Reflecting on the flower names, we can honor Mary and find relevance for our own lives.
Those legends, as well as the Mary names of flowers, can still inform and delight us. In medieval times, legends about flowers and herbs, some of them dating from the first century, were used to instruct the faithful as well as entertain them. 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. May crownings were the tradition in Catholic schools during Mary’s month (May), and makeshift home altars bearing an image of Mary were decorated with the choicest home-grown blossoms. In the last century, prior to the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960’s, the faithful also honored Mary with flowers. Poets and popes praised her in hymns, as in this 15th-century Ave Maria: Heil be thou, Marie, that aff flour of all Marigolds were Mary’s Gold, clematis was the Virgin’s Bower and lavender was Our Lady’s Drying Plant.ĭevoted to Mary, people decorated her altars with flowers on her feast days. They called her “Flower of Flowers, ” and named plants after her. Violets were symbols of her humility, lilies her purity and roses her glory. During the Middle Ages, the faithful saw reminders of Mary, the Mother of God, in the flowers and herbs growing around them.
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