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   Fair Maids of                              St. Simeon's Flower
     February                                   ("Many Hearts")
 

                                         marysgardens@mgardens.org
                                         February, 1996


NEW, FEBRUARY 1996


For us at Mary's Gardens, Candlemas Day, The Feast of the
Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, February 2nd, marks
the beginning of the new gardening year as we look in the
northeastern United States for the first buds or blooms of
Snowdrops, known also as Candlemas Bells, Purification Flower and
Fair Maids of February - one of many flowers given names for the
liturgical feasts of the Church for which they are in bloom.

In Europe Candlemas was the pivotal day on which it was discerned
by various signs of nature whether there was to be early or late
spring weather - a popular tradition which has been continued in
the United States as Groundhog's Day.

In our Mary's Gardens thoughts and prayers Candlemas is also the
anniversary of the passing of Frances Crane Lillie, of beloved
memory, who in 1932 established the first public Mary Garden in
the United States beside the Angelus Tower, given by her, at St.
Joseph's Church in Woods Hole, on Cape Cod, Massachuestts.

Blooming, in the liturgical cycle of Mary, on Candlemas (Feb 2)
- between the feasts of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple
(Nov  21) and the Annunciation (Mar 25) - the "Fair Maids of
February", the first blooms of spring, bring into view, as it
were, the maidenly spirituality of Mary, the Mystical Rose, in
which, preserving the graces of the Immaculate Conception, she
grew in fullness of grace in readiness for her fiat, her "yes",
in response to the call of the Annunciation.

 Candlemas also recalls the Prophecy of Simeon at
 the time of the Presentation of Jesus in the
 Temple that he was to be "a light unto the
 gentiles" (hence the holding of lighted
 candles at Mass by all the faithful, giving
 rise to the name Candlemas).  His further
 prophecy that Jesus was to be "a sign that
 was to be contradicted" whereupon Mary's soul
 was to be "pierced by a sword, that the
 thoughts of many hearts will be revealed" is
 symbolized by the blade-like foliage of Iris,

known as "Mary's Sword" (of Sorrow) - and also by the tiny
spear-like foliage of Snowdrops.

A Third flower associated with this feast is St. Simeon's Flower,
Malva moschata, so named because it is a herb the application of
which was believed to give light to the blind (and whose red,
heart-like flower petals recall for us the "many hearts" whose
thoughts are revealed through their response to Mary's sword of
sorrow).