+
 
                                               Go to Home Page
                                               Intro Mary Garden

                .

                                          marysgardens@mgardens.org
                                          October 7, 1995
                                          Mary of the Rosary



October, Month of the Rosary

Friends,

	Welcome to our Mary's Gardens Internet Home Page, introduced
this month of October, 1995, the month of the Rosary and Mary's
glory.


          In wild October when the low hills lie
          With open eye
          And own the land like lions,

          Our prayer is like the thousands in the far,
              forgotten stadiums,
          Building its exultation like a tower of fire,
          Until the marvelous woods spring to their feet
          And raise the skies with their red-headed shout.

                                     - Thomas Merton
                                       "Two States of Prayer"


	We are reminded, with affection, of our late Mary's Gardens
co-founder, Edward A. G. McTague, the "Father of Mary's Gardens",
who would hope each year that, in our northern temperate climatic
zone, we would have those special days of "October's Bright Blue
Weather" in which the profuse plantings of our American marigolds
(Tagetes) in his beloved Cape May, New Jersey, would blaze forth in
the special glory of what he termed, a "Marigold Fall".

     The first record we have found of a flower named for Mary is
that of "seint mary gouldes" (St. Mary's Gold or Marygold) for the
Pot Marigold or Calendula, in a 1373 English recipe for a potion
to ward off the plague.  There also come to mind the "Marigold
Windows" of the medieval cathedrals.  Over the door of Barclay's
Bank building in Oxford is the old name "Marigold House".

	The photograph below shows the Marigold Fall at the Mary Garden of
the late Bonnie Roberson of Hagermann, Idaho, who carried forward
the work of Mary's Gardens from 1968 through 1983.

.


	The love for the marigold is set forth in:

                      The MaryGold

          Long years ago, ere faith and love
          Had left our land to sin and shame,
          Her children called my blossoms bright
          By their sweet Mother's gentle name.
          And when amid the leaflets green
          They saw sweet "Mary-buds" unfold,
          In honour of the Angels' Queen
          They plucked the Royal Marygold.

          I was the favourite of the poor,
          And bloomed by every cottage door,
          Speaking of Heaven's Fair Queen to men.
          They loved me for the name I bore.
          There is no love for Marye now,
          And faith died out when love grew cold.
          Men seldom raised their hearts to Heav'n
          Though looking at the Marygold.

          But Marye from her throne on high
          Still looks on England and on me:
          The namesake of the Queen am I,
          The Ladye of the Land is she.
          And surely she must win once more
          Her heritage to Christ's True Fold:
          Then to her children, as of yore,
          Will preach again the Marygold.

           - Legends of Our Ladye and the Saints, London. (1870)



	We hope you will visit our home page each month as we add
materials from our 45 years of archives, and that you will join in
our work of restoring love of the medieval Flowers of Our Lady and
Mary Gardens today.

                                           Sincerely,


                                           Mary's Gardens

                                     									

                                               Go to Home Page