Every May, Catholic Church turns to contemplating the faith of the Virgin Mary and proposing her as a perfect example of a follower of Jesus. We explore the origin of this tradition and its deep meaning.
The professor of Mariology in Rome and member of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Blessed Mother of Sorrows, Sister Vittorina Marini, explains that “during this time the work of Mary in the history of salvation is recognized from her Maternity Divine”.
“During this period, the piety of the Christian people expresses their authentic love for the Virgin through various initiatives of prayer, such as the rosary, processions, pilgrimages to Marian sanctuaries or special pious practices”, explains Sister Marini.
These practices “seek to recognize and honor the place of the Blessed Virgin in the history of salvation and highlight her maternal bond with Christ and with the faithful,” he points out.
Sister Vittorina explains that in ancient Greece the month of May was dedicated to the female deities of fertility or spring.
“Over the centuries these pagan cults were combined with other rituals and popular traditions present in the West, which were expressed in courtly tributes from lovers to the beloved woman; turning May into a period of festivities and entertainment, dedicated to life and motherhood”, she explains.
In an effort to Christianize these festivities, the Church linked to this month the tradition of paying heartfelt homage to the Virgin Mary, “celebrated as the highest and most beautiful creature among women.”
“In the primitive Church it seems that there was already a solemn festival in honor of the Mother of the Lord that was celebrated on May 15 of each year; however, the full month was not associated with the Virgin Mary until the 18th century”, points out the Mariology professor.
The first devotional practices linked to the month of May can be found in the 16th century in Rome with Saint Philip Neri, who taught his young people to decorate the image of the Mother of God with flowers, to sing her praises and to offer acts in her honor. .
In addition, “at the end of the 17th century, in the Dominican novitiate of Fiesole (Florence), in 1677 Fr. Angelo Domenico Guinigi founded a kind of confraternity called Comunella, which began to dedicate the month of May to the Virgin with devotional exercises ”.
As Sister Vittorina points out, “it was not yet the month of May as we know it today, but it had in common some elements that we still find sometimes: the singing of the Lauretan litanies or the crowning of Mary with a crown of roses “.
In fact, in the chronicle of the Santo Domingo archive it is read: “When the May festival arrived and hearing the day before that many lay people began to sing the litanies and celebrate the creatures they love, we decided that we too wanted to sing them to the Blessed Virgin Mary ….”
“ Thus, the secular queen of spring is opposed to the queen of heaven ,” he points out.
The Marian month of May as we know it came in 1725 at the hands of Fr. Annibale Dionisi SJ, with his book entitled Month of Mary , and in the year 1800 the devotional practice was further enriched with the rosary, “linked to before the month of October and later extended to the month of May”.
In the first half of the 19th century, the month of May was widespread in Europe and America, and little by little it was established in various parts of the world thanks to the work of missionaries.
As indicated by Vittorina, “the dogma of the Immaculate Conception consolidated this tradition in 1854, due to the desire of the Pontiffs and the Christian people to give the greatest honor to the Mother of the Lord. Popes Pius VII, Gregory XVI and Pius XIX devoted themselves to it and May became the Marian month par excellence and came to compete with the high points of the liturgical year ”.
“From Leo XIII to Pius XII, the Magisterium was interested in the month of May and indicated it to the faithful in encyclicals, and to these recommendations were added the pastoral letters of many bishops.”
“All the Popes, even Pope Francis, have reaffirmed the importance of Marian devotion, encouraging its dissemination among the Christian people, especially in this month dedicated to it. In fact, it will be the Pontiffs themselves, in moments of grave difficulty and need in the Church and in history, who will recommend the practice of the month of May, invoking the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
Along these lines, we can recall two important and significant gestures of Pope Francis: in May 2021, the prayer of the Holy Rosary to ask for an end to the pandemic and support for the sick injured by the coronavirus and the act of consecration of Ukraine and Russia to Maria to ask for an end to the war in Ukraine.
“In this moment of special suffering in the world, Christians are called once again to live this Marian time: to grow in listening to the Word of God, oriented toward a true evangelical witness according to the beatitudes and to invoke the intercession of Mary for that protects and frees humanity from the destruction of war”, concludes the Marióloga.