FLOWERS. - ARCHAEOLOGY. - In the Octavius of Minucius Felix it is stated that Christians did not place crowns of flowers on their heads like the pagans, but St. Jerome reports the Christian custom of his time of strewing with roses, lilies and other flowers the tombs of their dear ones, almost to soothe their own grief "et dolorem pectoris his officiis consolantur" (ep. 66, 5: PL 22, 842); but flowers wither at once, he observes (ep. 107, 9: ibid. 875). And on the other hand he praises a perfect sacristan, one Nepotian, who adorned with flowers and vine shoots the basilicas and the tombs of the martyrs (ep. 60, 12: ibid., 21, 596-97). This pious custom is attested for Milan by St. Ambrose (De obitu Valentiniani, 56: ibid., 16, 1376); for Africa by St. Augustine (De civitate Dei, 28, 8: ibid., 41, 767), for Spain by Prudentius (Peristephanon, III, 201-207: ibid., 60, 356); for Nola by St. Paulinus (De s. Felice natal., III, 108-13: ibid., 51, 467); for Gaul by Gregory of Tours (De gloria martyrum, 71: ibid., 71, 768; id., De gloria confessorum, ibid., 866, 897).
As for representations of martyrs or of the deceased in a flowering garden, v. PARADISO.
Bibliography2 works
Enrico Jesi
II. LITURGY
In the Middle Ages, wherever it was impossible to have palms for the blessing and procession on the sixth Sunday of Lent, flowers were used. They were made to rain down from above during the Mass of Pentecost (= Easter of roses) to signify the rain of the charisms of the Holy Spirit (cf. E. Martène, De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus, IV, 28, ed. Antwerp 1764, III, p. 195). In Rome at St. Mary Major, on the 5th of the same month, white rose petals are thrown in memory of the snow that, according to legend, is said to have fallen on that day.
Today's liturgical legislation establishes: « When one of the most solemn feasts of a given church is celebrated, the doors are to be adorned first of all on the outside with flowers and green branches and fronds » (Corinacontale dei Vercusi, I, XII, 3) and on the altar, among the candlesticks and with the relics, « vases suitably adorned with flowers or fragrant fronds, or of silk, may also be used » (ibid., n. 12) and « at the place called the martyrdom or confession, where the bodies of the martyrs rest beneath the high altar, it is fitting to place flowers and fronds with other ornaments » (n. 16). Likewise (ibid., II, XXIII, 2) on the occasion of the procession of Corpus Christi it is prescribed « that the streets through which the procession must pass be clean and be adorned with carpets, draperies, strewn greenery, flowers and green plants according to the possibilities of the nature of the place ». The Roman Ritual for the funerals of children suggests that « a crown of flowers or of fragrant herbs be placed on the bier as a sign of the integrity and virginity of that body ». They are forbidden in penitential functions and in Lent; artificial flowers are condemned by many diocesan synods.
Bibliography
Enrico Cattaneo