AMM Sydney celebrates Flores de Mayo
by Bianca Kallukaran, published in AMM Bulletin Autumn 2024
The month of May is traditionally dedicated to Our Lady and began from as early as the 13th century. In the Northern Hemisphere, May is considered a season of growth flourishing, and renewal of nature which is closely connected to the Incarnation (when Mary gave her “yes” to God and birthed our Lord Jesus Christ into the world). This devotion became even more popular in the 1700s, among students in the Jesuit Order and when it was celebrated in the Gesu Church in Rome spreading to the wider church. Interestingly, the Flores De Mayo devotion was borne out of this in Italy among the Jesuit Orders to “counteract immorality and infidelity” among its students and spread to the other churches in the Latin Rite. Many Popes have also strongly advocated and fostered devotion to Our Lady in the church (especially from the 19th century onwards): Pope Pius IX ‘s declaring the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, Pope Pius XII in his encyclical on the Sacred Liturgy Mediator Dei in 1947, and Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical Mense Maio in 1965. It was in this time, around 1854, that the devotion became an integral part of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, during the Spanish colonization.
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