Mary's Month

The May Devotion to Our Lady, so long traditional, suits well the Paschal celebration of Humanity, restored and deified. In the words of the great Russian Orthodox lay theologian Vladimir Lossky, 'freed from the limitations of time, Mary can be the cause of that which is before her; can preside over that which comes after her. She obtains eternal benefits. It is through her that men and angels receive grace. No gift is received in the Church without the assistance of the Mother of God, who is herself the first fruits of the glorified Church. Thus, having attained to the limits of becoming, she necessarily watches over the destinies of the Church and of the Universe.'

The May Devotion can begin with a votive of Our Lady on the first free day. There is a collection of Masses with a special section of Easter Votives of Our Lady. The Rosary is appropriate, especially on Saturdays. The Visitation of Our Lady was deliberately moved in 1969 to associate it with May 31st, a day long connected with the celebration of Our Lady as Mediatrix of All Graces, as an appropriate conclusion to the May Devotion.

Mary Month - Why May?
The month of May is traditionally dedicated to Mary in many cultures. May is considered the season of the beginning of new life. Already in Greek culture, May was dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of fecundity. In Roman culture, May was dedicated to Flora, the goddess of bloom, of blossoms. The Romans celebrated ludi florales (literally: floral games) at the end of April, asking the intercession of Flora for all that blooms. This is also related to the medieval practice of expelling winter. May 1 was considered the beginning of growth.

Since medieval times, we have the combination between Mary and the month of May. Among the earliest witnesses are: Alphonsus X, "el sabio", King of Castille, Spain (1221-1284) with his "Cantigas de Santa Maria" ("Ben venna Mayo"). Here and elsewhere, both Mary and the month of May are greeted, welcomed and celebrated on specific days in May. Later, the whole month of May became the month of Mary. On each day of this month, special devotions to Mary were organized. This custom originated in Italy (for example: Ferrara, 1784). It was spread widely during the 19th century, a century well known for its monthly devotions (Heart of Jesus in June; Rosary in October).

Two Anglicans who converted to Rome have much to teach us about devotion to Mary:

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).
The May Magnificat


MAY is Mary’s month, and I

Muse at that and wonder why:

Her feasts follow reason,

Dated due to season—


Candlemas, Lady Day;

But the Lady Month, May,

Why fasten that upon her,

With a feasting in her honour?


Is it only its being brighter

Than the most are must delight her?

Is it opportunest

And flowers finds soonest?


Ask of her, the mighty mother:

Her reply puts this other

Question: What is Spring?—

Growth in every thing—


Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,

Grass and greenworld all together;

Star-eyed strawberry-breasted

Throstle above her nested


Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin

Forms and warms the life within;

And bird and blossom swell

In sod or sheath or shell.


All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathising

With that world of good,

Nature’s motherhood.


Their magnifying of each its kind

With delight calls to mind

How she did in her stored

Magnify the Lord.


Well but there was more than this:

Spring’s universal bliss

Much, had much to say

To offering Mary May.


When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple

Bloom lights the orchard-apple

And thicket and thorp are merry

With silver-surfèd cherry


And azuring-over greybell makes

Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes

And magic cuckoocall

Caps, clears, and clinches all—


This ecstasy all through mothering earth

Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth

To remember and exultation

In God who was her salvation.

Newman and devotion to Our Lady
By Thomas McGovern

Newman’s veneration for the Mother of God stands out clearly in all that he wrote about her, even while he was still an Anglican.

It is not surprising that the recent advance in the cause of beatification of John Henry Newman has generated interest in the spirituality of the great English cardinal. While Newman’s biographers have studied in detail many aspects of his personality and intellectual qualities, only limited attention would seem to have been given to his reputation for holiness and to the devotional aspects of his works.

The Holy Father has emphasized Newman’s great love for the Church. One could also refer to his devotion to the Passion of Christ, to his love for the martyrs of the nascent Church, for the Fathers and the saints, and to his devotion to the guardian angels. In this article I will draw attention to some aspects of his devotion to Our Lady, as witnessed primarily by his own writings on this topic.

In 1826 John Henry Newman was appointed a tutor at Oriel College, Oxford. About the same time Hurrell Froude, a High Church Anglican with Roman Catholic sympathies, was elected a Fellow of the same college. The two became close friends, and it was from Froude that Newman first learned to have devotion to the Blessed Virgin.That this devotion progressed rapidly, and was based on a solid doctrinal foundation, is clear from a sermon he gave on the Feast of the Annunciation, 1832. The following extract from that sermon shows how much Newman the Anglican honored the Mother of God:

In her the destinies of the world were to be reversed, and the serpent’s head bruised. On her was bestowed the greatest honour ever put upon any individual of our fallen race . . . But further, she is doubtless to be accounted blessed and favoured in herself, as well as in the benefits she has done us. Who can estimate the holiness and perfection of her, who was chosen to be the Mother of Christ? What must have been her gifts, who was chosen to be the only near earthly relative of the Son of God, the only one whom he was bound by nature to revere and look up to; the one appointed to train and educate him, to instruct him day by day, as he grew in wisdom and in stature?

After Froude’s death in 1836, Newman was given his Roman Breviary. He began to recite it daily, but omitted the prayers directly invoking Our Lady, as this practice was against the teaching of the Church of England. Although he had often been accused of “teaching popery” during the Oxford Movement in the 1830s, Newman’s perception of the Catholic Church at that time was still a very defective one. In Tract 15 he wrote of Catholicism: “their communion is infected with heresy; we are bound to flee it as a pestilence.” He complained of her “lying wonders,” including statues of Our Lady.

Professor C. W. Russell of Maynooth, who took a keen interest in Newman’s progress towards the faith, wrote him in 1841, after the publication of Tract 90 on the Thirty Nine Articles, explaining that his interpretation of Catholic doctrine on Transubstantiation was deficient. Newman replied graciously, saying he effectively accepted this doctrine but that “the extreme honours” paid to our Lady was still a big stumbling block to his acceptance of Catholic doctrine. Russell assured Newman that if he had a fuller knowledge of Church teaching on the Blessed Virgin, his fears and reservations would disappear, pointing out to him how the Rosary was but “a series of meditations on the Incarnation, Passion and Glory of the Redeemer,” and in no way derogated from the worship due to God alone. To assure him that there was no ground for the opinion which accused Rome of excessive devotion to Mary, in October 1842 Russell sent Newman a copy of St. Alphonsus Liguori’s book of homilies on Our Lady. The Maynooth professor commented that, although he could hardly think of anyone who spoke more strongly about the prerogatives of the Mother of God, he hoped Newman would see from a reading of these homilies how he had been misled by appearances into thinking that the Catholic Church gave too much honor to the Blessed Virgin at the expense of the Holy Trinity.

It is interesting to note that when Newman came to write his celebrated Apologia pro Vita Sua, almost twenty years later, he recalled with gratitude the very significant part played by Dr. Russell in his reception into the Church: “He had, perhaps, more to do with my conversion than anyone else.” One of the most important factors in Russell’s contribution to Newman’s conversion was his clarification of the Catholic position in relation to devotion to the Blessed Virgin.