Andrea Oliva Florendo's book: The Liturgy of Flowers In A Mary Garden offers a repertoire of Medieval and Renaissance botanical symbolism in a garland of prose, plant portraits and flower sermons to describe the many flowers associated with the Virgin. The flower imagery of Mary dating back to the Middle Ages brings a wealth of meanings distilled from the Scriptures and the writings of the saints and early Church Fathers. A Mary Garden is the quintessential garden of the Virgin Mary . The medieval laity understood it as reflective of God's love. It can be traced from the small secret gardens within a garden of the Middle Ages, in which biblical scenes from the life of Mary were set within a walled garden. These gardens, rich in flower symbolism reveal their charm behind closed doors. For the artists and the poets in those days, a rose was not just a rose; a plant not just a plant but a sacred story; a tree, a divine truth; a flower, a virtue.

In a love poem , The Song of Songs, the garden was the symbol of a beloved lady, the Virgin Mary. The connection between the Virgin and the Mary gardens proceeds via iconography of the"hortus conclusus" in its pre-figuration of the Incarnation. The medieval image of paradise is an allegory of Mary's Immaculate Conception and virginity. It was inspired by the description of the Beloved, the Bride in the Song of Songs:

A garden enclosed Is my sister, my bride

A spring shut up A fountain sealed.

In this metaphor lies the essence of a Mary Garden. Its basic features of the enclosing wall, the sealed fountain, the tree, the raised beds are held together by pictures of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Child seated together alone surrounded by symbolical flowers, and sometimes by a rose arbor with angels and a chorus of songbirds. Botanical symbolism based on form, color and season of bloom provides a floral mosaic of the Virgin's life. And it is their simple connotation of Mary's virtues, attributes and mysteries that the author wishes to convey in her book.

Table of Contents

Chapter

1- In the Beginning… And The Bright Green Shoots of Symbolism

2-The Flower Imagery of Mary

3- This Little Garden of Paradise

4- Mary Flower Sermons: Medieval and Renaissance Botanical Symbolism

5- Rosarium: Mary's Rose-ary Garden

6- The Making of A Mary Garden

7- T'is Fragrant Reverie of Mary

Excerpts From the Book: From Chapter 1

A Hymn of Praise

If there is a single message that we receive from the Mary Garden symbolism, it is that we should give praise. It was one of the great gifts of the Church Fathers to reveal creation to us not as a world of temptation but as the starting point of praise for the Creator. Leaves, flowers and trees which had been the images of the fall were transformed into the expression of God's love for the world through the Incarnation. "Mary," says St. Louis- Marie de Montfort (1673-1716) "is the paradise of God and His unspeakable world into which the Son has come to work His wonders, to watch over it, and take delight in it." The term paradise appears to provide an insight for the transcendence which the piety of the Church seems to attribute to Mary.

In the medieval vision of paradise, it is often used to describe the Church. St. Augustine sees the similarity of Mary and the church in their virginal motherhood. Like Mary, the church is identified as virgin and mother, since everyday she gives birth to her members. The Church, as the bride of Christ, presents to the faithful a clear understanding of a loving union with the Savior. "Mary," said St Ambrose, brought into the world a "heap of wheat, surrounded by lilies," lilies being the pre-figuration of the faithful.

Montfort's lyricism found its counterpart in the passionate 12th century Marian commentaries where Mary's voice becomes the sheer utterance of the devout soul. Mary, as the Bride gives her supremacy over the church whom she typifies. As a result recurring images in the Song traditionally applied to the church, in particular, the garden is alluded to Mary. Honorius of Antun (d. ca1156) develops the idea in a similar way, noting that if "Mary is the singular garden of God, blossoming with virtues bearing Jesus as the fruit of her womb," then the "church, too is a Marian garden to the extent that it imitates her."

The Heart of A Mary Garden

In mystical devotional writings, this Marian interpretation is the key to the understanding of Mary Gardens and symbolic flowers, because it sees the garden, the beloved as the Virgin Mary. Mary who is a type of a church, is seen as the bride who has "maternal and cherishing concern" for the Christ Child and the Church. Amid the host of sentiment which gathered round the figure of the Virgin, Christ makes a special appearance in representations signifying the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Cross, due to His role in salvation. A variety of symbolism is offered to Christians through the Gospel stories of His life: Christ as a the Good Shepherd; Christ as the Groom; Christ as Beloved of Mary and the church But the most symbolic element is elaborated in the image of Christ as the Gardener, inspiring in the human heart the cultivation of the seed of faith, hope and charity. Love is at the root of this Tree fulfilling the essence of cultivation that runs from the rivers of Eden and blows in the charitable gust of wind of the Song.

In view of this, it is easy how Our Lady could become the center of a tender devotion. Mary is seen as the ultimate sealed garden evoking the plenitude of God. And in the garden's abundance, the flowering of virtues in the individual soul. As Mary came increasingly identified as the enclosed garden from whom we got Christ, the tree of Life, the vision of Paradise as a garden continued to remain a symbol of hope.The garden lyrics described by poets and theologians advanced much understanding and inspired the artists to give it a visual representation. By the twelfth century, Medieval Europe already obsessed by the garden imagery of the Song hailed its supremacy as the image of paradise. "Mary," said St. Jerome (c. 350-420) " is a garden of delights into which are sown all kinds of flowers and spice plants of the virtues." Each flower cultivated within a Mary Garden is seen to mirror the Virgin's noble virtues,attributes and mysteries.

Author Spotlight

Andrea Oliva Florendo

BA Journalism; BS Education, Diplomate In Decorative Arts ;Research Fellow,Yale University Divinity School

Andrea Oliva Florendo is a visual artist, harpist and an art educator. She is known internationally for her traveling exhibit, MARY: THE MASTERPIECE, a series of Baroque and Renaissance -inspired Marian icons and altarpieces. With over thirty years of experience in creative arts and education, she started her career as a teacher and went on to become an Art Director of a gallery and Director of Art Education in a museum. An independent TV Producer for Queens Public Television, she has produced cultural shows and is the host of a how-to-art program, "Where Flowers Bloom: An Artist's Odyssey. More than fifty of her designs have been produced in limited edition prints, lithographs and cards by Royal Art and Salesiana Publishers: The Promise of A Garden, Wild Over Weeds, Woodland Sonata and Fresh Meadows, among others.She is also the author of Gift From The Birds, Michaelli-Kelly and A Parrot Takes A Camel Ride (published in paper back for children as Potpourri of Tales.)

Captivated by the plants that adorned illuminated manuscripts, stained- glass windows, icons and reliquaries in which many Christian orientation have been perpetuated in the old days, she widened her field of investigation and researched in depth. "The blooming," as she finds out, "is itself a proclamation of biblical literature! The flowers still gleam with the glory which kings, Church Fathers and the common people have celebrated in their poetry and songs!"

How to order the book:

for orders within the USA

Send check or money order for $34.95 (tax and shipping included) to:

Andrea Oliva Florendo

162-10 78th Road

Fresh Meadows, NY 11366

or email the artist at: olivaflorendo@hotmail.com