May Crowning
On May 5, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe will celebrate its May Crowning. This custom of crowning an image of Our Lady is one of the most beloved Marian devotions. In all its forms in different times and places, it draws our hearts to reverence and love for Mary as our Mother and Queen.
Mary’s Queenship
The custom of crowning images of Our Lady dates back to the early Church, when icons often represented her with a royal crown. In Ad Caeli Reginam, Servant of God Pius XII noted that Christian artistic tradition “has since the Council of Ephesus [in the fifth century] portrayed Mary as Queen and Empress seated upon a royal throne adorned with royal insignia, crowned with the royal diadem.” Notably, this imagery of queenship can also be found in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where the rich symbolism includes several signs of royalty.
Mother of the Son of God
Thus, devotional crownings express a rich truth of Our Lady’s identity, as articulated by the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship in its “Order of Crowning an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary”: “The queen symbol was attributed to Mary because she was a perfect follower of Christ, who is the absolute ‘crown’ of creation. She is the Mother of the Son of God, who is the messianic King. . . . Thus, in an eminent way, she won the ‘crown of righteousness,’ ‘the crown of life,’ ‘the crown of glory’ that is promised to those who follow Christ.” In crowning Mary’s images, her children express their faithful love for her as their Queen.
Flowers for Mary
In American parishes today, as at the Shrine, this crown is usually of flowers, which are also in many ways a deeply Marian symbol. The association of flowers with Our Lady has deep roots, so to speak, in Catholic culture, as explained by a Wikipedia page on “May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary”:
Floral imagery from scripture and nature has been applied to Mary in the writings of the Church Fathers and in the liturgy, providing the foundation in tradition for the subsequent naming of hundreds of flowers for Mary’s life, mysteries, virtues, excellences and divine prerogatives in the popular religious folk traditions of the medieval countrysides — as recorded by botanists, folklorists and lexicographers.
Why are flowers associated Mary?
Many of these flowers with Marian names or symbolism have been included in the Shrine gardens. Especially notable among these are roses, featured in one of Our Lady’s titles, “Mystical Rose.” St. John Henry Newman says that Our Lady is a rose because she is “the Queen of spiritual flowers.” Roses also played a part in the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as the first part of her sign, blooming in desert soil and falling from St. Juan Diego’s tilma as Our Lady’s image was revealed on it.
As May begins, then, the faithful honor “the Queen of spiritual flowers,” and ask her trustingly to make new life blossom wherever their own lives may be dry and empty. Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia!
