Flowers of Our Lady
In Parish Stained Glass Windows


May 13, 2002, The Rev'd P. Brankin
              Pastor, Diocesan Shrine and Parish Church
              of St. Therese, Collinsville, Oklahoma

A simple request

As a gardener, I have always loved flowers and years ago, an aunt
of mine showed me an article in a Marian magazine regarding a
garden of flowers dedicated to Our Lady, which excited in me a
never failing love for the religious associations of flowers and
our Catholic faith.

As a priest, I have put in an extensive series of gardens around
our new church, and am intent on preparing a booklet for our
parishioners on how to understant and see a world of faith hidden
quietly among the snap dragons and irises.

HOWEVER - a more pressing question...

The windows we put in our new church come from Austria, perhaps
1910 and use many such symbols and associations to develop their
theological impact.  For example, the Nativity window has a row of
anemones blooming along the bottom of the lower panel which makes
wonderful sense since in German folklore from every drop of blood
that fell from Our Lord's walk to Calvary an anemone sprouted.
This ties in well too with other symbols of the Passion in the
window, pomegranites, for example, carried in a basket by one of
the shepherds.   The Annunciation window has thornless roses
blooming at the feet of Gabriel, whose wings shine with the
iradescence of a peacock's feather (another symbol of Christ).
Thornless roses - how apt and lovely a description of the
Immaculate Conception!

The window of the Visitation has a similar row of bright tulips
blooming at the feet of Our Lady and St. Elizabeth, but I am
unable to understand this symbolism.   Nothing I find mentions a
religious connection with the tulip and I thought perhaps you
might have some ideas on this.

In any event, I am delighted by your work and hope to hear from
you!


May 5, 2002,  John Stokes, Mary's Gardens

Thank you, Father, for your message of May 13 telling of your
aunt's showing you a Marian magazine article regarding a garden of
flowers dedicated to Our Lady, which excited in you a love for the
religious associations of flowers and our Catholic faith - now
expressed and shared through the planting of an extensive series
of gardens around your new church - and through an interpretive
booklet you are preparing for your parishioners.

We, too, learned of the Flowers of Our Lady from an article in a
Marian magazine - "Lillie Tower" by Rev. James J. Galvin, cssr, in
the September 1946 issue of "Our Lady's Digest", reprinted from an
issue of "Perpetual Help" earlier that year.  And when we undertook
the work of Mary's Gardens of Philadelphia in 1951, we were blessed
with many articles by many authors in the many Marian magazines
which existed in the pre-Vatican II '50's and early 60's
("Mary's Gardens Press Files Listing -1946-1994").

We would appreciate your sending us a copy of your booklet when
completed, to:

          Mary's Gardens
          Box 30290
          Philadelphia, PA 19103

I assume you have seen our website reprinting of "The Garden Way
of the Cross" booklet written by our senior Associate since 1953,
Father Thomas A. Stanley, S.M., for his parishioners and parish
Mary Garden when he was Pastor of St Catherine of Siena Parish in
Portage, MI (link-listed under GARDEN PRAYER & MEDITATION).
Father Tom is now retired and in residence in Hollywood, FL.

The art flower symbols of Our Lady in church stained glass windows
are a most important means for assisting parishioners in learning,
and becoming quickened to Marian reflection and prayer, by the
same flowers in the gardens.

Conversely, the learning the symbolism of the flowers in the Mary
Garden adds meditational depth when viewing the flowers in the
windows.

St. Joseph's Parish church in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, beside
whose Angelus Tower the mother U.S. Mary Garden was planted in
1932, has three stained glass windows with Marian flowers: two
side windows titled, "Rosa Mystica" and "Lily of Israel" (?); and
a large central one over the altar, of angels offering flowers to
Mary in heaven.  However, yours of the Annunciation, Nativity,
Visitation and Passion, with mirroring symbolical flowers in
windows, sound superb!

In an Internet search, I see from the Liturgical Environs,
Representative Projects, Website at:

www.cityofthelord.org/members/liturgicalenvirons/projects.htm#tulsa

"A new church for St. Therese's, Collinsville, Oklahoma (1995- )"

that there are 5 windows.  What is the 5th?  Is there a rose
window?

  

I Admired the website photos of your magnificent new church; the
descriptions of its architectural symbolism; and the building and
plot plan, etc..  Most impressive.  Congratulations!

My parish, St. Patrick's, Philadelphia has eight casement windows
in its lower church - used regularly, except for special feastdays
- all depicting Our Lady's appearances.  For example, the first
window on the left as you enter has a triptic of Lourdes, Knock
and Guadalupe, with the texts: "I am the Immaculate Conception,
(Knock silence and the channeling symbolism of Our Lady's hands),
and "I am the ever Virgin Mary".  At the right front is an indoor
Lourdes grotto, with stones.

Will you send us photos of your stained glass windows for sharing
with others in our website Chat & Photos section  - along with
other photos, descriptions and anecdotal information about the
gardens and their incorporation in parish spiritual life?  (I
assume you have read our various website articles on parish Mary
Gardens and their symbolism (...articles/1999).

With respect to the symbolism of tulips - blooming at the feet of
Our Lady and St. Elizabeth in your The window of the Visitation,
our research has yielded the following (from our website RESEARCH
index):

MARIANA I

Botanical Name    Common Name     Religious Name     Indigenous to

Tulipa clusiana   Lady Tulip      Our Lady's Tulip P Portugal
                                                     to Iran

Tulipa gesneriana Garden Tulip    (The Woman)      P Armenia, Iran
                                                           
Tulipa montana    Mountain Tulip  Rose of Sharon   P Iran, Afgan-
                                                     istan


Spain/Portugal

Tulipa gesneriana Garden Tulip    Tulipa de la Reina
                                  (Queen's Tulip)

These are documented in our 1965 research files.  According to the
Oxford English Dictionary, "Lady" and "ladies" in plants names are
later foreshortenings or corruptions of the older medieval "Our
Lady", and while other tulips are indigenous elsewhere and were
imported into Europe, Lady Tulip is indigenous to Christian
Portugal, where it may have been "Our Lady's Tulip", foreshortened
to Lady Tulip when brought to post-Reformation England.

I am just now - after all these years - getting to a comprehensive
writing out of the French research (see Website Chat listings),
and I'll browse ahead a bit to see if I can find anything further
on the tulip in French, and if so, let you know.

The specific basis of the "The Woman" (of Genesis) symbolism of
the tulip was not given in the reference we found.

Through the years I have come to be quickened to reflection on
Mary's fullness of grace  by the generic upwards-facing cup or
chalice symbolism of flowers, as in the tulip, of Our Lady's
openness to and filling with grace: "He that is mighty has done
great things to me...."

Mary's Visitation Magnificat prophecy to Elizabeth of the building
of the Peaceable Kingdom following the redemption of the world
through the Redeemer to be born of her womb

   "He has shown  might in his arm; he has scattered the proud
   in the conceit of their heart; he has put down the mighty
   from their seatand has exalted the humble; he has filled the
   hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away"

takes on a special pertinency today - telling us that 2,000 years
of world conquest, colonialism and imperialism since the
Redemption had better be superceded, but fast, by the
establishment of world justice - now that the historically
exploited and oppressed have access to technological weapons of
terrorism.  In this it behooves us to intensify our prayers for
the protection of Mary's angelic and providential mantle, and for
her heightened mediation of the graces and promptings for our
building of God's Peaceable Kingdom according to his will.

Through the path of sanctification - "This is the will of God,
your perfection" - we are to live by more than the ordinary parish
spirituality of morality, mercy and reception of the Blessed
Sacrament.  Through continuing ascetic self-examination of our
imperfections, and through the graces of sacramental confession,
penance and absolution, we are to emulate Mary's purified, humble,
assenting openness to filling with sanctifying grace, and to
corresponding attunement to gratuitous actual graces and to the
Holy Spirit - that we may be responsive to His promptings and to
His consolations for spiritual discernment and elections for our
contributions of prayer and work to the coming of God's Kingdom on
earth as it is in heaven.

(A few "off the top" Visitation tulip reflections.)

In an Internet search I did not find a parish website for St.
Therese's.  I suggest you consider setting up one.  Most parish
websites are limited to organization and events, but it is a great
vehicle for sermonettes - and thus for instruction in the
symbolism of Our Lady's Flowers.

Thanks for enriching us (our group of 10 Mary's Gardens
Associates) with all your good works.

Respectfully yours,


                             o O o

Internet description of St. Therese's new Church


From Liturgical Environs, Representative Projects,  Website


www.cityofthelord.org/members/liturgicalenvirons/projects.htm#tulsa

A new church for St. Therese's, Collinsville, Oklahoma (1995- ).


The original parish church of St. Stanislaus, Collinsville, built
in 1908. In 1927, the Ku Klux Klan rounded up the Catholic
population of Collinsville and railroaded them out of town,
telling them "Go north to Bartlesville, south to Tulsa, or go to
hell with the pope!". Several years later this beautiful brick
church was burnt to the ground one night by unknown arsonists.

After the Second World War, Catholic families again settled in the
Collinsville area. While they were no longer threatened by the Ku
Klux Klan, the families were unable to purchase building materials
for their church. Hence, they made their own concrete blocks and
wood joists, and built a tiny and simple little chapel for about
90 people, dedicated appropriately to the Little Flower, St.
Therese of Lisieux.

The parish has now grown to over 250 families, and is working to
build a new church for their home. Fr. Patrick Brankin enlisted
LITURGICAL ENVIRONS to plan and design their new 360-seat church.

  

The building will be situated on their 20-acre site which already
houses the rectory, social hall, playground, and prayer garden.
Given the tight budget constraints for this agrarian community, we
worked together to design a compact, spacious, well articulated,
and efficient building. While the design is rooted in the
traditional forms of Catholic church architecture, it still
addresses local climactic and vernacular issues, and embraces
materials, technologies, and a program suitable for a parish
community growing strongly into the third millennium.

The plan is generated from the octagon, a symbol of the
Resurrection, over which is laid the Cross to recall our
Redemption. The twelve columns that define the nave and sanctuary
speak to the twelve foundations of the Heavenly Jerusalem, and the
Twelve Apostles upon which Christ builds his Church. An ambulatory
which wraps the nave, accommodating both circulation and private
devotional spaces, leads to the Eucharistic Chapel in the apse.
The entrance is through a triumphal arch that contains the
Reconciliation Chapels: reminding us of the need for personal
preparation as we enter the church.

The baptistery takes the ancient octagonal form, and is sunken
three steps to represent Jesusą three days in the tomb. These
forms simultaneously evoke the immanent centrality of early
Christian buildings, and the hierarchical transcendence which
speaks to the Body of Christ. Each element of the building is
articulated in a harmonious integration of form, which allows us
to read the building as a "church".

The section shows the higher central drum over the nave, with the
clearstory windows and the lantern at the high point. The
sanctuary is raised three steps, and the Blessed Sacrament will be
in the apse to the right, surrounded by five antique stained glass
windows depicting scenes from the life of Our Lord and the Blessed
Virgin.

Each element of the building reads as a distinct form: the higher
central nave with the lantern, the apse and side chapels, the
octagonal baptistery, and the entry portal. In this way, the
building begins to take on the analogy of the Body of Christ, the
Heavenly Jerusalem, or the Temple of the Holy Spirit: all
scriptural models that speak of individual parts organized into an
organic whole, and allow us to understand that this building is
indeed a church.

St. Therese's is currently under construction, and is scheduled to
be dedicated on the Feast of the Little Flower, Oct 1, 2000.

                             o O o

May 16, 2002,  John Stokes, Mary's Gardens

(To Vincenzina Krymow)

This is a follow-up of the message I circulated to you and our
colleagues from Father Patrick Brankin, Pastor of St. Therese's
Church in Collinsville, Oklahoma - together with my reply - in the
hope that one of us might come up with a fuller reply to Father's
query about the religious symbolism of tulips, which are
attributively pictured in an old stained glass window
representation of the Visitation he obtained, with others, from
Austria, for his new church.

As I thought about this further, it occurred to me that the tulip
might have been the subject of one of the 31 flower addresses, one
for each day of May, in Father Louis Gemminger's "Mary's Flowers".
I know you list this book in the Bibliography of "Mary's
Flowers...", and I wonder whether you were able to obtain a
personal copy of it that you could check, or whether there is one
in the Marian Library which you or Father Roten could check; and
if there is a chapter on the tulip, send me an e-mail scan of it
that I could forward to Father Brankin.

You will recall that I reproduced on the website one chapter of
the book, May 24th - the Narcissus, under RESEARCH/...German.  It
was in this I found the symbolism of the Narcissus (and
generically of the Daffodil) that the heads "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."

Parenthetically, in a resent message to Lauretta, I wrote:

  "I had a thought today while looking at all the daffodils in
  bloom.  With respect to the symbolism of the inclined bloom
  heads of "Mary looking down from heaven" (Gemminger), I had
  previously considered this in respect to a single bloom; but
  in view of Mary's heavenly instant and simultaneous movement
  (passibility?) everywhere, and of her earthly ubiquitous
  simultaneous presence through her action as Mediatrix of all
  Grace, wherever grace is distributed, I realized that her
  multiple presence and action are symbolized by the extensive
  colonies in which daffodils are customarily planted."


After I wrote Father Brankin, I checked Rolland's "Flore
Populaire", the definitive French flower folk name reference, and
found there was no reference in the 11 volumes to the tulip, or
for that matter to any member of the Liliacae (Lily) plant family.
As John Harvey points out in "Medieval Gardens" (p 21), with the
possible exception of Lilium martagon, the purple Turk's Cap,
lilies, such as the Madonna Lily, were introduced by the Romans.
There is no listing for tulip in his index.  I found no Marian or
other religious naming for the tulip in Marzell's equally
definitive "Deutsches Worterbuch der Pflanzennamen," and don't
recall whether there were any tulip listings at all.

Since the tulip was introduced to Europe in 1593, in Holland,
there were no tulip names in medieval religious name oral
traditions.  However, since in Germany the medieval Catholic oral
traditions were continued, unbroken, and added to, through the
likenesses in introduced plants to the symbolic characteristics of
older plants, into at least the 19th century, Father Gemminger may
have gathered religious tulip lore in his book.  I hope so.

The tulip was widely adopted in "Pennsylvania Dutch" (Deutsch)
tradition - Amish, Mennonite, etc. - and as such was early
impressed on me through its decorative use on Pennsylvania antique
"collectibles" of my parents, such as wedding certificates,
hand-painted ceramic dishware, and a wooden "tulip chest".

It is thus to be expected that there was a similar adoption of the
tulip in Catholic popular Marian symbolism - as in Father's
stained glass window - in addition to the several references I
excerpted for him from the research posted to the website.

And, additionally, let me know of any other Marian tulip symbolism
you may have come across in your research.

Many thanks.


May 22, 2002,  John Stokes, Mary's Gardens

(to Rev'd P. Brankin)

Following up my messages of May 15 and 16,in response to yours of
May 13, I am pleased to report that I have located a copy of
"Mary's Flowers" (1894) - the English translations of Father Louis
Gemminger's 31 addresses on Our Lady's Flowers, one for each day of
May, 1858, in Germany, and indeed find that that his address of May
7th was on the tulip.

In this his address develops the symbolism of the tulip as emblem
of Mary's prayer.

As our approach at Mary's Gardens has been to present the basic
name symbolism of the Flowers of Our Lady from the research; their
historical and doctrinal context; and a few simple examples of
meditations on these - leaving reflection and meditation up to the
intuitive and illuminative discernment of each viewer of the
flowers - I make a few excerpts from Father Gemminger's address
below, and submit the entire address as an attachment to this
message.

Additionally, for the flower symbolism generally of your Visitation
stained glass window I refer you to Gerald Manley Hopkins' poem,
"May Magnificat", (which prophetically anticipated the post Vatican
II replacement of the previous May 31 feast of Mary's Queenship
with the feast of the Visitation) - as referred to in our website
article, "Mary's Month of May


-------------------


The Gemminger excerpts:


                                  o O o

"The Tulip.

"The bright-colored Tulip holds itself erect upon a straight firm
stem surrounded by somewhat oblong leaves. Its calix closes at
night but reopens, as soon as the sun rises. The only thing which
this flower lacks is perfume. Although it does not delight the
sense of smell, yet it rejoices the eye by its beautiful,
variegated dress. In a spiritual sense, the tulip may be compared
to prayer, and is therefore, taken as an emblem of this virtue.

. . .

"THE TULIP REOPENS WHEN THE SUN RISES, whereas it is closed during
the night. Thus, the soul, which loves prayer, opens herself only
to God and heavenly things; esteems only these; perceives only
these; and, with great care, shuts herself up to the night of sin,
and to the world, which would deter her from prayer, or make it
distasteful to her by distractions.

. . .

"THE TULIP EXHIBITS, A GREAT VARIETY OF COLORS, and by this, it
tells us that prayer, although essentially one, has nevertheless
various methods.

. . .

"0 heavenly Tulip, - my most beloved Mother Mary! In your heart
burned the love of prayer, and you practiced this virtue to an
exalted degree in every circumstance of your life! Obtain for us
also the grace, that we may every day comprehend more and more the
majesty of prayer, since there can be no greater honor for man than
to speak to his God. Teach us yourself, 0 Blessed Virgin, bow to
pray,

. . .


        "The Tulip's crown, raised high in air,
        Reminds us of the voice of prayer;
        The humble prayer from earth ascends,
        And God, assistance kindly lends.

        Blessed Mary knew this holy art,
        And from her sinless Virgin heart
        The prayer of faith, of hope, of love,
        Ascended to the Throne above.

        Through life, prayer was her loving task;
        At Cana's feast we hear her ask,
        And tho' it was before His time,
        Her Son changed water into wine.

        While now from Heaven she sees our needs,
        E'er with that Son for us she pleads,
        And prays that we from God ne'er roam,
        That so we reach our destined home.

        In all our trials may we find
        Assistance in this Mother kind;
        And when on earth our lives shall close,
        May we in Heaven find sweet repose."

                             o O o


Full Gemminger chapter on the tulip