Why Is May the Month of Mary?

May consecrated to Mary: historical development from the thirteenth century to the devotion of Saint Philip Neri and to its liturgical reception

The Egyptian and Eastern origins of the consecration of May: spring festivals and the month of Farmuti

The celebration of the Marian month was introduced first in the East and afterward in the West. And this is not a matter of a precedence of a century or two, but of more than a millennium. In Egypt, in the sixth and seventh centuries, there already existed the daily liturgy of the month of Kiatk (which runs from December 10 to January 8), entirely centered on the preparation for Christmas and on the praise of the Virgin Mother.
The rite included four parts:

• a poetic chant praising the Mother of God,
• a psalm of praise to the Virgin,
• a paraphrase of biblical words and episodes about Mary,
• a commentary with applications to the Christian life.

From the eleventh century onward, fasting is added to the Marian praise, to recall the tradition according to which Mary had suffered persecutions in the last month of her pregnancy because of malicious tongues, and had therefore fasted and longed even more ardently for the birth of Jesus.
If for the Christians of Egypt the Marian month is December, for the Greek Christians it becomes August. The Byzantine Marian month is August, centered on the feast of the Assumption or Dormition, which divides the month into fifteen days of preparation and as many more prolonging the most important Marian feast of the liturgical year.

The Western tradition: Philippe de Harveng (†1183) and Annibale Dionigi (1646), the two historical landmarks of the month of Mary

Not for liturgical reasons, as in Egypt or in Constantinople, but for reasons of a natural and affective order. The celebration of May as the month of flowers and the beginning of a new life goes back to the pre-Christian era. In ancient Greece, May was dedicated to Artemis, who, among other things, was the goddess of vegetation and fertility. In Rome, Flora, the deity of plants, especially of the flowering of the grain, was venerated. In her honor, at the end of April or the beginning of May, the Ludi Florales took place, interceding for everything that was in bloom.
In the Middle Ages, this tradition continued with the driving out of winter or the ushering in of spring. The first day of May long retained its meaning as the beginning of growth; it was a day of good fortune, when the earth sent its fruits upward. The connection with vegetation remained attached to this day and then to the whole month. May was from ancient times regarded as the season of the flowering and the radiance of nature. As a transitional phase toward the later Marian devotion, there arises the consecration of an entire month to Mary, which finally led to the special Marian devotion in this month.
One of the earliest pieces of evidence of Marian devotion in May comes from King Alfonso X, the King of Castile (d. 1284). Among the 428 Cantigas de Santa Maria that he composed is found the May song Ben vennas, Mayo. Here the greeting of May is combined with praise and supplications to Mary:

In Toulouse, from the fourteenth century onward, at the Provençal floral games that took place on May 1, poems were presented whose prescribed theme was the praise of Mary. The Jesuit Jakob Balde (d. 1668) also offered an ode to Mary on May 1, 1641, describing Mary’s entrance into the nature of spring.
The Dominican Blessed Heinrich Suso (d. 1365), in his tender affection for the Virgin, consecrates spring, the season of flowers, each year to the Mother of Jesus. His steps are followed by the Benedictine Wolfgang Seidl (d. 1562), who in the booklet ‘The Spiritual May’ reacts to the pagan festivals, proposing special tributes to Jesus and to Mary.
Independently of the month and of its marked Marian piety, there exists a proper form of Marian devotion that extends over 30 days or a month. For example, the 30 days celebrated between August 15 (the Assumption) and September 14 (the Exaltation of the Cross), which were chosen as the model and the starting point for the celebration of the Marian May devotion.
In the Baroque period we already have indications of the practice of dedicating a month to Mary, without specifying which one it would be. This month was not tied to the calendar month, so that the Marian month with its specific devotion of 30 or 31 days could begin at any time. An example of this is offered by the Jesuit Johannes Nadasi (d. 1679) when, in his work Theophilus Marianus (1664), he proposes 31 Marian exercises in which the month of May is not mentioned.
A codex preserved at San Domenico di Fiesole describes what the Dominican novices did in 1676: when the Calendimaggio arrived, they decided to celebrate Mary with songs and offerings of flowers, following the example of their contemporaries who sang to their brides. Afterward, this custom was extended to all the days of the month of May. Perhaps an indication of this passage from the 31 days to their occurrence in the month of May may be found through the Capuchin Laurentius von Schnüffis (d. 1702) with the work Mirantische Mayen-Pfeiff (Mirantis’s May Flute), in which the image of spring is transposed to Mary: Mary is the spring of grace after the winter of destruction.

The universal spread of the Marian month of May: mense maio of Paul VI (1965) and the modern liturgical reception

The greatest impetus to May as the Marian month was without doubt given by some Jesuits of the eighteenth century. The first is Father Annibale Dionisi, of Verona, who in 1725 published The Month of Mary, or the Month of May Dedicated to Mary with the Exercise of Various Flowers of Virtue Proposed to Her True Devotees. In this booklet are found the elements of the Marian month that would receive a definitive character: prayer (the rosary and litanies) before the image of Mary, spiritual considerations, the offering of a virtue, and an ejaculatory prayer.
In 1785 the first edition of The Month of May Dedicated to the Great Mother of God, written by the Jesuit theologian Father Alfonso Muzzarelli (d. 1813), was brought out in Ferrara; he had the idea of sending his booklet to all the bishops of Italy so that they might introduce the pious practice in their dioceses. The success was so vast that, by the middle of the nineteenth century, the pious practice of the month of May was in use in almost every parish of the Catholic world.
In this work the spiritual fruits produced by the celebration of the Marian month were recognized:

• instruction in the truths of the faith,
• religious experience in the context of popular songs and solemn rites,
• a gathering of communal prayer to the Mother of God,
• growth in trust in Mary,
• formation of the will in carrying out the daily commitment.

May, the month of Mary, and the flowers: symbolic spring, the Song of Songs (Song 2:11-12), and the tradition of nature

Spring begins on March 21. The flowering of nature does not take place only in the northern hemisphere and only from May onward. Moreover, the veneration of Mary took place on any date for thirty consecutive days, as we saw in the Middle Ages, which venerated Mary in May, although this did not extend over an entire month.
The various forms of Marian devotion in spring gradually became concentrated in the calendar month of May. This month became the Marian month par excellence. May, the most beautiful month, the month of flowers, had every condition for being a Marian month.
Another aspect that played a part in the choice of May was that, until then, this month had not been distinguished by a Marian feast of its own. It was, as it were, an entire month free to be voluntarily dedicated to Mary. Moreover, May offered the first opportunity, after the forty-day period of fasting and Easter, to set aside an entire month for such a devotion.
In the work Marianische Maiandacht oder der Verehrung Mariens gewidmeter Mai-Monat (Marian May devotion, or the month of May dedicated to the veneration of Mary), printed in Regensburg in 1839, it is stated: “since one always chooses the most beautiful, the best, and the most pleasing for a sacrifice, then to the month of May, the most beautiful of the months, preference is granted”.
The celebration of the May devotion generally extends over the whole month, forming part of the monthly devotions that arose in the nineteenth century, including the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June and the rosary in October.
From the second half of the nineteenth century, the month of May developed into the most significant form of Marian devotion. Petitions from the faithful called for its introduction. Many bishops, through active participation in the celebrations, gave a clear sign of their approval. The strongest impetus for the month of May came with the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception (1854).
In several dioceses the dogma was officially proclaimed in May of the following year, frequently in connection with the month of May. Extraordinary political and ecclesiastical events frequently served as a reason for promoting the month of May with emphasis, as during the two World Wars. After the outbreak of the First World War, Pope Benedict XV ordered in 1915 that during the month of May a prayer for peace written by him should be said.
The month of May was recommended again during the Second World War. In 1939, Pope Pius XII summoned the faithful to special prayers and devotions in May for peace among peoples. Children especially were to take part in this prayer, a wish that the Pope expressed regularly between 1939 and 1944. In the encyclical Mediator Dei (1947), the month of May is listed among the recommended exercises of piety (n. 180). However, a characteristic of this form of piety is the neglect of the liturgical year.

The liturgical problem of the month of May: parallelism with the Easter season and the critique of the devotio moderna

Today the problematic question is how to link the May devotion with the fifty-day Easter season highlighted by the Second Vatican Council. The cadence of the weeks of Easter extends more or less into May. According to the desire of the Council, the liturgical year is to be organized in such a way that the original character of the seasons is preserved (Sacrosanctum Concilium 107).
The Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the new General Roman Calendar clearly determine: “the fifty days between the Sunday of the Resurrection and Pentecost Sunday are to be celebrated in joy and exultation, as though they were one single feast day, or rather, as one great Sunday” (n. 22).
A mere devotion to Mary, as practiced in the traditional May devotion, cannot meet this requirement, and rather obscures the paschal theme of these weeks. For a proper renewal of the May devotions, it is fitting to consider that the Easter season is the fundamental and given magnitude. Thus, if May extends more or less over the Easter season, the characteristic Marian piety associated with it must be guided by the theme of the Easter season. Subordinating or postponing the paschal theme to the month of May and its piety is entirely to be excluded.
After a temporary crisis following the Second Vatican Council, for some years now the month of May has clearly been on the rise: one indicator is the accelerated pace of new publications on the subject.
Even while living the season of Advent with special commitment as a time particularly suited to the worship of the Mother of the Lord (Marialis Cultus 4), Christians today have everything to gain from a renewed celebration of the month of May. It is not a matter of lazily repeating the past, but of renewing the Marian month according to the guidelines of Lumen gentium (1964), of Marialis cultus (1974), and of the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2002).
In practice, the celebration of the Marian month should be more biblical, better harmonized with the liturgy, highlighting “the participation of the Virgin in the paschal mystery and in the event of Pentecost” (Directory n. 191), more Christocentric and ecclesial, more attentive to the problems of our time.
Above all, the Marian month must preserve and strengthen its prayerful character: it must be a time of religious experience of the God who is revealed, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through fervent prayer to Mary and with Mary, a living and glorified person, mother and model of the Church.

May as the month of Mary finds a reference in the Magisterium of Paul VI, who in the document Marialis Cultus values Marian devotional practices throughout the liturgical year.

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