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Intro Mary Garden
The St. Mary's Garden at Melrose Abbey, Scotland
Melrose Abbey Today
Mary's Gardens Introduction
The following account of Brother David's pre-Reformation St.
Mary's Garden at Melrose Abbey in Scotland is excerpted from
Chapter I, "In a Monastery Garden", of Rosetta E. Clarkson's book,
Green Enchantment (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1940), where
it is intertwined with extensive historical data on monastic
gardens.
It appears to be an imaginitive reconstruction based on the
historical facts of (1) reports of 1533 and 1534 in the archives of
the General Chapter of the Cistercian Order at Citeaux, France, of
an inquiry into the state of order in Scotland, which questioned
that at Mailros Abbey the abbot and a number of the brothers had
private gardens, possibly in violation of the monastic vows of
poverty; (a special dispensation was made that gardens could be
worked on by individuals, but no individual ownership could be
claimed, and free access to all gardens was to be allowed); (2)
accounting records mentioning plant purchases for the St. Mary's
Garden at Norwich Priory; and (3) the documented popular traditions
of the Flowers of Our Lady.
o O o
In a Monastery Garden
"Though the boy, David, (of the village of Mailros) could not
read, write or sing, he could make a seed or seedling grow in any
kind of soil. For him plants seemed to spring earlier than for
the neighbors. His were the first violets, the first paigles, the
first bluebells. If a plant looked sickly or blasted he could
coax it back to health. A green finger he had, to besure, said
everyone. . . .
"Once Brother Robert (from nearby Mailros Abbey), knowing the
boy's love for flowers and plants, told him about St. Fiacre,
patron saint of gardeners. . . .
"'Did he grow his flowers for the Virgin? Did he decorate the
village church?' asked David eagerly. . . . A new light shone in
his eyes as he thought, 'I shall grow my plants for the altar.'
And after that, while others praised the Lord on Sundays by
singing, . . . on other days he would bear armfuls of rosemary,
lilies, hyssop, into the church and, devoutly kneeling, would
offer them to the Virgin. Now he had a new vision. If he could
study the needs of the plants and grow more and more beautiful
ones, he would serve the Lord as St. Fiacre had done.
"One day Brother Robert noticed the boy cutting branches of
rosemary more luxuriant than he had ever seen and starting off
towards the village church. He followed after a while and came
upon the boy in prayer before the Virgin's shrine. When David
arose, the Brother was beside him. 'A beautiful gift, my boy,'
and going out of the church into the warm sunshine, David poured
forth his dreams and longings to the friendly monk, who listened
sympathetically and encouraged him to talk.
"When the boy stopped . . . Brother Robert said quietly, 'You
shall come to us, David. Our brotherhood believes that there are
many ways of preparing for heaven. I shall teach you to read and
write...enough to take orders. But if I am not mistaken, you will
be allowed to serve by the gift God has given you.'
"So David finally went to the Abbey, was placed under the
instructor in the Chamber of Novices, and also under the
gardenarius, who set him to work in the kitchen garden as a
disciplinary test of the boy's sincerety. But David, who yearned
to grow decorative herbs for the church and processions,
cheerfully and enthusiastically raised the finest onions,
cabbages, and turnips the monastery had known in many a year. At
the end of his trial, David was duly examined, gave a good account
of his morals and the course of his life, and finally was given
the sacristan's garden to tend. So, all during the winter, his
first as a member of the Cistercian Order, he had dreamed and
planned for spring. . . .
"On one bright April day in the year 1530, Brother David was
busily spading a plot in the sacristan's garden. . . Spring had
been late in coming to Scotland this year, and the sun felt
particularly welcome to younger brothers not yet used to long
winters of cold within the dark and cheerless monastery buildings.
. . . So with the exertion of digging and the rays of the sun on
his back, Brother David was really warm for the first time in
months.
"Yet in another sense David hardly felt the cold. He was warmed
inwardly by eager enthusiasm in planning for the season's
planting." (The sacristan, Brother Andrew, had given Brother David
permission to plant a St. Mary's Garden, and throughout the
winter) "plans were afoot for the innovation; making diagrams,
searching into garden history, lore and church tradition for the
appropriate plants. . . .
"David joyfully planned his St. Mary's garden and (at the same
time) devised ways for making the other garden of the sacristan
more of a picture of beauty. . . . When spring came he petted and
coaxed the plants and bushes to grow for him as they had never
done for any other gardener. When Corpus Christi day came, such
luxuriant branches, such beautiful garlands and wreaths came from
that garden for the church and for the great procession that even
the abbot, the almoner, the treasurer, all with gardens of their
own, came to admire "David's garden," as it came to be called. . .
.
Melrose Abbey Gardens Today
"Within the walls of Melrose Abbey there were many separate
gardens, that of the abbot, the prior, of the sacristan. . . . But
the garden that everyone loved was the St. Mary's garden. It had
such a special significance for Mailros since the abbey itself had
been dedicated to her. In it there were as many plants with white
flowers as could be obtained, for the white was symbolic of her
purity and holiness. There was rosemary, over which the Virgin
threw her blue cloak, and ever afterwards the flowers were a
beautiful blue in her honor. We see that blue rosemary now and
then today. Roses and lilies, above all flowers, were especially
grown for the Virgin; the lily for its pure whiteness; the roses
white and red connected with her from earliest times, St. Dominic
recognizing that significance and forever perpetuating it when he
instituted the devotion of the rosary.
"Many flowers bear the words "Our Lady" in the name, as Our Lady's
Bedstraw, which filled the Holy Manger, with thyme, sweet woodruff
and groundsel. The cuckoo flower, found in meadows, is Our Lady's
Smock and there are Our Lady's Thistle, Our Lady's Garters (ribbon
grass), Our Lady's Slipper (a variety of orchid), Our Lady's
Tresses, Our Lady's Candlestick (a variety of prunella), Our
Lady's Fingers (Anthyllis vulneraria), Our Lady's Bunchh of Keys
(cowslip), Our Lady's Thimble (harebell), Our Lady's Tears
(lily-of-the-valley).
"The number of plants named in honor of the Virgin is endless, and
each new one David came upon delighted him. Many were the letters
sent to the Continent and then the long wait for more plants and
more information. Every visitor to Mailros was pressed to add
more Mary plants, every brother who went abroad was begged to
bring back plants. A German monk who came to the abbey told of
Our Lady's Milkwort, a German name for lungwort, and costmary, he
said, was called Our Lady's Balsam by his countrymen. A French
monk from Citeaux was so delighted with the garden that he
promised to go through all the history he could find in the home
monastery. His present contribution to information was that in
France dead nettle was called Our Lady's Hands, spearmint was Our
Lady's Mint, and that the foxglove was Our Lady's Gloves.
"And in the Mary garden there was the snowdrop, "Fair Maid of
February," supposed to open always on Candlemas Day. The monks
believed it bloomed there in memory of the Virgin's having
presented the child Jesus to the temple. Her image was removed
from the altar on the day of purification in February, and
snowdrops, as an emblem of purity, strewn over the vacant place.
Besides all these there were hollyhocks, marigold, flowers of the
Cruciferae family, violets for humility, daisies for innocence.
"Thus did the monk David work and labor and worship, offering his
one talent to God."
Photos courtesy of Ministry of Works, Melrose