Jesus, as he takes them up upon himself as his own
together with those of all the world, for incorporation in his
continuing redemptive sacrifice.
In her appearance at la Salette, as weeping Madonna, Mary showed us
her continuing sorrows in heaven - indicating that they are both
for Jesus' suffering on the Cross; and for sinning humankind, whose
repentance she implored. To show her sword of sorrow from Christ's
sufferings by more than her tears, she displayed on her garments
representations of the Instruments of Christ's torture: the nails,
hammer and pliers - as we behold the flower symbols of Christ's
nails in the Mary Garden.
Assumed into heaven, in body as well as soul, Mary now has the
heavenly attributes of instant movement and universal presence
which enable her as Mediatrix of all Grace to be personally present
through her action wherever grace is distributed. Yet she also
retains the affective, emotional, feeling, experience of motherly
love, mercy and pity, and also of sorrow - as Christ's mother and
now also ours. Just as Jesus continues the bodily pain and death
of the Cross in the daily re-enactment of the Mass in all the
churches throughout the world, as he takes upon himself each day's
new sins and their effects for banishment into the outer darkness,
that the redemption of the world may be sustained for the continued
building of God's Kingdom in grace - so does Mary continue her
heavenly co-redemptive spiritual communion and action with him
through the sword of sorrow piercing her soul.
Further, in addition to her sharing in God's redeeming action as
pre-rogatived co-Redemptrix, she also shares in it as his Mother,
who like all mothers, wishes to see the culmination of her son's
work - here the work of his redemption of the world and the building
of the Peaceable Kingdom.
In sum, through the flower symbols of Mary's sorrows, not only do
we honor her, but we are also quickened by them to imitate her in
uniting all our sufferings and sorrows co-redemptively with
Christ's, as she does with hers - for the continuing redemption of
the world, that the building of its culminating Peaceable Kingdom
may go forward, in grace.
In addition to turning to Mary for consolation in our sorrows and
pains, we - "making up what is wanting in the sufferings of Christ"
(Paul) - are enabled through her to join in Christ's use of them
for the redemption of world. This was the counsel given by Father
Robert Baffa, Pastor, Pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in
North Bennington, Vermont , in a Mary Garden prayer service for
loved ones lost in the September 11, 2001 terrorist bombing of the
New York City World Trade Center Twin Towers (See website Chat
section).
For daily reflection and meditation on Mary's sorrows, flowers
symbolizing them may be grouped together in Mary Gardens, Rosary
Walks, dish Mary Gardens and virtual Mary Gardens.
And here is another instance of the unique meaningfulness of
flower color symbolism. Just as white and blue colored flowers call
us to the spiritual purification that, like Mary we may ever be
open to filling with grace; and white and gold flowers to the
purification that our prayers to Mary for her heavenly intervention
and mediation may first of all ever be personally "disinterested"
for God's and Mary's intentions for the world and the coming of
God's Kingdom - so do white and red flowers call us to the
purification that our sufferings and sorrows may, like Mary's, ever
be joined with Christ's sufferings in reparation for sins and for
the redemption of the world.
Copyright Mary's Gardens, 2002