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Intro Mary Garden
FLOWERS OF OUR LADY AND MARY GARDENS
SLIDE LECTURE NARRATION TEXT
SLIDES 1-10 AND TEXT
1.
Prominent among medieval
flower symbols of the Blessed Virgin
Mary were the Rose Windows of the
gothic cathedrals - great gardens of
glass in which a central figure of
the Virgin and Child enthroned in
majesty was surrounded with symbols
of devotion and truth.
In the medieval age of faith, before
the introduction of printing,
catechisms or religious illustrations, these, together with the
sculptured programs of the cathedrals were a primary means for the
instruction of the largely illiterate faithful.
Here, in the famous twelfth century rose window of the north
transept of Chartres Cathedral the surrounding symbols include
fleurs-de-lis of the Annunciation, doves of the Holy Spirit,
adoring angels, the twelve kings of the Line of David (celebrated
in Christian geneology and art as the "Tree of Jesse") and the last
twelve prophets - all in a spiral geometric arrangement similar to
the underlying growth pattern found in roses, sunflowers and
daisies.
The rose window, as a whole, was seen to represent the truth of the
Incarnation as expressed by Dante: "Behold the rose wherein the
Divine Word was made incarnate" - a representation of Isaiah's
prophecy of the Virgin Birth of the Messiah as a miraculously
blossoming rod of Jesse, the origin in revelation of all flower
symbolism of the Blessed Virgin: "And there shall come forth a rod
out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his
root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him."
2.
In sculpture, central images
of the enthroned Mother of God were
similarly surrounded with other
symbols of truth and devotion,
as they are shown here on the
right tympannum of the west facade
of Chartres Cathedral.
Supplementing the symbols of Old
Testament prophecy of the rose
window, this tympanum includes representations of the New Testament
story of the Incarnation (the Joyful Mysteries of the Virgin).
Thus, on the bottom level can be seen: on the left, the Annunciation
and the Visitation; in the center, the Nativity; and on the right,
the Annunciation to the Shepherds.
On the second level is the Presentation in the Temple.
The three arch rims, starting with the inner one, depict adoring
angels, the liberal arts, and the signs of the zodiac - showing
how angels and men and the heavens all proclaim the praises of the
Divine Savior and His Holy Mother.
3.
With the introduction of printing, books
of hours illustrated with miniature
paintings were used for daily meditations.
As in the rose windows and tympana of the
gothic cathedrals, images of the Blessed
Virgin and Child, or of the Blessed Virgin
alone prior to the Nativity, were surrounded
with symbols recalling her life, mysteries,
virtues and divinely endowed prerogatives.
This sixteenth century French book of hours
illustration represents Mary as the
Immaculate Virgin surrounded with biblical
symbols which the Church Fathers discerned to
be prophetic symbols of her immaculate conception.
At the top God pronounces the words from the Cantice of Canticles:
"Thou art all fair my love, and there is no spot in thee."
Surrounding the Blessed Virgin - portrayed here as the Immaculate
Conception, as a young maiden prior to the Incarnation - are her
emblems and the biblical phrases, in medieval Latin, which they
depict:
Bright as the sun . . . fair as the moon . . . gate of heaven . .
star of the sea . . a lily among thorns . . . exalted cedar . . .
rose plant . . . tower of David . . . fair olive tree . . . well
of living waters . . . blossoming rod of Jesse . . . spotless
mirror . . . fountain of gardens . . . garden enclosed . . . and
city of God.
4.
As reflection and meditation on the Blessed
Virgin matured in the lives of the faithful,
further symbols of her discerned virtues and
attributes were found in nature itself.
In keeping with the truth that all things,
spiritual and material, were created through the
Eternal Word of God, through whom all things were
made, it was believed that such discovered nature
symbols were providentially created
correspondences, or "signatures", of spiritual
qualities.
Accordingly, illustrations such as this one of
the Annunciation, from another French sixteenth
century book of hours, employed realistic paintings of discerned
flower symbols of Our Lady to signify her attributes and virtues
for reflection and meditation.
Among the flowers shown here are: the white lily, emblem of her
purity and holiness . . . the red rose, emblem of the Incarnation
and of her burning love of God . . . the myrtle, emblem of her
virginity . . . the violet, emblem of her humility . . . the
columbine, emblem of her overshadowing, indwelling and espousal by
the Holy Spirit . . and the strawberry, emblem of her fruitful
virginity.
The representation for meditation of Mary's virtues and endowed
prerogatives by their signature flowers imparts to the faithful an
affective and illuminative sense of their infused supernatural
reality, and of their sowing, planting, or engrafting in the heart
and soul - per the Parable of the Sower - to be nurtured through
spiritual acts in grace, that they may grow to maturity and
fruition like flowers in a garden.
5.
As a further development of
religious nature symbolism in art,
the Blessed Virgin was represented
in "Mary Gardens" surrounded by
some of her symbolical flowers.
This renowned Mary Garden
illustration is by an unknown
artist of the 15th century at the
Art Gallery, in Frankfort.
Mary is seated in an enclosed
garden surrounded by a castellated
wall. Her crown is of leafy sprigs. Nearby the child, Jesus, is
being taught to play a musical instrument.
Behind Our Lady, irises, hollyhocks, marigolds and other flowers of
Our Lady are growing in a raised bed. In the foreground are
daisies, lilies-of-the-valley, violets, cowslips, strawberries and
other symbolical flowers. A rose tree, cherries and apples are also
featured.
(Illustration courtesy the Massachusetts Horticultural Society)
While these flowers, like those in the books of hours, have all been
found by researchers to have been known by names indicative their
Marian religious symbolism, there are so many in this painting, and
they are so small, that it is more of a tribute to Our Lady, and
thus a historical documentation, than a support for meditation
comparable to the books of hours with their larger depictions of
individual flowers.
The fullest spiritual impact of the flower symbols of the Blessed
Virgin is experienced through their actual beholding and collection
in nature and by their cultivation in actual gardens for devotion,
meditation and prayer.
This was our experience in undertaking the work of Mary's Gardens of
Philadelphia, in which while we were highly motivated upon learning
of the Flowers of Our Lady and seeing their illustrations and
photographs, we were utterly in awe when we we first saw the actual
symbolical flowers themselves in the beauty, purity and clarity of
their growth.
We found also that in Mary Gardens the meditative quality of even a
large number of the Flowers of Our Lady could be maintained -
through the overall design of the garden, the proportions of the
beds and the size and spacing of the flower clumps - since one
reflects on the flower varieties sequentially as one walks through
the garden, as one does in praying the mysteries of the Rosary.
6.
Due to the almost total lack
of records of flowers, other than
roses and lilies, grown in medieval
monastery gardens, the extent to which
such gardens actully included or were
planned around the Flowers of Our Lady
is matter of conjecture.
We do know, however, that the
preserved accounting records for
Norwich Priory in England list plant purchases for a pre-Reformation
"S. Mary's Garden". And in her book, Green Enchantment, Rosetta
Clarkson envisages the plantings of such a Mary Garden at Melrose
Abbey in Scotland as distinct from the sacristan's garden, with "as
many white flowers as possible, for purity and holiness . . . lilies
. . . white and red roses . . . costmary . . . spearmint . . .
snowdrops . . . marygolds . . . daisies . . . violets . . .
cross-shaped flowers and many 'Mary plants'."
This is the garden of the Bonnefont Cloister at The Cloisters of
the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Ft. Tryon Park in New York City.
originally planted with over 100 flowers cultivated, or collected
from the wild, in medieval Europe - most of them known and named in
one area or another in the popular religious traditions of the
countrysides as Flowers of Our Lady. Walking through this garden in
the 1950's beholding the symbolic flowers in the setting of the
actual cloister, brought from Europe, assisted us in experiencing
what a medieval Mary Garden was like.
The names and symbolism of the Mary-flowers were evidently spread
out from such monastery gardens, especially those on pilgrimage
routes, into the surrounding countrysides, where they were adopted
into local usage. In his book, The Englishman's Flora, Geoffrey
Grigson lists the exact counties of the U.K. in which several
hundred Mary-names of flowers were once current.
7.
Since there are so few actual lists of
the plants grown in medieval monastery
gardens, we know of the old religious plant
names and symbolism almost entirely through
the recording centuries later by botanists
and folklorists of those still found in the
oral traditions of the surrounding
countrysides.
So far we have found records of some thousand
such symbolically named plants in England,
Ireland, France, Germany, Spain and Latin
America - some common to a number of these
countries; others unique to one only.
This is the title page of "The Mary Calendar" by Judith Smith
listing, by the sequence of their blooms through the year, some
hundred such flowers from the English countrysides, together with
old legends and lore associated with their names.
8.
From Flowers of Our Lady
cultivated for their symbolism
in present-day English
monastery gardens, and from
"The Mary Calendar", Frances
Crane Lillie selected some
40 for planting in 1932 in a
"Garden of Our Lady" at St.
Joseph's Church in Woods Hole,
Massachusetts.
This is a 1937 photo of the garden taken by landscape architect,
Dorothea K. Harrison, after five years of work on the garden design
and planting with Mrs. Lillie.
In this garden Mary's praises are proclaimed and meditated upon
through her symbolical flowers grown in all the freshness of their
living purity and beauty - surrounding her image in the tradition of
the multiple imagery of the medieval rose windows, tympanna, books
of hours and Mary Garden paintings. Their care is undertaken as
a prayerful work offered to Mary and her Divine Son for spiritual
intentions.
9.
Inspired by the Woods Hole
Garden of Our Lady, Mary's Gardens
was founded in Philadelphia in
1951, with the blessing of Mrs.
Lillie, for the purpose of further
researching the Flowers of Our
Lady and spreading the custom of
planting them in Mary Gardens as a
prayerful, religious work in the
modern world.
In medieval times the popular religious traditions of the Flowers of
Our Lady were circulated through the countrysides by itinerate
preachers, mendicant friars, wandering minstrels, roving players,
pilgrims, merchants, missionaries and other travelers.
The old religious names were then recorded in writing by research
botanists and folklorists, from the various countries and regions -
serving to preserve them and bring them down to the present day.
In our modern Information Age the tradition of the flowers,
drawing on those from all the countries, is being circulated again:
through the print media, and now electronically throughout the
entire Global Village via the Internet World Wide Web.
Learned of through the Net, the Flowers of Our Lady are cultivated
in home Mary Gardens, from which individuals - when they have become
experienced with their care and been enriched by reflection and
meditation on their symbolism - then go forth to plant them at
parishes, schools, institutions, burial plots, shrines, and other
locations.
In medieval times the generic tradition of the Flowers of Our Lady
was adapted by circulating itinerate preachers, mendicant friars,
etc. to the plants growing in the wild in each given area. Now,
from the global lists available on the Internet, selections of
flowers of desired symbolism are procured from retail and mail order
commercial seed and plant sources and planted in Mary Gardens.
10.
Of the flowers of the Mary Garden
the rose, queen of flowers, is an ancient
and universal symbol of the Incarnation, of
Mary, of her love of God, and of her
spiritual beauty and fragrance, pleasing
to God.
This is a wild rose typical of those known
to the Christians of the Middle Ages and
called by them, Mary's Rose. It is also
the rose adopted as the model for the
central rose windows of the medieval
cathedrals.
Pope Plus XII has said, "The liturgical
development of the symbol of the rose in the cult of Mary has
nothing which should astonish us, for man has instinctively
chosen the most beautiful of flowers to offer to the most beautiful
of creatures."
"The Virgin herself was then compared to a rose . . . and now
Christians invoke her twice in the litany of Loreto under the title
of the queen of flowers: 'Mystical Rose,' and 'Queen of the Most
Holy Rosary.'
"While cultivating the rose one is naturally borne to honor the
Creator and to elevate one's soul toward her who bears the beautiful
title of Mystical Rose, the honor and joy of the human family."
Finally., an entire garden of roses was used to symbolize the
fullness of Our Lady's virtues and glories, and as Pope Pius XII
has said, further, "The rosary represents primarily a garden of
roses offered to Mary, an adornment of her image, a symbol of her
graces".
For prayer everywhere, as well as in the garden, the symbolism of
the rose and the garden of roses has been embodied in the string of
rosary beads, which serves as an aid for meditating on fifteen of
Our Lady's mysteries.
(Slides 11-20)