The practice of adorning the Blessed Mother’s statue
or icon developed as a pious custom of the people in their familiar
surroundings. By the sixteenth century the coronation images of the Blessed
Virgin Mary became widespread. While it is not as prevalent today, a ceremony of crowning of Mary continues to be a sincere yet profound spiritual and human gesture on the part of the faithful in front of Mary’s beauty.
Something gestures of the past continue today and evoke great sentiment for holiness observed in such a great woman like Mary, Mother of God. I fondly recall when I was a student at Saint Stanislaus Church & School (New Haven, CT) the sisters of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth
instilled in me and my fellow students a great love for the Blessed Virgin under the titles of the
Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Czestohowa by singing a daily hymn to
Mary, frequently rosary praying, and the yearly May Crowning following the First Holy Communion Mass. Somewhere I have photos of Sister Rosetta training us in the third grade to execute the ritual correctly and piously.
Indeed, for a long time the popes –Pius XII, Paul VI, John Paul II and now
Benedict XVI– have endorsed this custom. What good Catholic can deny the extraordinary value of remaining close to Mary and showing a modicum of affection to her? As I bring my own mother flowers, so I bring my heavenly Mother flowers. This crowning of Blessed Mary is sign of our confidence in her spiritual motherhood. A fitting custom revived by the current Holy
Father (something done by his predecessors) is the giving of the Golden Rose to a Marian Shrine he visits, showing
his filial devotion.
The 1987 Marian Year provided an opportunity for the Church to strengthen a sincere devotion to Mary. What developed in the Marian year was a renewal of the venerable tradition of honoring images of Mary in homes, parish church,
religious houses and seminaries with the promulgation of the Order of Crowning
an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Order describes the Marian honor of
crowning as follows:
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. Mary is the
Mother of Christ, the Word Incarnate… “He will be great and will be
called Son of the Most High; the Lord will give Him the throne of His father
David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom
there will be no end” (Lk 1:32-33). Elizabeth greeted the Blessed Virgin,
pregnant with Jesus, as “the mother of my Lord” (Lk 1:41-43). Mary is
the perfect follower of Christ. The maid of Nazareth consented to God’s plan;
she journeyed on the pilgrimage of faith; she listened to God’s Word and kept
it in her heart; she remained steadfastly in close union with her Son, all the
way to the foot of the Cross; she persevered in prayer with the Church. Thus,
in an eminent way she won the “crown of righteousness” (II Tim 4:8),
the “crown of life” (Jas 1:12; Rev 2:10), the “crown of
glory” (I Pet 5:4) that is promised to those who follow Christ. (Order of
Crowning an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, NCCB, 1987)
Following First Vespers for the Fifth Sunday of Easter last evening, the seminarians formed a procession to the grotto of Our Lady, Cause of Our Joy, to crown her with flowers. Saint Joseph Seminary is placed under the title of Mary, Cause of our joy and we invoke her solicitude frequently by this title. Father Charles Szivos, one of the seminary’s spiritual directors, led the seminarians in the rosary before he blessed the crown of flowers and the statue.
