During the apostolic age of the early Christian church, ca. 33–100 CE, several legends developed around Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, connecting her with several varieties of flowers and herbs. Most of the legends are connected to passages in the New Testament and in apocryphal accounts, noncanonical biblical texts, associated with her. These legends were brought from Europe to the United States by English and French immigrants in the nineteenth century, and they proliferated during the 1930s after the first of the five major public Mary Gardens in the United States was founded at St. Joseph Church in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Thus, her legends are also told in the United States.
The earliest legend of Mary’s flowers recounts how at her Assumption into heaven, blooming roses and lilies sprung up miraculously around her tomb. Thus, roses are one of Mary’s most prominent symbols. The numerous varieties of roses have led to the association of each color with a different Marian virtue: yellow roses symbolize her glories, red roses her sorrows, and white roses her joys. Later in the medieval period, in the fifth to fifteenth centuries, rose gardens were often referred to as “rosaries,” a term later associated with the practice of ritual devotional prayers in honor of Mary.
Similar legends exist for other flowers and herbs in connection with other events in Mary’s life. For example, three months after the Annunciation, Mary visited her sister Elizabeth. Along the way, according to legend, columbines, also called “Our Lady’s Shoes” by many Christians, arose wherever Mary’s foot touched the earth.
The appearances of some flowers and herbs provided the inspiration for their association with Mary. The Star of Bethlehem, for example, is also called “Mary’s Tears” because the fallen white petals resemble tears, as when Mary wept while holding up the baby Jesus for the Magi in Bethlehem. Forget-me-nots are another example of Marian flowers that resemble her physical attributes. Legend has it that Jesus sprang these flowers from the ground so that future generations could behold Mary’s marvelous blue eyes. Thus, Christian tradition names these flowers “Eyes of Mary.” Other examples include fuchsia, also called “Our Lady’s Eardrop,” and strawberry geranium, also known as “Mary’s Hair.”
The Star of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
As is true of other European religious-based folk traditions such as “Mary’s Flowers,” Americans imported and transformed Christmas stories and symbols, recasting them to reflect their new context. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was so named by its Moravian founders both because of its establishment on Christmas Eve in 1741 and because their new home represented a rebirth of their faith in a new land of religious freedom. Since the fifteenth century the Moravians have denied religious authority not overtly founded upon the teachings of the Gospel and the living example of Christ, and thus suffered religious persecution from their earliest days. Now known both as “The Christmas City” and because of the major steelworks which once reigned supreme there, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is today overlooked by a giant star framed in native steel, which celebrates the Christmas traditions, Moravian heritage, and the industrial history of the region.
C. Fee
Beyond the legends, the Christians developed meditations for each flower and herb type. Thus, contemporary Mary Gardens serve as tranquil places for contemplative walks and spiritual encounters. Five major Mary Gardens exist in the United States: Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Annapolis, Maryland; Dayton, Ohio; Portage, Michigan; and Cincinnati, Ohio. One can also build one’s own Mary Garden, as did many individual Roman Catholics throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Paul A. Brazinski
See also Legends; Saints’ Legends
Further Reading
Krymow, Vincenzina, and Sister M. Jean Frisk. 2002. Healing Plants of the Bible: History, Lore and Meditations. Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press.
Krymow, Vincenzina. 1999. Mary’s Flowers: Gardens, Legends & Meditations. Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press.
Stokes, John S. 1995. “Mary Gardens Historical Perspective.” EWTN. http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/HISTPERS.htm. Accessed September 14, 2015.