Mary's Gardens Developmental Correspondence
Bonnie Roberson Correspondence
1980
This "book length" correspondence, and similarly extensive
correspondence (in long process of posting to Website) with Jane
McLaughlin of Woods Hole; Bro. Seán MacNamara of Ireland;
and Nanette Sears of Annapolis, represent Mary's "in
house" developmental activity from 1980 (following that of
Bonnie, who had carried it forward from 1968 until then) through
1965, when the Internet website and general e-mail correspondence
were initiated.)
Because of the book length and unediting of the letters, a listing
of letter contents has been prepared .
John Stokes January, 2005
LETTER TOPICS
May 10, 1980 - Rejoining
Bonnie in Work of Mary' Gardens. Gardens at hand.
May 20, 1980 -
Re-establishing Communications and Reearch Continuity
May 22, 1980 -
Re-conversion to faith in Mary and appreciation of her flowers
May 29, 1980 - Challenge
to us of lack of general knowledge of Mary's Gardens
June 16, 1980 - Further
Reearch Details - Widowsill & Turnpike Mary Gardens
June 23, 1980 - Further
Reearch Details - Vegetable Garden Planting
June 24, 1980 - Mass
Pike Mary Garden - Spiritual Basis of Flower Symbols
June 28, 1980 - 80
Flowers of our Lady in Neighborhood Gardens - Resources
June 29, 1980 - Research
Files Set-up, Listings
June 30, 1980 - Lbrary
of 4,000 color slide photos - Present Status of Our Work
July 4, 1980 - Boston
Public Library - More on Research
July 8, 1980 - Idaho
State Flower - Research - Neighborhood Blooms
July 11, 1980 - Visit to
Garden of Our Lady in Woods Hole - Notice in Tower Room
September 16, 1980 -
Mary's Flowers seen in England and France
September 26, 1980 -
Grant for a Solar Greenhouse - Harvard Library Research
October 2, 1980 -
Harvard Research cont'd - Germany - Italy - Holland
October 3, 1980 -
Uniqueness of English Flowers of Our Lady Symbolism
October 4, 1980 -
General Thoughts on Flowers of Our Lady Symbolism
October 9, 1980 - Very
Few Flowers of Our Lady Previously Named for Venus
October 14, 1980 - Souls
in Purgatory - Symbolism of Fall Reds and Purples
October 18, 1980 -
Marian vs Pagan Flower Names - Sacramental Blessing of Flowers
October 24, 1980 - More
on Marian Flower Names & Sacramental Blessings
October 25, 1980 - Solar
Greenhouse Grant Approval - Flowers in Fires of St. John
October 28, 1980 - Solar
Greeenhouse start - Fires of St. John - Easter Candle
October 30, 1980 -
French Blessing of Plants & Flowers - Assumption Blessings
November 1, 1980 -
Blessings for Kingdom - Flowing of Souls Out Into the World
November 2, 1980 -
Flowing of our Souls into Blessed Flowers, that they Pray for us
November 8, 1980 -
Mary's Gardens Materials - Seeking Holiness through Blest Flowers
November 9, 1980 - Solar
Greehouse Frustrations - Mary Garden Spirituality
November 11, 1980 -
Research on Plant Blessings - Holy Water Sprinkling Plants
November 13, 1980 -
Research Books - Needlework Flower Symbols - Greenhouse Status
November 15, 1980 -
Further Research - Flowers in Religion - Mary in Sacred History
November 17, 1980 -
Blessing of Carnations - Feast, Birth of St. John the Baptist
November 19, 1980 - More
Solar Greehouse Frustrations - Research Appreciated
November 20, 1980 -
Flowers of Mary's Sorrows
November 22, 1980 - More
on St. John'a Eve - Symbolism in Peasant Designs
November 23, 1980 -
Logee's Greenhouses - Mass in Hagerman Twice a Month Now
November 23B, 1980 - "A
Sense for These Things" - The Very Essence of Mary's Gardens
November 24, 1980 -
Dealing with Worldly Frustrations Through Flower Devotion
November 26, 1980 -
Reflections on Flower Symbols - Cyclamen, Baby's Breath, Marigolds
November 30, 1980 -
Advent - Descent from Heavenly Splender to Simplicity of Manger
December 2, 1980 -
Spiritual Flowers in our Hearts, Minds and Souls
December 4, 1980 -
Insights and Research Rest - Marian Library
December 8, 1980 -
Further Solar Greenhouse Frustrating Delays
December 12, 1980 -
Relations with Logee's Greenhouses Re-establshed
December 12, 1980 -
Logee's Visit - Plants - Sword of Sorrow - Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 16, 1980 -
Appreciation of Sharing
December 17, 1980 -
Boston's Back Bay Section - Christmas Tree Symbolism
December 18, 1980
- Foliage Symbolim - Sage - Rosemary - Lavender - Thyme
December 19, 1980
- O Antiphon of the Gardening Monk - The Other O Antiphons
December 22, 1980
- Providence in Little Things - Energy Symbolism of Solar Greenhouse
December 25, 1980
- Dealing Spiritually with Continued Solar Greenhouse Frustrations
December 28, 1980
- The Soul's Coming Forth from Heavenly Rest in God
THE LETTERS
+
Boston, MA
May 10,1980
Dear Bonnie,
Since writing you several days ago letting you know I'm finally
free to rejoin you in the work of Mary's Gardens, I've spent most
of my time reviewing my Mary Gardens writings - the published
articles, some unpublished (and unfinished ones) and the typed
transcriptions made of my 1965 and 1966 taped letters to you.
Now that I have worked out a number of things, in my thinking and
in life, so that I have completed the circle, so to speak, and feel
able to pick up my Mary's Gardens thinking and writing where I left
off 14 years ago, or it's really 12 years from the 1968
Philadelphia Flower Show leaflet, which was the last thing I wrote
- several months before I visited you and Ernie.
As far as my own thinking is concerned, I now feel ready, willing,
able and highly desirous of bringing the Mary's Garden idea and
movement forward with you into the '80s, and now I expect to give
more of my retirement time to Mary's Gardens.
You recall that Ed and I conceived the idea of starting Mary's
Gardens in 1950 at St. Joseph's College Institute of Industrial
Relations in Philadelphia - where Ed was teaching and I was taking
some night courses - and that Mary's Gardens was seen as a way of
getting back to the fundamentals of life and religion, as our
approach for dealing with the pressing religious, social,
political, economic and personal problems of our times.
With recent and current national and world events, I feel that such
a return to fundamentals is even more needed and important, and
again I come back to Mary's Gardens as my way of doing this.
I guess my 5 years of ecumenical and social work as Executive
Director of the Wellspring Ecumenical Center; my 2 years as
Co-producer of the Input CBS dialog TV program; and my studies, in
addition to continuing business involvement, have all represented
tries at some other approaches, which I felt I should undertake
during the last 15 years - but now the focus has come back to
Mary's Gardens, which I now see with fresh eyes, in awe and wonder.
From this viewpoint I have the deepest appreciation of your
carrying forward the work and writing of Mary's Gardens during this
period - as well as, of course, your indispensable and beautiful
contributions prior to this time - to which I tried to do justice
in "A Garden Full of Ave's".
I know this is your life's work, as it is again mine, and that you
want to continue carrying forward all that you can. However, in
addition to picking up my own writing and research again, I am
finally prepared to take on any practical task you might now or at
some future time want me to help you with.
During the past few days I went through the very few photographs I
have taken relating to Mary's Gardens during the past 3 years, of
which I am sending you copies, enclosed. They are labeled, but I
do have some comments:
(1) The first is of an herb garden a tenant designed and planted
with my suggestions and approval.
(2) No one carried on with the OMC Parish School Mary Garden in
Philadelphia after I left the area in 1972, and what you see is
simply the boxwood, a substituted statue and a few flowers. The
rest has been reverted to grass. But the garden, though reduced,
is still there, devotionally, after 15 years.
(3) Trinity Episcopal Church is at Copley Square in Boston. It has
a lovely St. Francis Garden site and statue, but not much more than
ivy and shrubs for a planting. It gets very little sun. As you
can see, it is dramatically situated next to the Hancock Tower,
which is one of Boston's landmarks.
What I have designated as the "Marlboro St. Mary Garden" is the
only garden I have found in our neighborhood - about 2 blocks away
- with a statue, or in this case, a tiny bust figurine, of Our Lady
in it. The few plant materials; however, are quite appropriate for
a "humble" Mary Garden:
Vinca - Virgin's Flower,
Andromeda - Lily of the Valley Bush
Ivy - "Where God has walked"
Tulip - Mary's openness and fullness of Grace
Crab Apple - The New Eve
I find myself much quickened to meditation in these two gardens,
and consider their existence here most providential, as I do the
Jesuit Chapel of St. Francis Xavier in the next block, where I can
attend daily Mass.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
May 20,1980
Dear Bonnie,
Thank you for your telephone call today. It gave me a lift to hear
your voice so serene, calm and peaceful in the midst of your
increased calls on your time, strength and spirit.
I am glad you are getting your own oxygen equipment for Ernie. As
I'm sure you well know, people with weak hearts who take care of
themselves usually outlive those who merrily go along in supposed
good health, and then get one sudden fatal attack. So thank God
for the blessing of warnings. I'll give Ernie a more special place
in my prayers. I'm sure his gardening work is very therapeutic, as
are all the garden vegetables.
I will reactivate the Hortus 2 search project.
I can appreciate your feelings, parting with your herbal library.
I had probably somewhat similar feelings when I gave my 20 year
collection of Catholic Magazines to St. Charles Seminary in
Philadelphia back in 1974. I sense, however, that we both have our
home base in heaven and eternity, and that we really know that what
we do here builds for life everlasting - so that disposing of our
earthly work and possessions is simply one phase of our total
existence.
My own sentiments are that is a sort of miracle that I,
periodically, am still "around" at this earthly plane,
notwithstanding my human sins and mistakes - a miracle of God's
mercy - and more than this, that I am now able to pick up again,
with joy and eagerness, the work of Mary Gardens; no doubt in large
part due to your prayers.
In this respect, I very much appreciate your words about your and
Ernie's parental feelings about me, mindful that I'm only a few
years older than your son, born in 1929. I very much felt Ed to be
a second father to me - I met him about a year after my father died
in 1947, and I feel about you as though you are a sort of oldest
sister and senior member of the family, which position Ernie shares
with you through marriage.
So, I think I do know how you feel, and the feeling is mutual.
I'm very conscious of Ed's presence in heaven, and from time to
time, I sense receiving certain inspiration from him. Also, his
philosophy and insights into life are very much alive in my memory,
notes and tapes; and represent much of the best wisdom which I have
been fortunate in having come my way.
Also, again, I believe I sent you copies of tapes made at the 1968
Philadelphia Flower Show, but not copies of the publicity. If so
let me know and I'll send you the publicity. Things kind of fell
apart in 1968 shortly after my visit with you and Ernie.
With respect to your mention of the Marian library in Dayton, and
Bro. Seán MacNamara in Ireland, I have a renewed sense of our
responsibility for doing everything we can to provide means for the
carrying on of the work of Mary's Gardens - both at "permanently"
established gardens, and at shrines and libraries.
I hope and pray we will both have the opportunity to complete our
research and books.- in addition to our articles - but at some
point, I would appreciate your reviewing for me libraries and
gardens and shrines that you think important for future years.
As I wrote on May 10 (I do keep Xerox copies of my longhand
letters), I feel that I am now ripened enough in life and thought
to write more profoundly and compellingly about the importance and
beauty of the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens - not to detract
from or revise in any way what I have written before (which seems
so precious, I find it hard sometimes to believe I really wrote it)
but rather to add further "chapters".
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
May 22,1980
Dear Bonnie,
As I mentioned to your over the phone when you called Tuesday, I
have been immersing myself in 30 years of Mary's Gardens (and more
than that, considering the Emerson research) through the few files
and the set of articles reprints I have here with me currently in
Boston.
The key continuity for me is our written correspondence from
December 1965 to the present including note transcripts of all of
your tapes, and a number of mine - specially complete transcripts
of mine from 1965 and 1966, and also my diary, log and notes from
November 1961 to the present.
This review, and re-living, is enabling me to get back a sense of
the growth and flavor of Mary's Gardens - and also to understand
and benefit from the diversion of my ecumenical, TV and consulting
work from August, 1968, as it circled around to lead me to a new
spiritual beginning of October - November, 1978.
Mindful that God can bring all things together for good, I firmly
believe that this diversion will bear much fruit for Mary's
Gardens, of which I'm getting a fresh look, for "the second time
around."
The main thing is that in plumbing ecumenism and secular humanism
to the depths, embracing the belief in the "basic religious values"
of all religions as the path to be followed for world peace and
Peaceable Kingdom, I came to see the inadequacy of this, and to
rediscover, in sort of re-conversion, belief in the Trinity and
Christ's redemptive sacrifice as the unique, true path and divine
plan for the world.
In reading through the files, particularly my letters of 1967 and
notes of my tapes of February and April 1970 to you, I can see very
clearly that I somehow fell into an exaggeration of the goodness of
nature and of secular humanism, as opposed to cooperation with
God's revelation and grace. I guess it was the Garden of Eden all
over again - a placing of the goodness of creation and creatures,
above God's revealed will, plan, grace and redemptive sacrifice for
the world. However, having thus, so to speak, been there and
experienced the fall from grace and harmony in the Garden of Eden, I
rediscovered Immaculate Mary as the New Eve.
This makes me all the more appreciative and thankful to you and God
that you kept your faith in Mary in the post Vatican II period of
Marian aridity, as Father Gilligen wrote of you and your Mary's
Gardens work in the March - April 1973 Our Lady of the Cape
article.
I feel that your carrying forward during this period has been as
important an input into Mary's Gardens as its initial founding -
sort of like the monastic preservation of the faith during the Dark
Ages, which made possible the subsequent medieval flowering of the
Age of the Faith. I suppose my July 1952 Benedictine Review
article was somewhat prophetic of you in this respect. And despite
the dire forebodings on the world scene, I do firmly believe in the
coming of the earthly Peaceable Kingdom - "complete" with Mary
Gardens.
I believe that just as at the time of the Incarnation, God looked
to find one person who was fitting to be his mother - preserving
the immaculateness with which she was conceived and born - so, too,
in the coming stressful times and religious turmoil on earth,
humankind will seek with ever-increasing intensity just one person
who is historical proof of salvation; again finding it to be Mary -
immaculately conceived and gloriously assumed into heaven - "our
tainted nature's solitary boast".
In this connection, in "rediscovering" Our Lady's flowers, I find
the following to be of primary importance, as symbols of Mary's
Excellences:
Immaculate Purity - Lily
Utter Humility - Violet
Openness and fidelity to God's Word - Tulip, Eardrops
Doing God's Will - Lady Slipper "all
her
steps were most
beauteous
Divine Maternity - "Rod of Jesse" Rose
Perpetual Virginity - Strawberry; Garden
Enclosed
Clearly it is Mary's immaculateness, openness, love, obedience,
perpetual virginity, and especially her humility, which made it
possible for her to be filled with all the graces, virtue, gifts,
glories, privileges and prerogatives to almost infinite measure -
limited in sharing God's infiniteness only by the ultimate
finiteness of her creaturehood; yet responding to God's desire to
show forth and share his attributes with humankind.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
May 29,1980
Dear Bonnie,
This is to let you know of my visit two days ago to the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society and the Herb Society of America
office at Horticultural Hall here in Boston, about 10 blocks from
where I am living.
First, I checked the library card catalogue, and found nothing
carded for Mary Gardens or Our Lady's Flowers.
Two books catalogued under "Mary" turned out to refer to other
persons named Mary. One had no specific reference to Our Lady. I
did see that they have Marzell's Deutches Wörterbuch der
Pflanzennamen
Plant Buyer's Guide #6 was the last one published before it was
discontinued. The closest thing they had was the Nursery Source
Guide of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, which lists nurseries, but
no plants.
They were unable to direct me to any second hand bookstore in
Boston specializing in horticultural books; I will keep looking.
Dan Foley still lives in Salem, Massachusetts and continues to
lecture. I met a woman who worked with him on Horticulture, but
she was unfamiliar with the Flower of Our Lady and Mary Gardens.
Mrs. Wood, Executive Secretary of the Herb Society of America
Seemed to know nothing of the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary's
Gardens. They have a small library there of books on herbs,
including some books on plants in the Bible.
I saw that in the 1980 issue of The Herbalist on pages 30 - 33
there is an article on The Christmas Stamp of 1979 by Sally
Marshall Hanel - describing Gerard David's painting The Rest on
the Flight into Egypt which was reproduced on the stamp, and a
number of plants "associated with the Virgin Mary" which she
describes, with legends. In the Meet Our Contributors section, on
page 74 it says of Sally Marshall Hanel that "She has designed a
columbarian garden on the grounds of Christ Church in Bloomfield
Hills, Michigan. Her special interest is in herbs and plants of
the Biblical world a how they relate to our lives today. She is
also a member of the Bible Garden of the Cathedral Church of St.
John the Divine in New York City."
There may very will be people familiar with the Mary Garden and
Flowers of Our Lady in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and
HSA - and I can ask Dan Foley about this.
This visit, together with my visit to my Mass visits of various
churches in Boston and Washington, reminded me rather forcefully
that we still must focus on finding and reaching "those who have a
sense for these things" - especially among those who have a
commitment or consecration to Mary such that they will see the Mary
Garden as augmenting dedication to Mary and Jesus, and therefore
take concrete action to promote it: namely, the Marian religious
orders, publications, shrines and libraries - and hopefully,
individuals who will follow in our footsteps.
I don't think I mentioned to you that I visited with Martha Garra
two years ago. She continues actively to promote Mary's Gardens in
the Philadelphia area and asked for some Prayer Cards.
On Pentecost Sunday I had a striking experience. On going to Mass
at the Jesuit Chapel I found there were no flowers on the altar
(although there usually are). Then I noticed on potted plant on
the stand to the side, which has been there for some time - a
Philodendron. For the first time I really "saw" how the
orientations of the trailing, pear-shaped leaves, with their points
downward, resemble the tongues of flame of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost
Also, in visiting the various small front yard gardens in the
neighborhood - like the several of which I sent you slide photos -
I find I am much more appreciative of their color symbolism, along
the lines I wrote you on May 22:
White - Mary's Immaculateness
Violet - Humility
Orange - Prayer (Inflamed with the Holy Spirit)
Red - Love
Green - Obedience - in faith and hope (The
"obedience" of plant foliage growth, and
the clinging of vines, ivy and ground
covers)
Gold/Yellow - Maternity (in heaven - the woman clothed
with the sun)
Blue - Perpetual Virginity (consecration to the
blue waters of Grace in her soul.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
June 16, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
Thanks for your tape of June 8 and 9 which arrived today.
I'm sorry to hear about the double dose of antibiotics you had to
take for your ear and tooth, which knocked you out of business for
a week. Even without this sort of thing, you do an amazing job of
keeping doing despite your afflictions.
Last Thursday (June 12) I was able to spend two hours in the attic
in Pennsylvania where I have much of the Mary's Gardens materials
stored. Everything appears to be intact, and I brought all my
research files, notes through the years an your 1963-1965
correspondence, as well as some literature back with me to Boston.
I had to do this "on the run", and after going through it all here
I see there are some things I still need. Next trip, I plan to go
through everything (30 boxes) and mark it, so I can get what I
need, and get it quickly in the future. At that time I will get
the Assisi and Marianist reprints which you said you need. Would
you mind telling me again all you need in the way of reprints,
etc.?
In going through my log of notes, and through all the drafts of
articles that were never completed, or accepted for publication, as
the case may be, I am astounded at the massive detail and
thoroughness involved. For example, I must have 20 pages of
detailed notes on all my visits with various people at Woods Hole,
getting historical information on the Garden and Angelus Tower. I
had forgotten this after the passing of 25 years.
I now have an indoor windowsill Mary Garden in my study, here, and
have added a little statue I brought back from New Hope, per the
enclosed photos. I can't begin to tell you what it has done for my
spirit, and writing, to have this garden of beloved plants right at
my shoulder as I write at my desk. At this time of year there are
6 hours of sun at the right end of the sill, and about 4 at the
left.
Yesterday, I was literally stunned at the sudden brilliance of a 5
foot statue of Our Lady of Grace, at the middle of a 30 foot
crescent bed of bright flowers which I passed on the Massachusetts
Turnpike - per the enclosed letter copy to Palmer, Mass. It was
like a vision or a miracle especially as I was saying my Rosary at
the time.
I will comment on your tape in the order I noted down things:
At the Herb Society, I didn't mention anything about Mary Gardens
or Flowers of Our Lady specifically. Rather, I mentioned "medieval
flower symbolism and gardens" to see what they would come up
with-which was nothing.
Yes, Dan wrote about the Mary Gardens for the 1953 Herbalist, and
per my notes of your visit, I see I gave you some reprints. (He
made the reprints, and had the hassle with them over the seal.)
I enclose the 1968 Phila. flower show Exhibit Mary Garden
publicity.
Yes, you did send copies of Our Lady's Digest and Immaculata, and
a Xerox copy of the list of plants taken from Hone.
Can you send me Brother Sean's address so I can re-establish
contact with him?
Did I understand from your mention of the smaller outdoor Mary
Garden you are planning that Horse Chestnut is "Our Lady's Candle"?
I seem to recall the vertical shape of the blooms , rising up from
the branches, of this tree, which is quite prevalent in the
Philadelphia area.
I am happy your bishop is so "tolerant" of your continuing
commitment to Mary in this post Vatican II spiritual climate.
As I re-read all your wonderful articles, I had several questions
about plant religious names and associations:
What is the specific association of Aloe with Our Lady? The text
of one of your indoor garden photos referred to it as a "symbol of
Our Lady."
Re the Idaho Register (and Our Lady's Digest) articles, what is the
research reference for Hoya as "Tears of Jesus"?
Do you have a list you could send me of tropical plants of
religious association above and beyond those listed in your earlier
Tropicals list?
Have your come across any religious association for Coral Bells
(Heuchera)?
With my heightened attunement to flower color symbolism, I found my
drive from Boston to Pennsylvania much more interspersed with
prayers - the white wild roses lifting my thoughts in prayer to
"Mary, conceived without sin-"; the pink laurel and clover to
"Immaculate Heart of Mary"; and the golden daisies to "woman
clothed with the sun-".
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
(Letter from Bonnie Roberson to John Stokes, Jr. - enclosed with
tape)
Hagerman, ID
June 23, 1980
Dear John,
Here are addresses you want - and some I want you to have. I think
they will be of use to you Am preparing the tape - this will have
to be the day I get things important off - to many, but first to
you
- the days look much brighter since you are 'home again'.
God love you and yours.
--------------
Brother Sean MacNamara ----------
--------------
Am sure there are other important addresses, but this is the most
important list for now.
I am so very pressed for time, trying to help Ernie get in the
seeds for the food crop. This John, is of the greatest importance
to us, and the time has gone so quickly, for weather has not
permitted planting, and Ernie had to have help from me. Wages are
too much for us to face, we have to 'make do', and God has been
kind to us in so many ways we can not complain. The real urgent
things are now taken care of with this morning's 'work out'.
In haste to get to the tape.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
June 24, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
Since writing you on June 16 about catching a fleeting glimpse of a
wayside shrine Mary Garden on the Massachusetts Pike while driving
past the day before, I had an unexpected opportunity to visit it on
June 20 - as a half-hour side trip while returning from a quick
trip to New York.
The striking thing about this wayside shrine is its setting - a
grassy hill rising up to the woods, the other side of a wire fence,
along a stream midst the wayside weeds. It is this grassy hill -
which seemed to be well mowed - which gives the sense of
space-which made me feel at first that it was a 30 foot crescent
garden, which actually it is only some 10 feet wide. The enclosed
slide, "A", gives some sense of this, although I now realize I
should have taken it framed horizontally, rather than vertically.
When we entered the Massachusetts Pike at Sturbridge, 11 miles to
the East, it was raining, but I had a feeling the sun would come
out at the shrine. And, just as we came around a bend in the
highway, there it was in a patch of sun, like a "pot of gold" at
the end of the rainbow.
So, I took the photos rather quickly, before it clouded up again.
As you can recognize, the flowers in bloom were rhododendron,
petunias, alyssum, a geranium, and also a potted golden
chrysanthemum. There were some daisies along the ditch, and also
some hieracium behind and at the sides of the shrine. The statue
of Our Lady of Grace appeared to be concrete, and rather recently
re-painted. I found the stone pedestal rather attractively rustic.
Also, there were the foliage of fall-blooming chrysanthemums- or
perhaps some other foliage I failed to notice, and can't recognize
from the photos.
What really strikes me about this shrine and garden, Bonnie, is the
thought which was behind it, and also lovingly maintains it. It
has that special Mary Garden quality which I referred to in "A
Garden full of Aves". It really conveys a sense of love of Our
Lady out of all the thousands of travelers driving by each day. And
while I don't believe you can see this from the photos, there are
one or two night flood lights spiked into the ground to one side
(or both sides) at the front - with wiring evidently running under
the ground.
Very possibly there is a house in or beyond the woods, but I didn't
see any. There is no access from the highway, and I had to climb
the fence, or, rather, straddle it.
In reading through my and your research lists, and the card files I
set up through 1965, I have been struck with a lot of new thoughts
about the Flowers of Our Lady symbolism, I would like to share with
you.
I think the main new thought or insight I have has to do with the
instant, strong affinity I feel for the flowers of Our Lady, and
for Mary Gardens (such as this wayside shrine) the moment I see
them - or even read about them. In pondering over this sense of
affinity I must conclude that there is more to it than the
symbolism as such, or than honoring Mary with a "pretty garden" -
more than symbolism or sentiment. There must be something more
profound in us that responds or corresponds to the flowers and
gardens.
And this something is the spiritual flowers and gardens in our
soul. Thus, there is something in us more deep and profound that is
evoked or vivified with all the names and symbols through the very
flowers themselves.
While I plan to write about this - and my book leads up to this - I
do want to share with you some of the insights I have had, from
this viewpoint, regarding some of the flower names from the
research. Take, for example, the following thoughts:
Our Lady's Praises, Petunias. The wavy form of the blooms mirrors
the undulation of the petals and leaves in our souls as we are
moved, in union with Our Lady, by the breathing and gusting of the
Holy Spirit, to praise and magnify God. (I almost "feel" this, as I
say: "Holy, holy, holy-")
Our Lady's Delight, Pansies. The brightness of the tiny blooms
mirrors the luminous twinkling in the gardens of our souls, as in
Mary's, as the light of the Holy Spirit penetrates them, moving
them to consolation, delight and rejoicing in God.
Lady Beautiful, Geranium. The long upward thrust of the flower
stem and clusters - starting from under the leaves - suggests the
rising soul's "leading the way" in Mary's beautiful Assumption
-immediately followed by the "leaves" of her body. Mary's beauty
rising to heaven "as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright
as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array", the power of
Resurrection, shown forth by the upward thrust of plant life and
growth - which we sense as our souls rise mystically to heaven, in
prayer.
Similarly, Our Lady's Smoke. Mary's soul, spirit, prayers, rising
to heaven, like incense.
Our Lady's Stone. Gem-stones on Mary's fingers mirroring Christ,
the Light of the World.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
P.S. Further on flower names, symbolisms, spiritual
correspondences:
Hieracium pilosella - called per Marzell both "Our Lady's Flower"
and "Angel's Flower, - is widely massed along the Northeastern U.S.
roadsides in July and perhaps August - or it may be H. pratense
(I'll check - both are yellow, but H. pilosella has single heads,
and H. pratense has clustered heads, like the orange H.
auriantiaca, "Our Lady's Paintbrush".)
In reflecting on why it is called both Our Lady's and "Angel's- I
recalled how their massed long-stemmed flowers undulate in waves in
the wind, like fields of wheat; and this then brought to mind the
imagery of hundreds of angels moving on errands of ministry where
Mary, Queen of Angels moves the folds of her mantle to places of
need on earth. (I first had this insight while watching the golden
lights of a huge Christmas tree, here in Boston, undulating as the
branches were blown by the wind.)
This shows how two different symbolical names may together give
clues as to the basis of the naming - viz "Mary's" and "Angel's".
As for H. aurantiacum,, "Our Lady's Paintbrush", (I still remember
coming on these orange blooms while horseback riding in Wyoming on
a hillside) - I have come to sense that all Our Lady's Flowers
having to do with "womanly work", as Ed expressed it, may have more
profound associations with our interior "house of wisdom" in our
souls, or with the "wedding garment" of our souls - referring to
Our Lady's summoning or matrixing of the action of her spouse, the
Holy Spirit, in the spiritual illumination, adornment and
embellishment of our souls.
Thus, "Our Lady's Paintbrush", "Pins", "Pincushions", "Fringes",
"Ruffles", etc.
As for her "Gloves", "Shoes" and "Slippers", these may symbolize
the divine guidance of her hands and feet in works of mercy and
peace.
Her "Nightcap" may symbolize the divine guidance of her thoughts
and dreams while she slept, and the safeguarding of her soul.
Her "Tresses" and "Fern" may symbolize the beautiful articulation
and inflorescence of her soul, by the operation of the Spirit.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
June 28, 1980
Thanks for your tape of June 23.
Under separate cover, I am sending you a copy of an airmail letter
to Brother Sean, which will go to the post office this morning
together with your copy.
Could you drop me a note giving me a rough idea of how many of our
reprint items have been sent by you to the Marian Library, before I
write to Father Koehler?
My full sets of The Marian Era are in Pennsylvania, but I will
check Volume V on the Marian stamps at the first opportunity.
I will take steps to get a copy of Charted Peasant Designs.
Thanks for the references on the Horse Chestnut/Our Lady's Candle
symbolism, and on the Aloe Vera/Trinity symbolism. The importance
of the 3 inner Aloe leaves is a very striking basis for the Trinity
symbolism, and has a special richness for me. I look at my aloe
with new eyes.
I believe I have in Pennsylvania, the World's Great Madonnas, Green
Magic and the paperback version of the Unicorn Tapestries (although
I may have the larger, hardback version also) - but not any of the
other books you mentioned, which I do very much appreciate your
listing for me.
I couldn't make out from the tape the title of the book compiled by
Sister Theresa and published in 1927 by MacMillan.
Can you send me the name and address of the "new Hampshire woman"
who wrote you she expects to spend the rest of her life doing Mary
Gardens? I don't have in mind writing her, but would like to know
who and where she is, since I do get up to New Hampshire and
Vermont once in awhile, and might be near her.
Am I correct in recalling that you have not been able to get a copy
of The Mary Calendar ? If so, I could at least make a Xerox copy
for you.
I believe you told me you were able to get a copy of Gemminger's
Flowers of Mary.
It is now afternoon - on the way back from the post office I walked
past the Trinity Church cloister garden, and noticed a lot of pink
roses in bloom. If the weather is clear tomorrow, I'll photograph
these after Mass. There are only perhaps 3 hours of sunlight in
the garden, due to the church building and Hancock Tower to the
South.
There is a florist shop 1 block from here, and a greenhouse under
the same ownership 3 blocks away, where I was able to get
practically all the 40 plants for my windowsill Mary Garden. I
have found better herbs at a florist's at Harvard Square in
Cambridge, where we drive to shop once a week. One of the young
women who works there grows them in a friend's greenhouse. She
started to tell me about Adelma Simmonds "Caprilands" exhibition
herb gardens, Shakespeare gardens, etc. at Coventry , Connecticut,
so I gave her a copy of our pink herb list.
I have listed over 80 Mary Garden plants I have found growing in
the front yard gardens within 3 blocks walking distance. Three of
them are growing as weeds: Polygonum In profusion, and just a few
Potentilla recta (growing in cracks in a concrete sidewalk in front
of a bookstore) and Lychis alba (two locations).
One species I haven't seen anywhere is Bellis perennis , which is
widely available from florists and nurseries in Philadelphia. Just
yesterday, I finally found some Calendula officialis, in a new
border planting, mixed in with some Zinnias.
Just this week two large plantings of Hemerocalus flava and Althea
rosea have bloomed, St. Joseph's Lily and Staff, which I
photographed this morning.
I could do an article on "Mary Gardening in Back Bay".
This has enabled me to see how the whole neighborhood can be one's
Mary Garden. I plan to join the Back Bay Garden Club (see
enclosure). Senator Kennedy's home is 2 blocks from us. I think I
mentioned that Horticultural Hall is just 6 blocks from us - and
the major art galleries are all within two or three blocks.
So you see, Bonnie, we're in the heart of one of the most
concentrated cultural centers of the world. And the Charles River
is only 3 blocks away where you can walk, bicycle, roller skate or
sunbathe on the Esplenade.
As I noted on the enclosed card, the Boston Public Library is just
2 blocks away. There is a subway station on the corner; the
Massachusetts Pike for driving West and South is 2 blocks away; and
the Back Bay Railroad station for the New York, Philadelphia and
Washington trains is 3 blocks away.
- All this, to give you and Ernie a better sense of the environment
in which we are living, and why we chose to come here - viz, so we
further our education and that of family members here and have sat
hand all these cultural resources for research, etc.
I appreciate your letting me know more in detail, Bonnie, the
conditions you and Ernie are coping with in regard to your health.
I keep you both constantly in my prayers; but I also keep in mind
the joys of your time of life, where you have the experience and
the wisdom to really appreciate things profoundly, and to treasure
each moment and each contact. This comes through so beautifully in
your tapes.
I do hope Father Heeber's assignment to Hagerman and Gooding will
make available to you an acceptable celebration of the Mass. I
have been so accustomed to living in a city - where you have
numerous churches to choose from for Mass, and numerous priests and
Masses at each church - that I've never had to give much though to
what it must be like to be "stuck" with one priest and Mass that go
contrary to what you have been able to expect through the years. I
recall that at Woods Hole they used to bring in substitute priests
for the summer, so people would feel free to go to confession
"anonymously".
Here, at the Jesuit chapel, the priests are all retired from
teaching or the missions, and are in the 60's and 70's. Except for
the fact that the Mass is in English, and there are the three new
alternate Eucharistic Prayers (which actually are very ancient),
the feeling is very much like the old Latin Mass, and I feel very
much at home here. I had memorized the Mass in English, and used
to say it from memory while the priest celebrated it in Latin, so I
don't mind the English. There are no lay readers and no
intercessions from the congregation here, so there are no
opportunities for the discordant intrusions from the congregation.
I have heard many people from elsewhere call it "too conservative",
but I find it just right. The two things I miss are the old
"prayers at the foot of the altar" and the "last Gospel".
While a few individuals help out with the altar linens and the
flowers, the priests do most of these things for themselves. There
are no parish societies or lay organizations because it is not a
parish. (The old parish church, St. Cecelia's is about 8 blocks
away). There is a Franciscan Chapel in the Prudential Mall, 5
blocks away.
So far, from the letters I have written, I received a nice note
from Ade Bethune saying "welcome home" and inviting us to visit in
Newport, where she still lives in the same house, and operates the
St. Leo Shop; and a letter from Mrs. Adley, thanking me for my
letter, and saying she hopes to put more flower varieties in her
garden. Mrs. Adley mentioned "We have had a statue of Our Lady out
there this past 20 years. Four times, the statue was stolen. Now
this one has been out this past 8 years. My husband, May he rest
in peace', put the first figurine of the Blessed Lady out there.
The present one was made in a State Hospital". She told me about
the work of the Legion of Mary in Boston, and ended, "the lively
faith you have is indeed uplifting in these days". So, Bonnie, I
feel we have a friend.
I do hope that Brother Sean sees fit to correspond with me at
length. As you can see, I mentioned I was sending you a copy of my
letter to him-so please feel free to refer to it, build on it, and
to correct anything I might have said about you that need
correcting.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
June 29, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
This is to let you know how my Mary's Gardens research files are
set up:
8-1/2 x 11 Loose Leaf Notebook: Containing written listings from
all books - English, Spanish an German, principally - and the two
printed Woods Hole lists - but not the Emerson research, which I
have separately (per copy sent to you).
4 x 6 Card Files
Listing religious plant names alphabetically, with research
reference code: 1950 - 1954 (Published in Q.M. 1955) 1955 - 1964
(Published in Mariana I 1964) Spanish Names, with English
Translation (Published in Tropicals and semi-Tropicals List, 1965 -
English translations of names only) Emerson Research (Unpublished)
German Names from Marzell with English Translation (Unpublished)
(Other than "Frauen" and "Marien" - in B)
4" x 6" Card Files
Listing all the plants from the above by botanical name,
with religious names for each, and descriptive and cultural
information.
4" x 6" Card Files
Listing all research references, with codes.
I have all of these, except "#4" here in Boston, now. I thought I
brought up "#4" also, but realized when I arrived here that it was
in a small metal file that there wasn't room for in the cartons
containing the other card files.
For your records (which may duplicate information in your files), I
enclose a listing of all the research sources from which you sent
me lists of religious names. I also include a list of all the
Spanish language sources included in my research, and in the yellow
"tropicals and Semi-Tropicals" mimeographed list.
At some point, perhaps next winter, I would plan to resume my
research in the libraries here in Boston (Public Library and
Horticultural Society) and at Harvard, etc. - so if at some point
you could list for me the books you have researched, I could avoid
duplication.
It's exciting to go over this research, Bonnie - and, once again, I
had forgotten how much had been done, and how it had been
organized.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
Research Listings from Bonnie Roberson in "Philadelphia" Notebook
File
Plantation Garden Catalogues, 1961 & 1962 Clarkson - Herbs and
Their Culture Hunter & Morris - Universal Dictionary of the English
Language Crowfoot & Baldensperger - From Cedar to Hyssop Park Seed
Co. Catalog, 1961 Harry E. Sair Seed Catalog, 1961 U.S. National
Herbarium, 1922 Matschat - Mexican Plants for American Gardens
Standley - Trees and Shrubs of Mexico Lyle - Compassionate Herbs
Grigson - A Herbal of Sorts Mueller Bulb Catalogue, 1947 Lyons -
Plant Names, Scientific and Popular Martinez - Plantas Medicinoles
de Mexico Journal of the N.Y. Botanical Garden Jan-Feb 1963 Quinn -
Roots and their Place in Life and Legend Rutherford - The Practical
Flower Grower
Research Listings From John Stokes in File from Spanish Sources
O'Gorman - Mexican Flowering Trees and Plants Colmeiro -
Enumeracion Y Revision de Las Plantas De La Pininsula
Hispanu-Lusitana Caballero - Flora analitica de Espane Martinez -
Catalogo de Nombres Vulgares Y Cientificos de Plantas Mexicanas
Balme - Oravides Mexicanas Perez-Arbelaez - Plantas Utiles De
Colombia Herrera - Catalogo Alfabetico de los Nombres Vulgares Y
Cientif
De Plantas Que Existen en el Peru Muscuio - Catalogus
Florae Domingensis Fiori - Iconographia Florae Italiecae & Flora
Italiana (Italian) Standley - Flora of the Laketilla Valley,
Honduras Merrill- A Flora of Manila Standley - Flora of the Panama
Canal Zone Jimenez - Lista de Nombres Vernaculus de Las Isla de
Santo Domingo
+
Boston, MA
June 30, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
This will probably complete this "re-entry" series of letters since
May 3, reporting my picking up of various dimensions of the work of
Mary's Gardens as I had put it down in 1968.
Today I have "taken inventory", as it were, of all my color slide
photo files.
Basically, as far as the condition of the slides themselves goes,
they appear to be in really excellent shape - with very little
deterioration of color.
Of the perhaps 4,000 slides, about two thirds of them are in
carrying cases, divided by various grouping, such as:
Lecture Slides, general Photos of Flower Species Photos of Mary
Gardens Photos of Madonna Paintings, with Flowers Photos of other
Madonna Paintings and Sculpture Photos of Ed, me you, family
members Photos of Exhibits Photos of Indoor Dish Mary Gardens
Then there are another 1,000 or more that are in individual
cardboard boxes, for each roll of film, but, fortunately, mostly
marked, on the boxes and individually.
Some slides are out of place, and there is some overlapping of the
groupings, but at least I know I can find things. Some time soon I
will reorganize those already filed, and add the un-filed ones to
them.
Needless to say, this has been quite an experience - getting
re-attuned to the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary gardens visually.
There are many things I had forgotten, and everything now fits
together in a new overall light.
The tremendous amount of labor of love that went into the Chestnut
Hill Avenue, OMC and Philadelphia Flower Show gardens sort of
overwhelmed me as recorded photographically - as did the various
exhibits we put so much into: the Liturgical Weeks, Washington, and
the Flower Show.
I had forgotten that I took up the Mary Garden Exhibit from the
Cincinnati Liturgical Week to the University of Dayton, on request.
In the rush, I recall barely getting a look at the front door of
the Marian Library.
At some point, I'll have to get together a sort of chronology of
these various exhibits.
It's sort of humbling, as you said in one of your tapes, to realize
that after all this effort we have perhaps found ten people that we
know of who "have a sense for these things".
On the other hand, when I think back to all the magazine articles,
especially the wide circulation ones like the Catholic Digest, and
to all the links of word of mouth, I also have a sense of having
made some sort of contribution to every shrine and statue flower
planting I see as I drive by homes and churches in my travels. I do
feel, as we heard the passage from St. Paul in church yesterday,
that we have "fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept
the faith" - much of a struggle as it has been - and I do deeply
believe that the spiritual results have been tremendous, in ways
that we will only know later on.
In any case, having been away from the work for 12 years and then
having come back to it, it is very clear that my part in it has
been very much that of an instrument and vehicle and channel for
this work. It just doesn't seem as though "I" did any of it;
rather, it was just an opportunity and a vocation that came up, as
God furthers the unfolding of his plan. However, I do feel that I
now do have a trust to be carried forward, and, with God's help, I
will do my best to be faithful to it for so long as he wills me to
live.
So, now, Bonnie, I'll be getting back to writing and research, and
I'll of course keep you abreast of what I am thinking and doing,
and hearing from others. It means so much to be able to share
everything with you, and to be able to express my thoughts and
feelings with a spontaneity and enthusiasm which never gets into a
journal or diary.
I enclose the duplicate set of the photos I took on my 1968 visit
to Hagerman, which I had set aside, but never sent you.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
July 4, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
After writing you on June 29 regarding the status of my research
files, I managed to spend two afternoon in the Boston public
Library to obtain a survey of their resources.
I found that they have the basic floras for all the Latin American
cultures, but very few books on medicinal and other useful
plants-which are the ones that are more likely to list the common
names, so people can turn to the people of the countryside for
guidance in finding them.
I checked through about ten of the floras and found hardly any
common names, religious or otherwise. I will go through them all,
in the interest of thoroughness, but will subsequently look for
libraries - at Harvard, the Horticultural Society, and elsewhere -
that should have the books on medicinal and useful plants.
You may recall that my fruitful research in Philadelphia, in
connection with Latin American plant names - per the list of books
in my June 29 letter - was all at the Academy of Natural Sciences.
I have recently had some thoughts on fragrant herbs and flowers.
While I had previously thought of them as symbols and reminders of
Mary's sweetness, soothing, comforting healing, nurturing, etc., I
am now coming to see and smell them as indicators of how these
qualities of Mary work as she is present with our souls- how her
graces actually penetrate, permeate and transform us under her
nurturing.
I wonder if you have any lists or references of the different
spiritual qualities signified by the various fragrances- as we
associate the fragrance of the Madonna Lily with purity, the Violet
with humility, the Rose with love, etc.
It seems to me that much of the language of flowers such as
"Rosemary for remembrance" come from fanciful, sentimental
associations - or from use, such as herbs used in burials, etc. -
but, are there any more intrinsic, inherent associations of
fragrances with spiritual qualities?
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
P.S. In looking through a book of wildflowers (New York Botanical
Garden's Field Guide - Common Wild Flowers of the Northeastern
United States, p. 257), I noted a photo of Chrysopsis Mariana, or
Golden Aster. This would seem to qualify as "Mary's Golden Aster"
or "Marygold Aster".
In re-reading Gemminger on Mignonette (P. 461) that: "The emblem of
(the) virtue of resignation of the Divine Will is the flower called
Mignonette, which name signifies Repose or Rest", I checked Reseda
odorata in Marzell and saw that one of the many German names was
"settche" - an old German name which I presume might be translated
as "seat" - which Marzell explains as "undoubtedly from the
Lady-name", evidently referring to Our Lady's seat, cushion or
resting place.
This reminds me to mention that I am becoming increasingly
convinced that we are to look for a spiritual meaning corresponding
to some of the more physical symbols, such as Our Lady's Resting
Place- which I usually associate with "The Rest on the Flight into
Egypt". As Gemminger would appear to suspect, the spiritual
correspondence to "Resting Place" would appear to be God's Heavenly
Rest - whether permanently, after our earthly labors are over, or
mystically when our soul reposes after the heavenly flights, or as
we sleep at night.
Also, in thinking of the many symbols of "Our Lady's Finger", and
wondering why they would be so prevalent, I feel there must be some
explanation beyond resemblance to a finger. It occurred to me that
this might originally have been, or referred to, "Our Lady's Ring
Finger," calling to mind Mary's betrothal to St. Joseph - depicted
in art as a "ring ceremony" - and providing a lovely reminder of
St. Joseph, guardian of her perpetual virginity. I can see that
"Our Lady's Fingers" (plural) would refer to her sewing work, or to
her distribution of graces, etc. - but her finger (singular) must
have had some additional significance, such as this.
+
Boston, MA
July 8, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
I assume in checking Hortus II, that the Idaho state flower,
Syringa, on which you sent me a little printed story, is
botanically Philadelphus lewisii - of the same genus as the Mock
Orange, Philadelphus coronarius.
Since some flower symbolisms are generic, as well as specific, I
list the religious names listed by Marzell for Philadelphus
coronarius, in case you weren't able to get them all from the
index.
These are from Band 3, Lieferung 5 (Volume 3, Part 5) p. 679-683,
with English translations by me -
Josephsstab - St. Joseph's Staff Josasfiblemen -
St. Joseph's Flower Himmelrosli - Heavenly Rose fior
d'angiolo * - Angels' Flower fior de porodis * - Flower
of Paradise Antonibluh - St. Anthony's Flower
Antoniusrose * - St. Anthony's Rose
In checking , I notice that the three names I have marked (*) are
not listed in the index which you have (Vol. 5), probably because
they are Italian and, one, old German.
Could you give me the research reference for Purple Coleus as
"Passion Plant" , as listed in the Our Lady at the Cape article?
- and Hoya as "Tears of Jesus", per the Idaho Register, Our Lady's
Digest article?
I neglected to mention that I saw some white Grape Hyacinth in a
neighborhood garden here in April, which fit the "Church Steeples"
name better than the purple. I wasn't photographing as many things
then, so I didn't get a photo.
Another thing I made a note to mention to you. It struck me the
other day in looking at the Mary's Gardens letterhead (I'm still
trying to find some stationery in Pennsylvania) that there is a
close similarity between the veil or headdress in the sketch of Our
Lady, and that on Ade's Seat of Wisdom.
I also wish I had photographed the neighborhood "Bagel Garden"
(mentioned in the little leaflet I enclosed with my letter of June
28). It is a striking example of the use of the "artificial" in
the garden, of which Ed used to speak, and about which I wrote in
my Catholic World article, "God's Garden".
What the garden consists of is a low, 5 ft. by 5 ft. hedge
enclosure enclosing a marigold planting, and surrounded by a grand
square "pathway" painted or sprayed purple, on which 40 or so
bakers' bagels are placed.
Now the bagels are gone (since they of course can't withstand the
rain) and I'm waiting to see if they'll put out another set of
bagels. I'm afraid it ws a one-time "planting" for a neighborhood
garden tour.
I keep walking by this and other Marlboro Street gardens, since
that is the street where I can usually find a parking place for my
car.
I am enclosing some slides of two "compositions" I made from, or
in, my windowsill Mary Garden - of Our Lady's Hair, and the
Excellences of Mary. I hope to be able to do a tape for you
sometime in the next few days where I will include some thoughts on
these. (Note: Taped letter following day, July 9. Mailed some days
later, due to delay in making file copy)
As of today, I haven't heard anything yet from John Beckerle in
Woods Hole, Dan Foley, Jane Garra, Frances McTague or the Palmer
church - and it's too soon to expect anything from Brother Sean.
Just today, I saw some Impatiens balsaminum, "Our Lady's Earrings"
etc., blooming for the first time here - in a window box in our own
block.
It's good, with these and the Calendula I found, to have at least a
little variety in annuals plantings.
The general favorites here are Patient Lucy's (Impatiens
sultanaii, etc.), Bush Marigolds, Petunias, Alyssum, Ageratum and
Zinneas.
And with a very few Snapdragons, Morning Glories, Gaillardias,
Sunflowers, Sweet Peas, Nasturtiums - and the Impatiens and
Calendula - that is just about it, Bonnie.
It's cool enough so the pansies are still doing pretty well here -
much better than for July in Philadelphia. And there are still
some "true" Johnny-Jump-ups in one garden - with the real Trinity
Flower, Viola tricolor, size and markings.
Also, there's a bit of a low, many-bloomed purple flower, which I'm
trying to identify - a good summer substitute for the violet
symbolism.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
July 11, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
As a token of my appreciation for your carrying on of the work of
Mary's Gardens during the years of my inactivity, I am mailing you,
under separate cover, a book of rose window photographs I think you
will like.
The photos are outstanding, and the text contains many things of
real pertinency to the Medieval Flowers of Our Lady and Mary
Gardens - although the approach seems to me to be distorted
somewhat by interpretations with overtones of Jungian Psychology,
rather than main line Catholic Tradition and teaching.
With this letter I enclose some color slides I took yesterday at
the Garden of Our Lady in Woods Hole (We have 4 hours slide
developing service within two blocks of our home.)
As you can see from the photos, the Garden is very well maintained,
and has apparently had ample natural moisture. (there is no water
piping to the garden.) The central bed continues to be planted in
blue-violet with alyssum, petunias, salvia and one other plant I
can't identify. The border beds are planted with white alyssum,
pink and white petunias, tall orange and yellow marigolds, dwarf
yellow marigolds, pink and red roses (hedges), one pink geranium
(at the small statue of St. Dorothy), day lilies (not yet
blooming), and the privet background planting.
The border of the grassy area on the other side of the Tower has
now been planted also, with pretty much the same flowers as the
border of The Garden - plus some tall blue campanula, some golden
daisies an done or tow other varieties.
This is the 30th anniversary, so to speak, of my first visit with
Ed in 1950 - and the Garden continues to have for me that very
special inspirational quality it did then: an incredible feeling of
peace, and a sense of the centuries.
I was there from about 11:40 a.m. to 12:10 p.m., and the Angelus
bells did not ring at noon.
At the desk in the Tower room - where there are still some books -
there is a typed notice I don't recall having seen before, which
states, in part:
"At the east end of the Tower enclosure is a small flower
garden, which is known as a 'Mary Garden'. Originally much
larger, it grew a large variety of flowers whose modern names
are well-known to the average flower-lover, but whose popular
names during the Middle Ages - linking them with the Virgin
Mary Mother of God - have long since been forgotten. For
example:
Digitalis - Foxglove: Our Lady's Thimble
Convallarra - Lily of the Valley: Our Lady's Tears
Campanula - Canterbury Bells: Mary's Nightcap
Aquilegia - Columbine: Our Lady's Shoes
Althea Rosea - Hollyhock: St. Joseph's Staff
"The moving spirit and financial benefactor behind this unique
Bell Tower and Mary Garden was Mrs. Frances Crane Lillie.
"It was her conversion to the Roman Catholic Faith that
motivated Mrs. Lillie to build this unique Bell Tower and
Mary Garden, and to supply it with a rich store of books
that others might find in reading in this quiet recess
remote from the tumult of the world a comfort and peace of
soul.
"May her soul enjoy eternal peace with God."
Bonnie, I also enclose a slide of some Strawberry Geranium leaves,
in which I attempted to "catch" the redness of the little hairs -
which so aptly symbolize "Christ's Sweat" per Marzell: Christ's
bloody sweat during his Agony in the Garden.
I had somehow missed this symbolical detail until taking another
look after re-reading some of Marzell. I mentioned this to my
sister (who is glad I'm working on Mary's Gardens again), and she
said- "yes it's because of those red hairs it is called 'Strawberry
Geranium'".
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
September 16, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
After arriving safely back from Europe, I am writing you without
having read any letters you may have sent me since the first week
in August.
However, this is the first day of quiet and recollection in over a
month, so I do want to make good use of it by writing to you. As
the years go by, I value letter writing and taping more and more as
means of getting back to the heart of things.
While this was a vacation trip, a secondary focus for me was Mary's
Gardens.
The principal means I have for recollections and prayer while
moving about is beholding flowers - whether flowers I pass in
peoples' yards and gardens, or roadside plants as I drive or am
driven through the countryside.
Thus as we drove in a taxi from the London airport to our hotel, I
immediately focused on the English roadside plants of mid-August,
which were principally yarrow, goldenrod, lythrum and ladysmocks.
They were like the "welcoming committee" making me feel at home.
The yarrow was "everywhere", much as Queen Anne's lace is in the
Eastern U.S. in August.
The goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea) has much larger flowers (1/2 -
1") and has a tufted appearance, rather than the spiked and plumed
appearance of our U.S. goldenrod (S. canadensis). For me this
generated a sense of glorious heavenly fullness and fruition, as
distinct from that of heavenly pointing and rising of our native
goldenrod.
In driving to Pennsylvania Sunday, I was very conscious of this
difference, and it took me awhile to get "adjusted" to the U.S.
goldenrod. This took about an hour-and while looking, I realized
for the first time that there are two (or more) goldenrods here in
the East = the taller S. canadensis (about 3-4') amd a shorter
(11/2 -2') of more intense color. (perhaps s. juncea?)
The European Lythrum seems to be taller and a lighter pink than the
U.S. Lythrum-probably reflecting a soil difference, since the wild
flower books give them the same botanical identification. This is,
for me, pre-eminently the plant symbol of Christ's blood, and I
have come to use the Shakespearean tern " 's blood".
The Ladysmocks are larger, fleshier and more vigorous in England
than in the U.S. and , indeed, as Shakespeare put it, look as
though they are "hanging out to dry".
Thus, my primary perception of England was through the Flowers of
Our Lady, and I indeed saw England as "Our Lady's Dowry".
After 5 days in London, we rented a car and drove to spend a week
in a little town north of Oxford- Woodstock, where Palace is
- the place of Winston Churchill's birth. In walking about, here,
and in taking various side trips by car - to Oxford,
Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath, Sudley Castle, I had numerous
opportunities to take flower photographs especially at the Oxford
Botanical Gardens, which were superbly kept, with Sage, Rosemary
and Lavender plants 4 to 6 feet tall.
In Paris my principal flower photography was at the Botanical
Garden, "Le Jardin des Plantes" which was pretty burned out by the
end of August-although the Alpine section seemed better maintained
and watered.
An interesting difference is that in England everyone walks on the
grass, while in France it is strictly forbidden - in public parks
and gardens, etc.
In both England and France I found that starting 2 or 3 years ago
a number of wild flower books have been published with superb color
photographs - and I was able to obtain 6 or 8 books which,
together, contain photographs of just about all 'the flowers,
grasses, shrubs and trees from Europe listed in MARIANA I and
Marzell.
Seeing these photos had a tremendous impact on me, also-sort of
like seeing the "Promised Land".
In France, however, the high point was visiting Notre Dame
Cathedral, the Sacre Coeur Basilica, Saint Chappelle-and La
Madeleine, where I attended Mass. (In London, on the Feast of the
Assumption, I went to the French Church at Leicester Square. This
church has a beautiful central tapestry of "Our Lady of Creation",
with all the flowers and animals.)
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
September 26, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
It was good to hear your voice over the phone last night and to be
reassured that your are o.k. in your ever-present task of dealing
with your and Ernie's survival and well-being.
I do hope the solar greenhouse grant does come through for you,
with the possibility of the extension for an indoor Mary Garden.
From my own 11 ft windowsill and 40 potted plants I have learned
what it means to have an indoor garden with a considerable variety
of plants composed together with a figure of Our Lady and Child -
as compared to smaller groups of plants or dish gardens. A
greenhouse, connected with your house would offer that much more,
with larger plants, different levels, more sun, etc.
I'm sorry I wasn't able to answer your letter of July 21 before
leaving on the trip, due to extensive business to wind up and trips
to Pennsylvania. As I said over the phone, I thought the Twin
Falls Times News June 29 article about you showed excellent
sensitivity and appreciation, as compared to the kind of more
sensational and superficial article we have come to expect.
I think that the energy crisis, nuclear power plant accidents and
increasing international tensions have brought about a renewed
re-appreciation of rural values, nature and gardening - which, of
course, was a primary objective of Mary's Gardens all along. City
dwellers and journalists now take rural, natural values a lot more
seriously. I think this is what shows in the articles. And it
results in a deeper appreciation of rural persons, and of you. You
mentioned that you are "dreadfully thin", but this is not something
one would think of from the photo. What I see in the photo is a
combination of love and wisdom.
Moreover, it's hard for most city dwellers to believe that two
persons, such as you and Ernie, could grow and preserve most of
your vegetables for the year. They would give anything to be able
to do the same fro themselves. A beautiful article could be
written, inspirational to many, after you have had the greenhouse
in operation for a search, to supplement and extend your outdoor
gardening.
I am enclosing a photo-copy of the 1951 Marzell article,
"Himmelsbrot and Teufelsleiter", comprising the Bayerische
Heimatforschung, part 3, I found at Harvard Wednesday evening.
This is a major document supportive of religious flower symbolism,
from academic scholarship, and it is an interesting circumstance
that it appeared the year we founded Mary's Gardens-although as you
can see from the bibliography, Marzell published articles in this
field as early as 1909, and the Wurterbach began to be published in
1937 (being completed in 1980).
I am not situated to undertake its translation at this time, but I
see a number of apparently new plant name references and of course
the overall conceptual approach of the different sources of names,
as well as folklore surrounding the names. An incredible richness.
I came upon this the first night of my current research, Monday,
while going through the Harvard Widener Library card catalogue- The
route being = "Botany" to "Botany-Nomenclature" to "Plant
Names-Popular". Also in the Library is a complete set of Rolland's
Flare Populaire, which is the basic French research in this field
although not so detailed as Marzell, and which is primarily lists,
with some customs. Rollard is very heavily cross-referenced by
Marzell, but only where there are French names corresponding to the
German. Wednesday, I checked out the first plant listed in
Rollard, Clematis vitalba, and out of 13 religious namings found 9
in Marzell, with another 2 sourced from Britten and Holland.
Thus, there is nothing in Marzell for Clematis vitalba
corresponding to Virgin's Bower or Lady's Bower in English, or to
Vigne de la Vierge (The Virgin's Vine) in French.
With this beginning, I think I will go through Rolland page by
page, to really have the French research in its own right.
So far, Caballero's Flora analitica de Espane is the most complete
work I have found on Spanish namings-which were so important a
tradition in relation to the new world namings of the Spanish
missionaries, which is our historical evidence of the use of these
names in religious teaching by missionaries (as Ed was so quick to
perceive).
It will take awhile before I can get organized to have some copies
made of the trip color slides - which I will want to tape you.
I spent 3 hours going through the Mary's Gardens files and
reprints, and now have at hand our complete correspondence,
starting with your inquiry letter of April 2, 1958.
I have an estimated 600 copies left of the "Aves" article, if you
need some more. The only one in really short supply (although I
thought I had more) is the Assisi article. I still have to check
out the unopened cartons and mark them.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
October 2, 1980
Guardian Angels
Dear Bonnie,
The Harvard research I have been doing two nights a week has
stimulated a lot of thoughts about Flowers of Our Lady symbolism,
and plant symbolism in general.
After writing you on September 26, I decided to translate some key
pages from Marzell's article, which I have not completed in pencil
draft (pages 5, 6, 26, 28, 29, 31 and 32Š as well as plant names
from 11, 16, 17, 18 & 19, and a paragraph on Aconitum napellus from
21). The draft is not too legible, but I will attempt to Xerox it,
as it may be some time before I can type it.
This article evidently sums up a lifetime of work and sets forth
his love and philosophy. The approach of the article is to select
out those folk plant names which clearly came from oral tradition
or local origination, in Bavaria, from those which can be traced to
bookish traditions from outside - although I feel he discounts oral
circulation in favor of local origination.
Another article of which I am enclosing a Xerox copy is "Parole e
Idee", by Vittorio Bertoldi, in Italian, which attempts to approach
this question from the "outside in" showing how plant names have
been introduced into one culture from another - including as an
example, on pages 7-10, Our Lady's Bedstraw, and also mentioning
Our Lady's Hair, Comb, Fingers, (Gloves) and Shoes (Slippers), as
coming from prior association with Venus.
Finally, I enclose a copy of pages 323-344 of Maria's Heerlijkherd
in Nederland, Vol. IV, Amsterdam, which (in Dutch) contains an
accounting of Our Lady's Flowers in Holland (especially on
328-342). Dutch is similar enough to German for me to see that
there are the "basic" names derived from Venus, etc - except for
Our Lady's Milk Thistle (Silybum Marianum) for which I am not aware
of any classical origins, although there may be some.
An apparently important reference for flowers of Our Lady in
Germany I have found cited, although the book is not available in
Widener Library, is:
Shutz, Summa Mariana II, Paderburn, 1908, pages 626-633.
I think the key thing which has impressed me at this point is the
Mary-Names of plants (like other popular names) may be very general
and widespread - derived from the Latin and Venus, etc. - or they
may be highly local, and originally current only in a very small
region.
Marzell touches on this, beautifully, when he says (p. 5):
"Here is a vocabulary of plant names which will not be
recorded in the usual dictionaries - leaving aside special
compilations of dialect vocabularies from a specific
region - of names which often flash as quickly as the
conception of a moment or the invention of a particular
grace, and are confined to only a small district."
Ultimately the spiritually quickening quality of the symbolical
plants is one which strikes us immediately, intuitively on our
beholding of them - in the sure knowledge that there is a deep
correspondence here which reveals itself to the eyes of love.
- Whether the symbolism disclosed by the naming came from
derivation from Greek and Roman culture, or whether it came from
derivation from Greek and Roman culture, or whether it came from
the highly local "conception of a moment" or the "invention of a
particular grace".
It is this quality which comes to us especially through folklore
investigations and the common names from the floras of botanical
science - and which makes searching through endless volumes for
just one more such name worthwhile.
There is another book by Marzell at Widener Library, 95 pages long,
published in Jena, 1925:
Der pflanzen in deutschen volksleben
which I will endeavor to Xerox soon. (One has to wait for the 4
Xerox machines, and have enough change and time).
It is printed in the very difficult (for me) to read Old German
script, and seems to be mostly endless naming of legends and names
- without the overall insights of his later work.
In the 1980 edition of "German Books in Print" there is a listing
for his 1935 book, published in Munich:
Pflamennarmen in baytischen Volksmund,
which would have been just about the time his Worterbuch started to
go to press.
I ordered a copy of this, which if still available should come in 6
weeks.
It would seem to me that there should be some comprehensive work
covering Latin American Spanish folk names, from the
florasŠcomparable to Rolland, Marzell and Britten-and Holland, but
maybe we have to put together the pieces.
Sincerely in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
October 3, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
Continuing with the thoughts I was writing about yesterday in
relation to Our Lady's Flowers, it seem to me - after thinking
about England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain/Latin America -
that there is indeed something very special about the English
symbolism.
I was reading in a PhD thesis in Widener Library (Hoops, Johannes,
Uber die Altenglishen Pflanzennamen Freiburg, 1889) that there was
almost no flower poetry among the Anglo-Saxons, and no mention
whatever of specific flowers in the old epic poems.
According to him, the two first mentions of flowers (aside from
some motifs taken from Latin texts) were the metaphorical mention
of Christ as "the Golden Flower" in a 10th century homily, and a
passage on the Annunciation, re Mary:
"The redness of the rose illumines thee
and the whiteness of the lily shines on thee,
and with all the variety of blooming flowers
art thou adorned as the bride of Christ."
The significance I see in this (although not pointed out by him,
since his is not looking for outside sources) is that is suggests
that the very use of flower imagery in English poetry was
introduced in the religious context, with reference to Christ and
Mary - deriving, originally, from the Canticle of Canticles.
This would mean, in other words, that the very consideration of
flowers (as distinct from plants - used for food, medicine or
protection from evil spirits, etc.) was introduced into English
culture in a Christian religious context - rather than as a
"baptizing" previous associations with Venus, or Fria as in
Germany, France, Italy, Spain or of Zapotec, Mayan or Aztec
goddesses, as in Latin America.
This in turn would lead to a cultural "purity" of seeing the
flowers naturally as flowers in the context of Mary, and vice versa
- so that they would be much more symbolically and mystically seen
as manifesting the divine attributes; as symbolizing the
manifestation of these attributes in Mary.
This same cultural purity of flowers as manifesting the divine
attributes, would account for their special quality in Chaucer,
Shakespeare and Wordsworth and Hopkins, as well as in the
Mary-Names.
In France, on the other hand, flowers would seem more to manifest
the flowering of the soul - as in St. Bernard, St. Francis de
Sales, St. Louis de Montfort and St. Therese de Lisieux - in
Germany, Mary's motherly love of the Christ Child; in Italy the
distribution of graces, and in Spain the variety of fruits of the
Holy Spirit, per St.John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila.
This special perception of nature and flowers in England was set
forth uniquely by St. Anselm in the 11th century who was born and
educated in Italy, became a monk in France, went to England where
he became the Archbishop of Canterbury through William the
Conqueror. I will have to read more about him, to ascertain how
much of his insights might have been French, and how much English
(I just looked him up in the Encyclopedia, and see his major works,
relative to Mary and nature, were written in France.)
In any case, his perception of the relationship of Mary and nature
is very British in that he sees the liberation of nature from
classical idolatry to have come through Mary and Jesus, such that
there was indeed the creation of a "new earth".
Or perhaps, more correctly, I should say that his perception of the
liberation of nature in Italy and France corresponds with the fact
that it was never thus culturally subjugated in Anglo-Saxon England
so that he helps us understand and appreciate the English
historical situation - where nature could be baptized directly, as
it were - rather than "converted" from pagan belief.
This may not be too clearly stated, Bonnie, as I'm sort of
developing the insight as I go along - but I do think I have hit on
the origin and essence of the special British love for flowers and
nature.
The British mystical sense of flowers as such - pervading their
symbolism - seems to me to differ from the German sense of formal
symbolism and correspondence to details of the life of Mary - and
from the Spanish/Latin American focus on the Crucifixion, Heavenly
Crowning and the calendar of saints' feasts and processions.
I wonder how the religious flower symbols of the various countries
has seemed to you.
In any case, I will never forget my experience of seeing for the
first time - at a suburban Philadelphia nursery, in Mt. Airy - "Our
Lady's Cushion" (Armeria) and "Our Lady's Tears" (Tradescantia) Š
where the mystical sense was so strong to me.
I remember the old nurseryman there saying to Ed and me, re
Tradescantia, when we told him its Mary-Name: "Yes, she's crying
all day".
My appreciation of the Flowers of Our Lady is definitely in the
English tradition.
(Did you ever obtain a copy of Thomas Edward Bridgett's Our Lady's
Dowry - How England Gained that Title, London, 1917)? It is in the
Widener catalog, but not in the stacks. I would be especially
interested at this point to see what it has to say on all this!)
Did you ever get a copy of The Flower Calendar?
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
October 4, 1980
St. Francis of Assisi
Dear Bonnie,
This will complete the "trilogy" of letters of current thoughts on
flower symbolism.
What is coming to focus in my mind is that in the early days of
Mary's Gardens I saw and wrote about Our Lady's Flowers as sources
of loving meditation on Our Lady, her attributes and her
prerogatives. Somewhat later I saw and wrote about them as
supports for ascetical/mystical contemplation and union. Now, per
my tape of July I and letter of September 16, I realize that I see
them as signs of the Reign of Christ, here and now; of the
beginning of the renewal of the face of the earth; of the Divine
Plan; and of Heaven on Earth - as well as supports or urgings for
prayers to Mary to these ends.
I think this is partly why wild flowers of the roadside have been
so much more significant to me recently, and also why having some
plants on my windowsill next to me has meant so much to me "all of
a sudden".
You said over the telephone September 25, "this is the way I have
always seen flowers," and I appreciate what you mean.
I suppose that all through the Christian era, or at least since the
earliest use of flower symbols by Christians, Christian flower
symbols have been used in all these ways I have mentioned,
simultaneously.
From the prayerful viewpoint, the actual historical origins of the
symbolisms is not of critical importance.
However, from the viewpoint of establishing the kingdom of God on
earth, I can see that it is indeed important to replace Venus'
slippers with Our Lady's Slippers' - because the second brings to
mind the whole Gospel story and divine Plan, whereas the first does
not. (this is very different from seeing a merely superstitious
folk-lore "transfer".)
We know how intense is the struggle between the different languages
(such as French and Flemish in Belgium); and the same importance,
or greater attaches itself to two different religious symbolisms
for flowers.
On the other hand, as I indicated in my letter of yesterday, I can
also envisage the situation where a flower may have been seen as
symbolical of Our Lady without having previously been seen as
symbolical of Venus or Fria - viz, as the "conception of a Moment"
or the "invention of a particular grace". (Marzell).
I can appreciate why Marzell spent a lifetime looking for "pure"
folk creations of flower names, and I feel the same loving desire
for knowledge of the pure creations of flower symbolisms of Our
LadyŠ symbols that were purely illuminative, as opposed to
offsettingly purgative.
Since no one can go back and check these origins in this world,
about the best we can do is to assume a probability that those
symbolisms in England, for example, for which no earlier
equivalents were found in Celtic, Latin, Scandinavian (Angle) or
German (Saxon), were of English conception or invention.
In this connection, I would consider Vriesia moriae (Exotica III,
p. 1735) a "radical" Christian symbolism or naming because of the
bloom resemblance to the miraculous painting of Our Lady of
Guadeloupe. Similarly, the Passion Flower, because of the lack of
the existence of anything resembling this bloom in Europe, although
there was a prior tradition of flowers associated with the Passion,
as Marzell points out.
Another example that comes to mind is the Trinity symbolism of the
three inner leaves of Aloe Vera, which is so strikingly related to
the mode of leaf growth or generation - although we can consider
that St. Patrick's legendary Trinity symbolism for the shamrock was
equally "radical" in its time.
I'm sure we can pick many other examples from our research lists,
and this should be done, but I wanted to articulate the research
concept at this point. Bonnie, - thanks to the inspiration from
Marzell's "Himmelsbrutt und Teufelsleiter".
In any case, as I wrote in my QM May 1955 article about the Woods
Hole Garden, "with penetrating clarity and impact we are struck by
the impact of intimate devotion disclosed by the Mary-name
symbolisms as we see the flowers," and in my 1960 Queen of All
Hearts article. "working with these plant symbols one is brought to
meditation . . . on our spiritual ancestors who so loved the
Blessed Virgin, the Holy Mother of God, and so reflected upon her
life, graces and mysteries that they saw her praises in plants and
blooms. It is as though one were actually present with and shared
the mind and heart of the Christian to whose lips first came the
words "Mary's Candle" . . . or "Our Lady's Cushion" . . .
Ultimately it is the love, here, that is foremost, and that
manifests itself in the Mary Garden as "a very special kind of
garden, a garden of peace and prayer and love, a garden with a
fullness of meaning and beauty not to be found in the usual herb or
flower garden" (Aves).
The beholding and naming and caring for the flowers of Our Lady is
a very special kind of love - and it is from the perspective of
this love that we look back in history to envisage the radical
origins - the love moments and special graces - of the Mary
symbolisms and names.
Thus, Bonnie, the fruits of four nights' research in Widener
Library at Harvard.
Sincerely, in Our Lady
+
Boston. MA
October 9, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
Since writing you on October 4, I decided to pin down the "Venus
research" once and for all.
As you know, Marzell lists Venus plants in his index, p. 591. I
took the time to look up and take notes on all these references,
which I attach (VNM 1-4). In this, I found four which go back to
the Romans:
Venus' Eyebrows - Achillea millefolium - Dioscorides
Venus' Finger - Cynoglossoa offizinole - Dioscorides
Venus' Hair - Adiantum capellis-veneris - Dioscorides
Venus' Comb - Scandix pectin-veneris - Plinius
- and six more which had "old Latin names" (pre Linneus, 1753)
Venus' Blood - Verbena officindis
Venus' Bath - Dipsacus Silvester
Venus' Chickpea - Cicer arietinum
Venus' Cherry - Nymphaea alba
Venus' Seal - Paris quadrifolis
Venus' Navel - Cotyledon umbilicus
The following had no "old Latin names":
Venus' Flower - Orchid
Venus' Thistle - Silybum marianum
Venus' Grain - Trigonella foenugraecum
Venus' Slipper - Cypripedium calceolus
Venus' Mirror - Legouisa speculum-veneris
Venus' Chariot - Aconitum napellus
Venus' Flytrap - Dionacea muscipula
To complete the picture, we have the following plants with "old
Latin names" for Mary:
Mary's Tree} - Tanacetum balsamita
Mary's Herb}
Mary's Slipper - Cupripedium calceolus
Mary's "Cingulus" - Phyllitis scolopendrium
Mary's Herb - Polygonum persicaria
Mary's Seal - {Polygonatium odoratum
- {Tamus communis
Mary's Thistle - Silybum marianum
In addition to this, from Marzell we have the plants named for Mary
according to Bauhin's De plantis a divis sanctisve nomen habentim,
(1591) which are, according to Gubernatis, "Mythologie Des Plantes"
(I've not been able to get a hold of Bauhin so far):
Mary's Tree - Rosmarinus
Mary's Shoe - Calceolus
Mary Thistle - Cardus marianus
Mary's Gloves - {Campanula
- {Digitalis
Mary's Flower - Nardus celtica (Valeriana)
Mary's Smoke - Absinthus (Artemesia)
Our Lady's Black Smoke - Millefoil (Achellea)
Our Lady's Mint - Menthe spicata
Mary's Herb - {Costus hortenius,
{Eupatorium
{Matrizania
{Gallitrichum sativum (Salvia)
{Tanacetum
{Persicaria (Polygonatum)
One of the more significant items is that while there was an old
Latin name on record for Mary's Slippers - Cypripedium was an
out-and-out invention of Linneas (-as was Speculum Venesis of
Gerard) - although a number of authors (I recall Clute) cite the
Lady Slipper as a supposed prime example of an old Venus-name being
taken over as a Mary-name.
The conclusion this research or scholarship warrants as I see it,
Bonnie, is that there were indeed plants named for Venus (and other
deities) in Roman culture, as there have been for deities in many
cultures together with supporting legends in some instances
- but there is nothing historically comparable to the tremendous
proliferation of Mary-names in Christian culture - which represents
a deeply perceived relationship of affinity between Mary and
flowers, and certainly can't be accounted for as some sort of
cultural taking over of veneration of VenusŠ or Juno or Flora, etc.
One little indication of God's "sense of humor", as manifested in
Providence - The day before yesterday, when I was checking out
Marzell on Venus, a reproduction of the statue of Venus de Milo
appeared in one of the neighborhood yards, (about a block from the
little Mary Garden )Š just for the day. Apparently, it was an
indoor statue someone had just washed it and put it out in the sun
to dry. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera (which is being
repaired).
The print I am enclosing is a photo of a large tapestry , perhaps
10 ft. high, over the main altar of Notre Dame de France Church,
Leicester Square, London, which I visited on the Feast of the
Assumption.
- Designed by a French Benedictine Monk, Dom Robert de Chaunac.
It is called "Our Lady of Creation" and is a representation of the
words of Proverbs 8:30:
"I was with him forming all things,
"Playing before him at all times",
which appear in Latin at the lower left and right.
It seems to me that the association of the Created wisdom with Mary
is such as to clothe her with it as her mantle, after her
Assumption, so that united with it she in fact participates in the
creation through the created wisdom's sustenance of the forms of
all things as a sort of continuing creation of them in the present
- as well as being the seat of the resurrected and ascended Divine
Wisdom Incarnate.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
October 14, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
I am increasingly conscious of a close relationship with souls in
purgatory and heaven, and I feel very close to them. I see very
clearly how souls in purgatory have to go through what we are going
through in our working towards heaven, except that they are unable
to act on their own behalf or for others in the way that we still
can. There is a general tendency to disregard indulgences these
days, but they serve as important reminders that souls in purgatory
do have the same need that we do, concretely and in time, to purge
themselves of, or rather, to be purged of, the heaviness of their
impress and attachments received in the world so they can be
sufficiently purified and lightened for heaven.
There may be certain objections to putting a value of a certain
number of "days" on an indulgenced prayer, but there is
nevertheless concrete, tangible, subtle purification that souls in
purgatory, and on earth, must go through before they can be
received in heaven, and "days" help remind us of this, and of the
fact that our prayers and mortifications can indeed speed up this
process for others.
My recent trip to Pennsylvania gave me an opportunity to drive
through the countryside right at the height of the fall colors.
After a period of warm weather there had just been a severe cold
snap, which turned many of the trees to the most vivid red color,
as sell as to oranges and yellows.
It seems to me that the flaming red of autumn mirrors the heavenly
celebration of Christ as the Lamb that was slain, and all the
martyrs - as distinct from the immolative love on earth, signified
by the crimson roses of spring and summer.
I was very conscious, also, of how the penetrating dark purple of
many of the roadside asters - midst all the yellows, oranges, and
reds of the trees and shrubs - mirror the royalty and rulership of
Christ midst all this heavenly splendor on earth.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
October 18, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
I have come across three additional books in the German folklore
section of Widener Library which I am in the process of
photocopying:
- "A PriestŠof Paderburn" - Krqutweihlegent, Paderburn, 1891
- Nathfusius, Johanne - Die Blumenwest, Deutiche Namen
inn und Deutung, Leipzig, 1869
- Chevalier, L. - Der Deutsche Mythus in der
Pflanzenwelt, Prague, 1876
The first is a description of the custom of gathering and blessing
Assumption Baskets of flowers, herbs and grains in the Diocese of
PaderbornŠ together with poems setting forth legends for
twenty-four of them. This is a sort of companion to Gemminger's
Flowers of Mary for May devotions.
The second is a listing of popular names of plants, together with
explanations, references to legends, etc., with a bibliography from
the 9th century onward and divided into 28 chapters, including:
God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost
The Lord's Cross and Passion
Heaven and the World of Angels
The Childhood of Christ
Old Testament
New Testament
St. John's Flowers
Mary-Flowers (55)
The Calendar of Saints
Sin, Death and the Devil
Church Feastdays
The third book is an extensive attempt to demonstrate that the
Christian names and symbolisms of flowers and plants are only a
superficial overlay, and that the real symbolism continuing in the
unconscious minds of rural Germans is that of the gods and
goddesses of the old German national religion and its myths.
In support of this, the author is able to submit 5 plants named for
Freia:
Vridelisuge - Feverfew
Friggagras - Orchid
Freiahaar - Maidenhair Fern
Friggadorn - White Hedge Rose
Friggatranen - Drossera
and 3 associated with her by legend:
Wegwarte - Chickory
Himmelsschlusel - (Primrose?)
Birke - (Birch)
after coming up with the assertion:
" The rose was the symbol of Freia, as later of the Blessed
Virgin, who must step into her place - when the scholars of
antiquity have not found Venus in her stead. * * *
"Numerous are the plants which have been assigned the name
"Frau", for their ruler, Frouwa, whose name the entire
kingdom of beloved flowers adorning the summertime might
have been given. . . . Most of the sweet-smelling and
medicinal plants of wood and field were sacred to her."
Then, without further comment, he goes on to list 23 popular names
of plants containing "Frauen-", 3 with "Unser Lieben Frauen'", 8
with "Venus-", 16 with "Marien-" and 19 from the English with
"Ladies-". To "prove" his point.
I plan to check German dictionaries for the scholarship,
etymological derivation of "Frau" and of "Frauen-" in the names of
plants, but in the light of Marzell's very few old names of plants
for Freia, and no reference by him to "Frauen-" names derived from
Freia, I seriously question the author's assertions in this regard.
In a quick check of Marzell, I found the following:
I, 118, 119: "The Icelandic 'Freyju-har' . . .that springs from the
latin capillos venerisŠ is Š polytrichum commune" (See III. 963)
II, 167, 169: "Drusera rotundipolie *** 'Frickthau' . .'Frickkruck'
. . . Both names cannot be folk names, but are from the recorder,
who, with partiality, derived German plant names from old German
gods (here from the Norse goddess Frigg = Freia) and constructed
them himself . . . Also that the plant (because of the drops
on the leaves) was called 'Thränen der Frigga (Frigga's Tears) by
our forbearers is phantasy. (1900) 'Frigga taarer' was nothing
other than a scholarly transposition of the old (1786) 'Maarias
Ojentaare' (Mary's Eye, Tears) into heathen".
III, 419, 438, 439: "Orchis * * * 'Venusblume' 1830 . . . probably
a scholarly construction . . . In Iceland, 'Friggiargras' (1867)
the Norse goddess Frigg appears in her attribute of protector of
marriage and goddess of love. She is the equivalent of Venus."
III, 963: Polytrichum commune * * * perhaps the Icelandic
'Freyju-har' . . . (the Islandic name "Gras-mytiar"), which was
given by Halldorsson 1783 is probably only a literary translation
from Capillus Veneris and no true folk-name!)"
(I am unable to find any references in Marzell for Freia or
Feverfew (Chrysanthemum parthenium) or White Hedge Rose (Rosa
Canina)).
Thus, Bonnie , it certainly appears as though we can say with the
backing of the most thoroughgoing lifetime scholarship and research
of Marzell that the Mary-Names and Lady-Names of flowers can in no
way be attributed to mass transfers or replacements of names and
symbolisms originating with Venus and Freia.
The religious and cultural significance of Mary as the immaculately
conceived; ever-virgin; gloriously assumed into heaven; Mother of
God, Souls and Church; and Distributer of Grace, etc. is totally
different from that of Venus and Freia - and so, also, is her
veneration and symbolizing with flowers.
As Auguste Nicolas has said in La Vierge Marie Dans Le Plan Divin,
Paris, 1869:
433. "It is certain truth, of which we find testimony everywhere,
that the material and sensible world was, before the Incarnation,
completely covered and as though travestied by the universal error
of Paganism. The sun was Apollo, the moon was Diana, the sea was
Amphrite, the rivers were Naiades, the forests were Dryades; there
was not a single creature who was not made a divinity, and the
world . . . was no more than a temple of idols: everything was God
except God himself. What a profound operation! What a reversal
of the works of God! What a shameful superstition in its
universality and its duration! . . . What an abyss separates us
from those times! What a profound revolution has taken place in
the human viewpoint, and consequently in the destiny of the
sensible world of which it is the spectator.
"Who is it that dispelled this mythological veil under which nature
was universally shrouded, the Jewish people excepted, for so many
centuries? Who is it that exorcized the world of this universal
possession by the spirit of untruth? Who is it that chased all
there shameful phantoms that had taken in each creature the place
of the Creator? Who is it that rendered to each one of them, to
the sea, the sky, the earth, and all they contain the honor of
reflecting the face of God, his immensity, his power, his goodness,
his wisdom, his providence, and of being investigated and examined
freely by the mind of man, as the testimony of their common and
single Author? Whose lips finally pronounced this new fiat which
brought forth creation for the second time, from an impure chaos?"
434. "It is again the fiat of your humility, Holy Virgin, which
accomplished this great marvel, by drawing into your womb and among
creatures their Creator and Re-creator; it is you, consequently,
to whom all sensible nature, no less than social and moral nature,
owes its restoration . . .
437. "When we take images from nature to explain the truths of
faith, to explain Jesus ChristŠ we make nature serve its principal
purpose, which is to manifest the perfections of God, while at the
same time serving the needs of man . . . perfections present for
our eyes in Jesus Christ just as much as in the creator and to whom
therefore nature should also correspond . . .
438. We do not have to descend from these lofty considerations to
apply them to the most Blessed Virgin . . . the image most closely
conformed to her divine son . . . (Her) attributes of mercy,
holiness, virginity, maternity, humility and all those which shine
in her as this admirable likeness give her also a symbolical right
over nature, which justifies and consecrates all the figures the
Church has applied to her:
Star of the Morning whose return she announces,
Star of the Sea whose tempests she dispels,
Dawn which promises the sun, moon whose modesty shines forth
reflecting and replacing it,
Root of Jesse from which comes the flower of Wisdom,
Gentle Fleece on which the dew of heaven silently falls,
Field of wheat,
Heavenly Garden, Flower of flowers from whom all the
flowers come each springtime to grace and perfume our
altars.
Mary thus receives from everything that is beneficial, fruitful,
sweet and pure in the world a symbolic tribute of praise, as the
most Blessed Lady and Queen of the nature which was restored by her
Divine Maternity."
If scholarship and research have repudiated the claim that the Mary
names and symbolism of plants were transferences and replacements
of the old pagan names for Venus and Freia on any sort of
widespread basis . . . and if theology has given us the fundamental
warrant for using plant symbolisms as likenesses of Mary, we still
have to take a further look at how the Mary-names probably
originated.
Ed wrote so movingly in our 1955 Mary Garden Catalog about how the
Mary names and associations might have been circulated through the
medieval countryside - "through missionaries, monks, and friars,
pilgrims, members of the Crusades and other warriors, the wandering
scholars, roving singers and traveling players, and merchants" -
concluding that "being dedicated to religion in the sense of a
binding to God, the monks (like their transient guests) were
probably the main sources for the spread of plant and flower 'love
names' of religious association or significance."
In my own various writings I attempted to deal with the origination
and perpetuation of the Mary-names and symbolisms of flowers in
terms of supports for loving meditation on "the immaculateness of
Mary's purity, the beauty of her holiness, and the splendor of her
heavenly glory" (Aves) - whereby "Christians thus saw flowers as
special signs of heaven and the unfolding of spiritual life, and
adopted them as symbols of everything pure and holy in Christ and
his Virgin Mother" (CWJ).
At this point, mindful of Nicolas' insights (inspired by St.
Anselm), I see a further need to explore and to attempt to
articulate the very spiritual dynamism which would have generated
the cultural appearance, spread and circulation of Marian flower
symbolism.
I say "cultural" because I think we can see how meditating love
would indeed embrace such flower symbols, and how dedicated
monastics and missionaries would spread them in their preaching and
teaching - but there must be a further dimension for their
widespread cultural acceptance.
Thus, in our work at Mary's Gardens we have found a relatively
small group of persons who have had what Ed described as "a sense
for these things" sufficient to prompt them actively to spread the
practice of growing Mary Gardens - although I believe we have had a
very extensive impact in making the Mary-names and symbolisms
known, and in prompting people to have outdoor shrines with
plantings of flowers - as "pretty gardens for our holy Mother."
But I would not say there has been a general cultural acceptance or
adoption of the use of flower symbols of Our Lady.
For "cultural" use, in addition to "devotional" use, to be spread I
see two important elements:
- The restoration of the blessing and reservation of
flowers as sacred objects, or sacramentals, and
-intensification of the desire for the renewal of the
face of the earth.
In reading Marzell and the "Priest of Paderburn" on the blessing of
plants in church ceremonies on the feasts of Corpus Christi and the
Assumption, and their being taken home by parishioners for use and
reservation as blessed objects - and at the same time being named
and regarded as religious symbols, or made the subject of legends -
it seemed to me that the special character given these plants by
being blessed, and by their enduring presence (as they dry, etc.)
for spiritual use as sacramentals by parishioners was in fact the
spiritual dynamism which led to and sustained their names and
symbolisms through meditation and their being widely used in the
general cultural milieu.
It seems to me that it is from this central religious use, as an
important part of their lives, that the symbolism would then spread
to the waysides, hedgerows and fields - especially in connection
with their collection by children for bringing to the church
blessing ceremony - and be circulated throughout the region by the
monks, pilgrims, wandering minstrels, etcŠ
I know that the National Catholic Rural Life Conference prayer book
has a number of plant blessing ceremonies - which indeed may be
widely used - but it seems to me that for urban, suburban and town
life, what is needed is to re-introduce the custom of
blessing-ceremonies in connection with the uses of flowering plants
in our culture.
Thus, beginning with the established custom of blessing and
distributing palms on Palm Sunday (and burning the ashes for the
next year's Ash Wednesday use), I envisage that altar Christmas
poinsettias and Easter lilies could be formally blessed in church
ceremonies - to which parishioners could also bring their own
poinsettias or lilies which they would then take with them for
their home reservaion, as blessed objects. Altar flowers could be
similarly blessed each Saturday, to which ceremonies parishioners
could bring home bouquets. Special blessings of flowers could take
place on Pentecost and Corpus Christi and on Our Lady's feast days,
especially the Presentation, Annunciation, Visitation, Assumption,
Nativity and Rosary.
This could be a very brief and simple procedure - perhaps actually
on Saturdays when altar flowers are arranged, or when altar flowers
are arranged the day before feast days.
This would fit in with the weekly and yearly schedules of the
parishes, could be tied in with the altar societies, and would
serve to re-introduce the use of flowers as blessed objects.
With flowers used in church and at home as religious objects, they
would come to be seen as channels of grace, like other
sacramentals, such as relics, holy water; blessed rosary beads,
crucifixes, medals and icons, or the making of the sign of the
Cross.
The reverence thus given them would then perhaps provide the needed
basis for seeing them meditatively, and referring to them,
according to their symbolical religious names - which then would be
extended to the garden, neighborhood, roadsides and country sides -
paralleling the way I envisage they were actually spread in the
medieval period.
With respect to the desire for the renewal of the face of the earth
- I think this will continue to grow stronger as people
increasingly become aware of resource depletion, of chemical
pollution, and of nuclear radiation.
If we truly believe in the growth of the New Jerusalem of God:
Peaceable Kingdom on earth, and in the "Renewal of the Face of the
Earth" (which I think we must, if we meditate on God's goodness and
omnipotence), we will yearn to be able actually to see the earth
through the eyes of renewal - and actually to see the sign and
beginning of that renewal as a token of Faith, midst all the
depletion, pollution, and radiation, etc. and sin, sickness,
poverty, injustice, and death.
As distinct from, and in addition to, the devotional use of
religious plant names and symbolisms in church and home, this use
in application to viewing the urban and suburban gardens of others,
and roadsides and field wild-flowers, has a concrete, renewing
quality "out there" in the world . . in response to, and in
beginning fulfillment of, our yearning for "a new heaven and a new
earth". In other words, garden and wildflowers enable us to
envisage the renewal of the face of the earth, just as altar and
shrine or icon flowers enable us to envisage the regeneration of
our souls.
It is this yearning for and beginning envisioning of the New Earth,
the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, the New Jerusalem, that can be the
spiritual dynamism for seeing countryside flowers symbolically - a
dynamism which yearns to use religious flowers (and other) symbols
to spread peace and joy.
It is the deep-felt need for means to envisage the beginning
renewal of the face of the earth that leads to the adoption of a
symbolical way of looking at the flowers dotting the face of the
earth. Simply seeing these flowers in their natural, created
beauty is not enough to renew the earth, since the earth is being
depleted and polluted and irradiated all around them - but seeing
them "baptized" as symbolical of the Gospel, and of the life of
Christ, and of God's plan of and historical movement towards (in
the eyes of faith) redemption and renewal, provides a new and
spiritually realistic hope.
This use of flowers as an especially apt symbolical means for
envisaging, hoping in and working, repairing and praying towards
the renewal of the earth, parallels their use and reservation as
blest, sacred objects.
I neglected to mention that the use of flowers as blest objects, as
sacramentals, requires and awaits a spiritual re-discovery of the
importance and need of blest objects, generally, as such.
This too, will come about through a discovery of the impotence of
natural means to deal with depletion, pollution and irradiationŠ
spiritual depletion, pollution and irradiation of souls, from
Satan, evil spirits, psychic forces, witchcraft, spiritism, etc.
which are increasing so much today in certain cults - where it is
attempted to harm, manipulate, influence and possess people through
these means.
To safeguard against these, and to proceed with the salvation of
souls and the renewal of the earth it is necessary to have recourse
first of all to the Mass, sacraments, liturgy, rosary and prayer -
but also to the sacramentals and blest objects.
Once the need for blest objects is re-appreciated and seen as
urgent, then the appropriateness of using flowers once again for
this purpose will be seen and culturally re-introduced. (Even
Marzell sees the blessing of plants as "superstitious" rather than
"religious")
This have been a long letter, Bonnie, but the research
providentially has occasioned a lot of thoughts on the
re-application of the medieval religious uses of flowers today.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
October 24, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
Enjoyed our talk so much. Thanks for everything.
I should mention by way of continuity, that I put into the mail for
you today copies of two letters I wrote to Brother Sean on Oct.
22-23 and today (in separate envelopes, since the second was a
response to a letter from him that came today.)
In these I carry forward in some detail the thoughts about the
sacramental use of flowers, which I started to develop in my
October 18 letter to you.
The additional references are:
Trubners Deutches Wurterbuch, Berlin, 1940, 8 vol which is the
German dictionary in the reference section of Widener Library at
Harvard, and presumably is the definitive one, equivalent to the
Oxford Dictionary in English.
I looked up "Frauen" in Volume 2, and found the references, which I
will translate in due time, which verifies that in the names of
plants it mostly refers to Our Lady, except in the case of some
healing herbs where it may refer more particularly to women's
ailments, as Marzell also states in connection with certain plants
(although there may be some overlapping).
Etymologically, the word "Frau" does come from old spelling, of
Freia, but this doesn't mean that "Frauen-" in plant, refers to
Freia, because these namings were made much later.
Dierbach, John Heinrich, Flora Mythologica oder Pflanzenkunde in
Bezug auf Mythologie und Symbolik der Griechen and Romer, Frankfurt
am Main, 1833.
This is a thorough, systematic reporting of the old Greek and Roman
plant myths and symbols, including a section on flowers.
The importance of this is that it shows that the legends associated
with Aphrodite and Venus were relatively few, as were those with
other goddesses - showing that there were not great numbers in
existence which could have been simply transferred to Mary in
Christian culture.
Hogg, Hilar, Die Altdeutschen Gotter im Pflanzenreiche, Stuttgart,
1876
This makes the same assertion as Chevalier, which I described in
some detail in my October 18 letter that "Frauen-" in plant names
originally referred to Freia; and then goes on, similarly, to list
all the plants popularly named "Frauen-", " "Unser Liebfrauen-" and
"Marien -" as being named for and associated with Freia at one time
- as repudiated by the dictionary and by Marzell.
There were a handful of flowers associated with Aphrodite, Venus
and Freia by legend or myth, symbolism and name, as there were with
many of the gods - but nothing even approaching the magnitude of
the number of flowers associated with Our Lady, which came to be so
associated through the loving quest for ways of symbolizing and
showing forth the purity, holiness and beauty of Mary herself, and
of the garments she wore and household objects she uses in creating
a nurturing and teaching home and childhood environment for the
education of the Holy Child.
Nor, in Pagan cultures, were flowers especially selected for
inclusion in the very few objects set apart and blessed as
religious, sacramental objects for reserving in special places in
the home and farm building as means of protection and grace, as
they were in Christian culture - eg. Corpus Christi, the Assumption
and the Nativity of Mary, and as palm and olive branches or their
equivalent were on Palm Sunday.
Further, the general inclusion of flowers among the authorized list
of objects which the Church has designated for ritually blessing as
sacramental means to grace embraces their very special character of
having a wide variation of forms, colors, fragrances, habits, etc.
which introduces the opportunity for a wide variety of religious
symbolism to enter into the formation of our modes of seeking,
opening and attuning ourselves to receiving, responding to,
channeling, and instrumenting that grace, through them.
If some Catholics wish to question or "attack" the sacramental use
of flowers, than they have to attack the sacramental use of blessed
crucifixes, relics, holy water, chrisms, medals, rosary beads, and
even the making of the sign of the Cross.
Or, they have to in effect "by-pass" the Church's power of
especially blessing sacramentals, and say that "everything" is a
sacramental source of grace - which seems to be what many
"Charismatics" do.
To sum up, Bonnie, I now consider it extremely important that
flowers, herbs, vegetables and grains have been given authorized,
formal, ritual blessing and sacramental use by the ChurchŠ and I
believe this has been an important historical basis for the
widespread use of flower symbols, and in particular flower symbols
of Mary, in Catholic practice and cultural tradition. Flowers
mediate grace, as sacramentals, and matrix it as symbols.
Due to Protestant opposition to sacramentals and also Anglican
opposition to them as "popery", the sacramental use of flowers have
been very much omitted, attacked or de-emphasized in our
English-language books on flower symbols and legends. It is only
the German research which has opened my eyes to them,
providentially, for which I thank God.
Sincereely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
October 25, 1980
Dear Bonnie,
I am overjoyed that the solar greenhouse is about to become a
reality, and that you stood your ground on matters of principleŠ
the need for it to be big enough to be practical, and not a "toy",
towards which you were willing to contribute your own supplementary
funds; and their moral obligation to hold to their initial offer as
to the amount of this (instead of doubling it).
This is a time for double-checking of details, so make sure
everything is provided and done properly and thoroughly.
I will keep on the lookout when I go to the Harvard botanical
library, for Martinez. However, I believe I previously found this
book at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1964,
and that it is listed in my letter to you of 6/29/80Š as Catalogo
de Nombres Vulgates Y Cientifices de Plantas Mexicanas. I enclose
my 11 pages of research notes, in Xerox copy. These were included
in the "yellow" tropical and semi-tropical list of 1/29/65,
wherever I could verify the species botanical identifications in
Hortus 2 and/or Exotica 3.
I will look forward to receiving the Crown of Thorns, The White
Flowered Plant (I didn't note the name when we talked before)
(Eucharis Lily 11/1/80 phone) and the two books = the "Lace Book"
and The Mary Book, Vol. II.
It was so good to hear your voice, and to discuss all these matters
over the phone last night.
There is one more matter from the research I want to speak of now,
even though I haven't translated the relevant texts from the
German, or even combed through all the texts I have; and that is
the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, June 24, and all
the customs and flowers associated with it.
This feast is frequently referred to as the Pagan celebration of
the summer solstice, involving the lighting of a lot of bonfires,
with related festivities and customs, which was "taken over" by
Christians by making a few superficial changes to incorporate it
into Christian belief and culture.. .much as the alleged extensive
flower associations with Venus and Freia were supposed to have been
taken over as equivalent associations with Mary, and Christmas was
supposed to be merely a modification of the winter solstice
celebration of Pagan culture.
- the implication always being that Christianity is the
"equivalent" of the older religions and really the same basic
natural religion in a different guise or expression.
The important thing about the Mary-Flowers in refuting this
assertion is that they have such multiple associations with all the
feasts of Our Lady through the year, and in number so vastly exceed
those associated with Aphrodite, Venus and Freia, that the basic
assertion of equivalence and of historical continuity simply fails
to meet the test of research and reason.
However, in the case of the Birth of St. John and Christmas, we are
only dealing with one day or time of year in each instance, so that
there can indeed be said to be a probable "conversion" or "baptism"
as far as observance and custom are concerned - but this in no way
means that they are fundamentally equivalent, or are the same
natural religious observances under different guises. Here, again,
I believe that an examination of the flower customs, symbolisms and
namings associated with the St. John's Eve bonfires gives us a clue
to the deeper truths involved. In the overall context of the
sacramental use of flowers a blest and reserved religious objects -
particularly in the Assumption Day baskets of Flowers blessings -
we have here in contrast, a sort of "opposite" ceremony, where not
on the holy day of the feast, but on its eve (paralleling Halloween
before the Feast of All Saints) a "St. John's Girdle" woven from
Artemesia vulgaris was filled with seasonal flowers which were then
suspended over the bonfires for burning, accompanied by various
songs and chants to the effect that the people thereby be delivered
of their sins and afflictions.
I have nowhere read that the plants for this ceremony were in any
way blessed or sacramentalized in church, and my immediate source
of information on this at hand, Nathusius' Die Blumenwelt, in fact
cites one reference to the inclusion of plants with folk names of
"devil's bite" and "devil's excrement" in these girdles, which
further indicates that this was a sort of scapegoat ceremony.
After describing the importance of the fiery-red burning at these
girdles, Nathusius then goes on to say:
"In the region of Saxony St. John's Crowns of white St. John's
Flowers, cornflowers, poppiesŠwere hung in the vestibules of houses
to bring blessings to house and field."
While he doesn't say so, I would expect, from the church blessing
of Corpus Christi wreaths and Assumption Day Baskets of Flowers,
Plants, and Grains for similar use, that these crowns were in fact
sacramentally blessed in churches, on the next day's Feast of St.
John, for use as reserved religious objects.
In any case, Bonnie, we can see that the St. John's Even bonfires
symbolize the prophecy of Zechariah (Luke 1, 78-79) relative to
John the Baptist as forerunner of Christ, that:
"The dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on
those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of deathŠ"
- in fact, according to Nathusius one of the St. John's flowers is
Zechariah's Plant (Zachariaskraut), Centaurea cyanus.
And the burning of flowers symbolized the grace of purging sins in
response to St. John the Baptist's call to repentance.
Just yesterday (to show again how overflowing, yet intimate, is
God's Providence) I was talking to one of the Jesuit Priests at the
Chapel, Father O'Kane, about the "Our Lady's Tears" symbolism of
the white and pink Martagon lily hybrids on the altar (they have
lilium speciosum white and pink coloring, but the very definite
Lilium martagon bloom contour), and also thanking him again for a
homily he gave about six months ago on how flowers, through their
response to the sun, give us lessons in the humility and obedience
under God's Providence,
- and he said to me, "oh, I was just reading where John the Baptist
said, 'Even now the ax is laid to the root of the tree. Every tree
that is not fruitful will be cut down and thrown into the fire'
(Luke 3, 9) - Plant teachings are everywhere in the Scriptures." I
didn't connect this passage with the custom of throwing the "St.
John's Girdles" of plants into the bonfires of St. John's Eve until
just this moment of writing this letter to you.
I do not consider that it would be fitting to bless plants that are
to be so quickly thrown into the bonfire (Although blest palms are
of course required to be burned, and are used as the ashes for the
following Ash Wednesday) but I would propose that any graces of
repentance that in fact are operative through this ceremony can be
in part attributed to the general "first fruits" blessings of
flowers on Church altars and in blessing ceremonies.
In any case, it is very clear to me from all these considerations,
Bonnie, that the many St. John's Flowers derived their namings more
particularly from their use in the St. John's Eve bonfire
ceremonies, rather than from simply being in bloom, apart from the
ceremonies, around June 24.
It may also be possible, as a secondary association, that a number
of them may have a yellow, orange or red fiery association, but I
haven't checked them out for a preponderance of this sort.
Also, in relation to the bonfires, we have the words of the John
Gospel prologue (1;7) that John the Baptist "came as a witness to
testify to the light."
But the primary import of the St. John's Eve bonfire ceremonies
would seem to me to quicken the grace of repentance by the burning
of one's sins in order that one would not oneself be "cut down and
thrown into the fire."
And presumably, through the naming of the St. John's Plants from
their throwing in the fire, or even from their only being in bloom
around that time, and thus "prospects" for the fire, they would be
seen according to this association and symbolism as they grew in
the fields, and thus be means to the grace of repentance.
Also, those plants in the preserved St. John's Crowns would appear
to symbolize those souls who did in fact repent - and thus would
provide a symbolic association appropriate to their use as blest,
reserved, sacramental, objects, for the sacramental protection and
blessing of homes, stables, workplaces, fields, etc.
I'm sure it can be demonstrated that Pagans sacrificed flowers and
plants in bonfires in sun worship at the summer solstice, but this
cannot be said to be the pre-cursor of the Christian repentance
bonfire ceremonies.
Jesus, too, I recall, made references to grass being thrown into
the fire to be burned and John's message and call to repentance
were only a fore-runner of this, so that Jesus' ministry is the one
ultimately involved here (just as his redemption is implicit and
anticipated in Mary's Immaculate Conception.)
Finally, I propose that the casting of flowers in the St. John's
Eve bonfires serves to remind and caution us against the naturalist
superstition that flowers and nature are "automatically" good for
usŠ whereas if we are not sanctified, and they are not blest and
sacramentalized, they may very well serve as allurements and
temptations to emotional or spiritual gluttony, lust or even
avarice (e.g. the "Tulip Mania"), as checked out