The Month of Our Lady
May is my favorite month. This is the month of Our Lady. This is also the month in which I was born. Also, I was taught by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Scranton. These Sisters imbued us with a love for the Blessed Mother. During this month the statue of Mary in each classroom was adorned with flowers and became the classroom shrine. It was the focal point of our praying.
When I attended St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, we were visited by the Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima. There was a grand procession, with singing, around the grounds. When I was transferred to St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana we had in the Abbey church the shrine of Our Lady of the Hermit. This was from the founding Abbey in Switzerland., and was one of the European shrines which depicted a Black Virgin. After Evening Prayer in the church, it was the custom for us seminarians to go individually to the shrine and pray before we went to our rooms and to bed.
As a student in Rome I attended the North American College, which was dedicated to Our Lady of Humility. There was a statue of Our Lady of Humility in the American College on the Via Umilta. When a new College was built on the Janiculum Hill overlooking St. Peter, a beautiful mosaic of Our Lady of Humility was erected in the College.
One of my favorite churches in Rome was the Basilica of St. Mary Major, also called Our Lady of the Snows. This church has ornamentation in gold which King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain sent to Rome to as a votive offering. Often after I was ordained I celebrated Mass at the altar of Our Lady in an apse chapel of the Basilica. An ancient picture of Mary called Salus Populi Romani (“Salvation of the Roman People”) was above the altar.
My last pastoral assignment was at St. Mary in Wilmington. This was once the seat of The Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina. This is a grand edifice built in Spanish Moorish style. Raphael Guastavino designed this church, as well as St. Lawrence in Asheville, N.C., where Guastavino is buried.
Msgr. Thomas P. Hadden