It’s here – May, the month in which the earth springs into bloom and we start thinking about planting gardens, family picnics and making some type of vacation plans. It’s also the Month of Mary. So exactly how did May become associated with the Blessed Mother? There are many different factors that contributed to this association. First of all, in ancient Greece and Rome the month of May was dedicated to pagan goddesses connected to fertility and springtime (Artemis and Flora, respectively). This, combined with other European rituals commemorating the new season of spring, led many Western cultures to view May as a month of life, new birth, and motherhood. This was long before “Mother’s Day” was ever conceived, though the modern celebration is closely related to this innate desire to honor maternity during the spring months. In the early Church, there is evidence of a major feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrated on the 15th of May each year, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that May received a particular association with the Virgin Mary. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “The May devotion in its present form originated at Rome where Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), to counteract infidelity and immorality among the students, made a vow at the end of the eighteenth century to devote the month of May to Mary. From Rome the practice spread to the other Jesuit colleges and thence to nearly every Catholic church of the Latin rite.” Finally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed “Mother’s Day” as an official holiday honoring all mothers in the United States. Wherever it came from, May has always been associated with new birth, maternalism, spring, and new beginnings. No greater mother ever existed than God’s very own, Mary the Mother of God and rightly called, ‘The New Eve.’ Fr. Roach
