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Intro Mary Garden
Mary Garden Jubilee
Coming Mary Garden Jubilee
QUEEN May-June, July-Aug, 1982
John S. Stokes, Jr.
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Garden of Our Lady, Woods Hole - Simplified Planting, 1965
Fifty years ago, what is believed to be the first public Mary
Garden in history was planted on the lawn of the Angelus Tower of
St. Joseph's Church, Woods Hole, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
The Woods Hole "Garden of Our Lady" was unique in that it
incorporated in its planting over forty of the symbolical Flowers
of Our Lady from the medieval folk traditions of the countrysides,
to bring the idealized Mary Gardens of Renaissance religious
painting into the domain of contemporary flower gardening and
Marian devotion.
A 1946 article about the Garden of Our Lady by priest-poet,
James J. Galvin, C.SS.R., provided the inspiration for the
project, Mary's Gardens, of Philadelphia, founded by Edward A. G.
McTague and the writer, which has been promoting the planting of
Mary Gardens internationally since 1951, with headquarters moved
to Hagerman, Idaho, 1968 to 1982 under the direction of a third
partner since 1962, Bonnie Roberson.
This year, 1982, for its golden jubilee, the Woods Hole
Garden of Our Lady is being fully restored according to its
originally developed planting plan for the first time since
destruction of the planting by a hurricane in 1938. The
restoration has been prompted by the rediscovery of the garden's
historical uniqueness and significance by the parishioners in the
course of research undertaken for the writing of a commemorative
history for the centennial of St. Joseph's Parish - being
celebrated on June 26th of this year. St. Joseph's was the first
Catholic parish in its area with original boundaries extending to
Hyannis, and including Nantucket Island.
St. Joseph's Garden of Our Lady was conceived and donated by
Frances Crane Lillie of Chicago, a summer resident of Woods Hole,
where her husband, Dr. Frank R. Lillie, was President and Director
of the Marine Biological Laboratory. Mrs. Lillie provided the
garden as an adjunct to the Angelus Tower she had donated for St.
Joseph's Church several years earlier, and which was blest and
dedicated to St. Joseph by the Auxiliary Bishop of Fall River in a
formal procession from the church and a ceremony at the tower on
July 31, 1930.
A convert to Roman Catholicism in the 1920's, under the
mentorship of Baron Friedrich Von Hugel, Mrs. Lillie was highly
zealous in her new-found faith and clearly conceived of the Angelus
Tower and Garden of Our Lady as a religious statement and summons
to the scientists and students at the Marine Biological Laboratory,
directly across Woods Hole's Eel Pond from St. Joseph's Church. To
this end, the two bells of the tower, cast in England, were
inscribed with the names of Mendel and Pasteur, honoring these two
Catholic pioneers of genetics and of bacteriology, and bore the
further inscriptions, "I will teach you of life and of life
eternal" and "Thanks be to God". After the dedication ceremony,
the bishop gave a short homily at the church on the relation
between religion and science, followed by benediction of the
Blessed Sacrament.
At the base of the tower was a small room, resembling a
medieval monastic oratory or scriptorum, with stained glass
windows, miniature Stations of the Cross circling the walls, and a
library of Catholic and other books of the highest intellectual
calibre of which over one hundred were still there in 1952, when
they were catalogued. On the bronze tower door were scenes from
the life of St. Joseph, executed by artist, Alfeo Faggi.
It was in the lawn extending some sixty feet to the east of
the tower that Mrs. Lillie established the twenty-foot-square
garden, with adjacent wooden chairs for those who would like to
rest or read. Evidently it was in considering what kind of garden
would be an appropriate complement to the tower and oratory that
she recalled the symbolical Flowers of Our Lady, of which she had
learned in England, and conceived the idea of planting them as a
Garden of Our Lady. To provide a focal figure for the garden she
commissioned artist, V. M. S. Hannell, to execute an original
sculptured concrete figure of the Virgin, as she might have been
standing at the moment of the Annunciation - proclaimed by the
thrice-daily ringing and praying of the Angelus. In a printed
leaflet listing for visitors the old religious names of flowers
along with their present-day familiar names, Mrs. Lillie referred
to the sculptured figure, the symbolical flowers and the garden,
together, as "Our Lady in Her Garden "
In developing the Garden of Our Lady, Mrs. Lillie drew upon
the flowers listed in "The Mary Calendar" by Judith Smith. Then
she interested an academic friend, Winifred Jelliffe Emerson, of
Chicago, in undertaking an extensive research of the old religious
names of flowers as recorded in English botanical, folklore and
linguistic studies. From this research, she then selected the
sixty-one plants of particular symbolic richness listed in the
leaflet, and began to plant the garden in 1932.
Among the flowers were Virgin Flower, Madonna Lily, Our
Lady's Slipper, Our Lady's Bedstraw, Eyes of Mary, Our Lady's
Fingers, Madonna's Pins, Purification Flower, Cross Flower, The
Virgin's Tears, Assumption Lily, Mary's Gold, Ladder to Heaven,
Our Lady's Mantle and Trinity Flower.
Finding that many of these English wildflowers were difficult
to obtain, or had special requirements for garden cultivation,
Mrs. Lillie engaged landscape architect Dorothea K. Harrison of
Boston in 1933 to make a horticuturally more appropriate selection
from among the symbolical flowers of Mrs. Emerson's growing
research list of by now several hundred species, and to design a
formal Mary Garden for planting around the Hannell sculpture,
which was placed in a central cross-shaped bed.
The actual planting, which also included a number of
symbolical flowers from Mrs. Harrison's own research, was made
under the supervision of renowned Cape Cod builder and nurseryman,
Wilfred Wheeler, Mrs. Lillie's brother-in-law, who had served as
first Agricultural Commissioner of the State of Massachusetts and
had built the Angelus tower, designed by a Boston firm of
architects. After the years of revisions, a final plan, "Plan
#10," of forty-seven flower varieties, was arrived at in 1937, by
which time Mrs. Emerson's research list of plants had grown to
include five hundred Flowers of Our Lady from which to choose.
It was the following year that the garden planting was
totally destroyed by a hurricane, after which only a partial
restoration of plant varieties was made. Then, after destruction
a second time by hurricane in 1944, a replanting was made with a
conventional selection of a few varieties of flowers commonly
cultivated in summer gardens in the area, and the originally
posted list of the plants - giving their old names and explaining
the background of their symbolism - was abandoned.
However, through Fr. Galvin's articles about the garden,
based on a 1942 visit, and the subsequent interviews of Edward A.
G. McTague and the writer with its founders, the idea of the
garden has been kept alive for a new blossoming in this year's
restoration under the initiative of parishioners of St. Joseph's.
Moreover, in the course of thirty years of extensive research
into the folklore, floral art and gardens of medieval and
Renaissance England, Ireland, France, Germany, the Low Countries,
Spain and Latin America by Mary's Gardens, we have found
the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady to be of far greater historical
importance than we originally recognized.
We fully expected that our research would uncover records of
numerous Mary Gardens from which we could obtain additional flower
symbolism, plans and descriptions of specific gardens, and
information as to their origins and history. Our actual findings
were very different. We found over one thousand flowers with
names symbolical of Mary from botanical and folklore sources, but
no records of gardens of such flowers. The "Mary Gardens" of
Renaissance religious art were found to be ideally conceived,
rather than based on actual gardens. A Mary Garden reported as
existing at Melrose Abbey in Scotland likewise appeared to be
imaginatively envisaged, as an embellishment of a documented
historical report that the abbot and some of the monks there had
private gardens. An oft-cited "S. Mary's Garden" mentioned in the
accounting records of Norwich Cathedral Priory is believed to have
been a traditional monastic rose garden or "rosary "
Mrs. Lillie told us she herself knew of no actual other Mary
Gardens, but "did not think I was doing anything unusual", in
planting the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady. However, this garden
may have been the first garden to be planted entirely with
symbolical flowers of the countrysides.
It was possibly also unique as a public garden expressly
planted to be of itself a votive offering to Mary rather than as a
setting or landscaping for her statue or shrine. And in this it
was also distinct from the traditional monastery and church
sacristan's gardens which, while often dedicated to Mary were
established pimarily to provide flowers for use and offering
elsewhere: at churches, shrines, images, processions, festivals
and crownings. As Mrs. Lillie described it, it was "her garden",
Our Lady's Garden - making it a very special kind of place and
making all the work of caring for it, with all the thoughts and
meditations evoked by its symbolism and beauty, potentially a very
special kind of prayerful work.
In this prayerful atmosphere, the interior mental practice of
meditating on miniature scenes from Mary's life and mysteries
surrounded by symbolical flowers in Books of Hours could now be
moved out into the actual Mary Garden. In fact, flower symbols
could now be found in the garden relating to all the mysteries of
the rosary, which itself was originally considered an ideal garden
of roses offered to Mary as the Aves and mysteries were prayed on
the "enclosed garden" of the rosary beads.
Whether or not there were other Mary Gardens prior to the
Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady, the over thirty thousand letters
received by us from throughout the United States and many other
countries - elicited by over sixty articles and several hundred
additional press mentions - have demonstrated that the tradition
of the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Garden has been renewed in
religious culture; and that the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady is
the mother garden of the present day world-wide Mary Garden
movement. Student of monastic spirituality, Thomas Morton, wrote
us from Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey, Kentucky in 1952:
"We shall try to make good use of the seeds, in order
that Mary may have many flowers to look upon, in her
honor and in that of her Risen Son, Our Savior, when May
comes.
"They will receive purer prayers from us because of the
incentive you have offered us. And may you benefit by
all this in your turn. God bless you always."
The Garden of Our Lady also appeared to be unique in that it
was conceived as a garden with a religious message, for the world
and, particularly, for the life sciences. The names and
inscriptions of the Angelus bells, Mendel and Pasteur - displayed
on a prominent bronze plaque imbedded in the stone structure of
the Angelus tower - and the list and planting plan of the
symbolical flowers of Our Lady make clear that the tower and
garden are intended to bring a message to visitors and to the
surrounding community. To this end, their location across the
street from St. Joseph's Church provides a ready accessibility
that gives visitors a sense of welcome and of freedom as they
enter.
The message of the Garden of Our Lady is that in the
religious thought and devotion of other times and places, flowers
were seen as religious symbols; and that these symbols, with their
legends and poetry, still offer us riches of love, illumination
and meditation today. The message is, further, that within the
overall unity of the physical and spiritual, all material things
may be seen as symbols or illuminations of religious truths -
whether of the divine attributes, of revealed scripture, or of the
stages by which we can come to know and grow in union with God to
further the building of his earthly kingdom.
Plants and flowers are mirrors reflecting whatever view of
nature the visitor may bring to a garden. Thus, on encountering
the symbolism of the Flowers of Our Lady at St. Joseph's, the
visitor may respond to them in a number of ways. Responses might
range from a flood of mystical insights from experiencing the
luminosity of the flower symbols revealed by the religious names
as shown on the plant markers; to an attempt to relegate the
religious plant names to "interesting plant lore" of no
present-day religious importance; to vigorous or even contemptuous
objection to "superimposing" doctrinaire religious values on the
natural goodness and beauty of flowers.
Objections to religious flower symbolism often reveal a belief
that the hope for peace and renewal on earth is to be found
ultimately in the goodness of nature - that nature contains within
itself the power of its own redemption and renewal. Accordingly,
what is sought in visiting a garden or the countryside is
enjoyment of its purity and beauty, and poetic and mystical
communion with it, without the need or intrusion of formal
symbolism of any redemptive source outside it, such as the
symbolism of the Flowers of Our Lady.
From this viewpoint, the effectiveness of the redemptive
power of nature, including human nature, may be seen as awaiting a
more intensive and enlightened pursuit of science and technology -
including the life, psychological and social sciences, as well as
the physical sciences. Or, it may be seen as awaiting the more
faithful pastoral pursuit of natural human goodness, broader grass
roots political action, natural foods and medicines, appropriate
technology, environmental protection, ecological balance, solar
energy, or some other goodness of nature. So long as this belief
in the ultimate discoverability and effectuation of created
goodness is held out as the primary hope of society, there is a
rejection of any call to faith in supernatural truth, grace,
illumination and power, as illusory or hypocritical.
However, as the power of matter released by science becomes
more and more destructive; as social injustices become more
blatant with increased communications exposure; as the depletion
of topsoil and mineral resources is accelerated; as environmental
pollution worsens; and as initiative for social change becomes
more desperate and terroristic, the basic faith in the redemptive
sufficiency of the goodness of nature is increasingly called into
question.
As this occurs, the redemptive alternative, for our eternally
springing hope, is to rise from the perceived goodness, beauty,
purity, wisdom and power of nature to faith and acts of faith in
the infinite supernatural goodness, beauty, purity, wisdom and
power of God - seen as mirrored and reflected by nature - Who
provides for the world as its Creator and Sustainer; who has
redemptively overcome the world on the Cross; and Who makes
available the means of renewal in the sending of his Holy Spirit.
Once the truths of our redemption and renewal are perceived
as mirrored in the forms of nature, then our vision is opened to
see them mirrored still further in the imagery of the natural
sciences. This would appear to be the message of the Garden of Our
Lady to scientists, as strikingly anticipated (inspired?) by a
passage from Auguste Nicolas' "La Vierge Marie Dans Le Plan
Divin", 1869 (trans):
"When the Word was born of Mary to put his seal on his
work, when he remade the moral world, he created a new
heaven and a new earth to the sight of humankind, a new
heaven and a new earth which have their hope, their
moral reason, in Christianity, the only true philosophy
of nature, and of the history of the world.
"Thus, when we take images from nature to explain the
truths of faith, to explain Jesus Christ, we do not make
such a far-fetched and indiscreet borrowing as one might
suspect. On the contrary, we make nature serve its
primary purpose, which is to manifest the perfections of
God, while at the same time serving the needs of
humanity, perfections produced for our eyes in Jesus
Christ as their origin, to whom therefore the copy
should correspond.
"Further, we do not hesitate to say that the order of
the natural sciences, including the processes of these
sciences, profoundly reflects Jesus Christ and his
mysteries. Indeed, it soars even higher than nature,
pushes farther ahead in its secrets, and arrives, as
though by the formulas of a transcendental and divine
alphabet, at marvelous illuminations which associate it
with the vision of angels, and anticipate some of the
answers that are reserved for us by eternity.
"We do not have to descend from these lofty
considerations to apply them to the most Blessed Virgin.
As the image most closely conformed to her divine Son,
she is herself, through the grace of this
correspondence, a moral type surpassing all creatures
. . . The attributes of mercy, holiness, virginity,
maternity, humility and all those which shine in this
admirable type give her also a symbolical claim to
nature which justifies and consecrates all the figures
applied to her. . . . Mary thus receives from everything
that is beneficial, fruitful, sweet and pure in the
world a symbolical tribute of praise as the most Blessed
Lady and Queen of the nature which was restored through
her divine maternity. "
When we consider St. Joseph's Bells as ringing out the
message of the angel to Our Lady in her Garden in Woods Hole, the
entire garden becomes a symbol proclaiming her excellences and
privileges as the representative and epitome of all life on earth
- who, through her fiat, opened up all natural life to the
supernatural life of God. Whether her Immaculate Conception is
perceived as a restoration of the original integrity and purity of
creation, from a "creationist" viewpoint, or as a spiritual
"selection" or "mutation," from an "evolutionist" viewpoint, Mary
was "our tainted nature's solitary boast," whose utter purity,
humility, openness, obedience, love and perpetual freedom from sin
made possible her fullness of grace and overshadowing by the Holy
spirit for the conception, bearing, nurturing and teaching of, and
redemptive partnership with, the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
From this viewpoint, Mary is seen as opening up the continuum
between natural and supernatural life wherein all life is
redeemed, renewed and drawn by God's love to fullness and
culmination in angelic praise of and participation in the eternal
life of the Trinity. "I will teach you of life and of life
eternal." "Thanks be to God."
But once the world of nature and science is seen to symbolize
the divine truth, grace, wisdom, plan and power of redemption and
renewal, there then arises the question of how we are to instrument
these in our daily lives and work.
Here again religious nature tradition points the way. By
placing the Garden Of Our Lady on Church grounds, Mrs. Lillie,
founder of the garden, tapped a still deeper tradition of the
rural religious use of plants and flowers, namely their ritual
blessing for reservation as religious objects in homes, barns and
workshops, where they served as means for the flow of grace and as
foci for providential protection and favor - similar to the
blessing and use of crucifixes, medals, prayer beads, candles and
holy water.
Written formulas and rites have come down to us from the 9th
century - no doubt reflecting earlier practices - which were used
in church blessings of plants, flowers and grains on the feasts of
the Branches (Palm Sunday), Pentecost, Corpus Christi, St. John's
Eve, the Assumption, the Nativity of Mary and on other occasions.
Blessings were also performed in gardens and fields by the
clergy - or by the laity - employing holy water and plants
especially blest in church for sprinkling it. First fruits
blessings, in church or field, were perceived as extending to all
plants of the garden, field, orchard or vineyard.
It is the priestly blessing of the Woods Hole Garden of Our
Lady - incorporating it in the sacramental channels of the Church
- which imparts the sense of holiness to it, and makes it a source
of grace, in augmentation of the Mass and Liturgical Hours, for the
religious efficacy of the symbolical flowers in hearts and minds.
The very symbolical forms, textures, colors, purity and beauty of
flowers could be said to generate in us an illuminative attunement
for reception of corresponding actual graces flowing from their
blessing. In our conduct of the Mary's Gardens project through
the years, we have felt drawn back again and again to St. Joseph's
and the Garden of Our Lady as a font of actual graces for our work.
These, then, are some of the riches offered by St. Joseph's
Church Angelus Tower Garden of Our Lady, as attention is being
called to it through its golden jubilee restoration for the St.
Joseph's Parish centennial celebration.
With a view to future generations, the builders dug down
twenty-five feet to anchor the foundation of the Angelus tower in
rock; and a stone sea wall was built to protect the plot of the
tower and garden against erosion from high waters pouring in from
the sea through the Eel Pond inlet. The garden beds were edged
with cut stone, and the Hannell sculpture of Our Lady was designed
with rounded surfaces to withstand the weather. Mrs. Lillie, who
died in 1958 at the age of eighty-eight, bequeathed a trust fund
to provide income for tower, sea wall, plot and garden maintenance
through the years.
Now, with the rekindling of the original vision of the Garden
of Our Lady through the parish research, headed up by Jane A.
McLaughlin, Parish Historian - and with the support of Fr. James P.
Dalzell, the present Pastor of St. Joseph's - a Mary's Garden
Society has been formed to carry forward the restoration. In
addition to locating nursery sources for the plants on the plan,
and arranging for their transportation and planting at the proper
times, the committee members will give special care to the garden
and will maintain a supply of plant lists and markers and also
leaflets and article reprints about the garden so that its full
message will be made known to visitors and will be sustained as a
part of the life of the parish.
To seal the reciprocity between the Garden of Our Lady and
the Mary Garden Movement inspired by it, nursery sources for some
of the more-difficult-to-find plants have been searched out by
Mary's Gardens: and Madonna Lily bulbs from the renowned Mary
Garden of Bonnie Roberson at the 1968 - 1982 international Mary
Garden center in Hagerman, Idaho, were donated as the first
restoration plants to be planted last fall.
In this centennial/jubilee year may the bells of St. Joseph's
Church Angelus tower proclaim the bursting forth of new
transfiguring love from the beautiful Garden of Our Lady atop
Woods Hole's heart shaped Eel Pond!