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Intro Mary Garden
Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens
in Germany
.
- Introduction
- Flowers of Our Lady from the Countrysides
- Gathering Flowers of Our Lady for Liturgical Feastdays
- Flower Sermons for Each Day of Mary's Month of May
- 55 Flowers of Our Lady from Grimm's and Grieb's Deutsches
Worterbuchs (1955)
- 500 Flowers of Our Lady (with 1200 names) from Heinrich
Marzell's Deutsches Worterbuch der Pflanzennamen, Leipzig,
1927 - 1979 (1965)
- German Mary's Gardens Associate
o O o
Introduction
In Bavaria and southern Germany flowers named for Our Lady, the
Virgin Mother of God, are so much a part of common plant
nomenclature that there - in the tradition of the gentle mysticism
of Blessed Henry Suso - they are recognized as such in garden
plantings generally; and Flowers of Our Lady planted around statues
and shrines of Our Lady are not considered as special "Mary
Gardens".
This has come about through the continuation in written culture
of the medieval popular oral culture of the German countrysides, in
which flowers received their symbolical Mary-names, at the time
of the introduction of printing and gardening books - in contrast to
the suppression of Marian devotion and cultural traditions in the
English Reformation, at the time the first English gardening books
were published.
Marian flower symbolism was so familiar in Germany that those
who wrote of it composed their own symbolical mosaics drawing on
general tradition as, for example, in Fr. Louis Gemminger's
Flowers of Mary - 31 flower sermons, one for each day of May,
delivered at Ingolstadt in 1858 (English translation, 1984).
For those of English linguistic and gardening tradition, the
addition to Mary Gardens of German Flowers of Our Lady (with English
translation of their symbolical names) offers an enrichment of both
plant materials and symbolism - as with the some 50 plants
included in our garden plant lists in 1954, drawing on Grimm's
Deutsches Worterbuch and Grieb's Dictionary of the German and
English Language.
In the early 1960's, with the publication of the index
volumes of Heinrich Marzell's monumental work, Der Deutsches
Worterbuch der Pflanzennamen, Leipzig, 1927 - 1979, a much larger
number of German Flowers of Our Lady became known to us. Added
here to our web site is an extensive listing from our 1965 Marzell
research card files - some 500 plant species, with an aggregate of
1,200 religious namings (the same names being applied to a number of
plants, and a number of plants having multiple religious
namings - in various locales).
As a folklorist, who also published several books on German
flower folklore, Marzell includes in his Worterbuch a number of
flower legends and other lore of the Flowers of Our Lady,
interpretive of the Marian names. For example richness is provided
for the symbolical naming of giant mullein, Verbascum thapsus, as
"Our Lady's Candle" by the couplet (in translation):
"The Virgin Mary flies all over the land
with heaven's fire in her hand."
Such verses and the Marian flower legends give us a sense of
the rich cultural milieu of the Flowers of Our Lady, in which
they served to convey religious teaching and devotion from
generation to generation, before the introduction of printed
catechisms and other religious texts - in the days when the fabric
of faith was enriched and transmitted by trubadours, wandering
minstrels, itinerant preachers, traveling players, mendicant monks,
pilgrims and crusaders.
Today the Flowers of Our Lady provide a means to regenerating
this richness, from many countries, in our gardens.
o O o
- Flowers of Our Lady from the Countrysides
"Mary-Flowers bloom in the greatest abundance throughout the
countryside: and as varied as they are in form and colour, in
character and attributes, so diverse are the origins and
associations of their names.
"To begin with, purity, whiteness, delicacy and fragrance
belong to the Mother of God, whose praises they proclaim according
to the words of the old song (Gottfried von Strassburg's 'Song of
Praise to Mary'): 'Grass, flowers and clover join in her praises .
. . laughing roses and playing blossoms . blooming hedges . . .
rose blossoms and lily petals . . . valleys of roses and fields of
violets . . . flowers shining through blooming clover . . . all
praising the Noble Plant of Fruitful Purity.'
"Additionally, healing plants which were especially loved and
esteemed were honored with the name of Mary, in whose lap the true
healing of the world lay. Accordingly...the days between the
'Lady Days' (The Assumption of Mary and the Nativity of Mary) were
valued as the best time to gather roots and useful plants, and
because of this, the first of these days was called Root-Blessing.
"Further, according to long-established folk outlook, the
flower kingdom was given over to the household articles and the
apparel of the Mother of the Child Jesus. In order that in the
loving eyes of children looking backwards in time to where Jesus
was born in the flesh, nothing associated with the Mother of the
Heavenly Child, no matter how insignificant, would fail to excel
all others on earth, or would appear too insignificant for the
Mother of the Heavenly Child not to have the best before all
others, it was seen as fitting that she be thus served by the
direct creations of God.
"Legendary stories often provide the explanation for these
and other names: and if legends, and also the outlook, generated
by a childlike sense, which we no longer find much room for - or
which, rather, are like flower petals blown away from the stems -
if the sweet fruit of evangelical truth begins to ripen on these
stems, then the blown away petals still have at least as much
right as each bloom and each children's game to bring us joy. Many
of the names are explained by legends and associations to which,
alas, the key is missing. Is it indeed possible to find it
again?"
(Johanne Nathusius, The World of Flowers - According to their
Names, Sense and Meaning, 1869. translated.)
o O o
- Gathering of Flowers of Our Lady for Liturgical Feastdays:
"There exists the custom, on the Feast of Mary's Assumption into
Heaven . . . to bless plants . . . which, like other blessed
objects, are brought home by the faithful for religious use. These
plants may be...those which were regarded by the people as healing
plants, and those...grown in the fields. Through the blessings
bestowed upon them . . . their healing power is enhanced, and
their growth commended to God's protection."
"Their gathering is relegated to the schoolchildren and thereby
gives occasion to a botanical excursion, which has great appeal
for them. The plant names by which the children identify them are
to an extent quite original and reveal, so to speak, the
propensity of folk culture - Our Lady's Bedstraw, Our Lord's
Little Fingers . . . "
(Einer Priester der Diocese Paderborn, Krautweighlegenden,
Paderborn, 1891 - translated)
o O o
- Flower Celebrations for Each Day of Mary's Month of May
FLOWERS OF MARY
Addresses
In honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Delivered at Ingolstadt, May 1858
by
LOUIS GEMMINGER
Then Pastor of St. Peter's Church, Munich
Translated from the Fourth German Edition
by
A BENEDICTINE SISTER
With the approval of the Bishop
Baltimore
JOHN MURPHY & CO.
1894
(Excerpt)
Twenty-Fourth Day
THE NARCISSUS
"Next to the adoration we owe to God, the Supreme Being and
Lord of all things, we owe to Mary the most tender love, the
greatest devotion, the strongest attachment and the most devoted
service. This veneration of Mary began at her tomb, which was
devoutly visited by the first Christians, and has continued from
generation to the present time, and will continue till the end of
the world. As Mary herself proclaimed: "Behold from henceforth
all generations shall call me blessed!"
"Faith teaches us that Mary is the Mother of God; and reason
tells us that after God, the greatest reverence is due her. She
is the holiest of God's creatures. The service of Mary is
honorable because it elevates us to venerate the most exalted of
creatures, and through this veneration to adore the Omnipotent
Creator. God has exalted her to be Queen of Heaven, therefore the
heavenly hosts serve her, because she is the Mother of their King.
He has exalted her as Queen of earth, therefore all good men are
to serve her, for the Lord himself commended her to them in the
person of St. John from the Cross with the words, "Behold thy
Mother."
"St. Francis de Sales calls veneration of Mary, "the
spring-time of Holy Church, who always sends forth new blossoms,
keeps all hearts alive and active in their love towards God, and
through its sweet perfume inspires all Christians with the most
exalted virtue." This veneration does not consist merely in the
imitation of her virtues, but in a very special teaching, Holy
Church, directed by the Holy Spirit, declares in the Council of
Trent that it is permitted to venerate the Mother of God and to
invoke her powerful intercession with him.
"The emblem of this devotion to Mary is the Narcissus, a
spring flower, whose form points to her who should be the object
of our love and veneration. Its upright stalk tending towards
heaven speaks to us of the Queen of Heaven; its calix somewhat
inclined towards the earth reminds us of the Mother of God looking
down from Heaven full of love and pity upon her devoted children;
its snow-white petals signify the purity of the Immaculate Heart
of Mary; the yellow and red circle in the center symbolizes the
golden crown of glory with which the most Holy Trinity has crowned
Mary in Heaven and with which the whole Catholic Church has
crowned her upon earth; its sweet scent indicates the love and
tender charity of her whom we salute as the Refuge of sinners.
"When winter with its icy blast
And frost and snow is fully past,
Narcissus with its pearly sheen
In stately beauty soon is seen;
It, springing from the wakening earth,
Sheds beauty where before was dearth.
"Just so when souls break free from sin,
And pure and contrite lives begin;
The Virgin mild looks down with love,
Upon her children from above,
Forgets that rebels they have been.
She loves the sinner, hates the sin.
"The consolation of its delightful blooming in springtime
proclaims that time when devotion to Mary is discovered, when a
spring of ardent love for God is awakened, and the flowers of all
virtues bloom. The Narcissus is a spring flower, and in the heart
that truly loves Mary, a new spiritual spring is awakened. The
pure vernal air of Divine love will gently blow in the sanctified
soul and everything will bloom in the fresh green of filial
confidence in Mary.
"The Narcissus raises itself high above the ground, ever
tending heavenwards, thus signifying that devotion to Mary is
sublime. The Narcissus is white like the Immaculate Heart of the
most pure Virgin, who loves nothing so much as purity. At its
center is a crown of gold, which is a symbol of the reward
acquired by those who truly serve the blessed Virgin Mary.
"O Heavenly Narcissus, most blessed Virgin Mary,
obtain for us the grace that in our hearts may ever glow
a pure and sincere love for you. May our devotion and
veneration for you ever remain fresh and active, like
nature in springtime, until that moment when we, through
your love, enter into the eternal Spring in Heaven! Amen."