MAGGIO, MESE di. – Practice of particular devotions in honor of the B. V. Maria on each day of the m. of m. consecrated to her.
As early as the Middle Ages, in Mantua and Paris the first days of m. were consecrated to Mary Most Holy; the b. Enrico Seuse distinguished himself by this devotion; in the sixteenth century s. Filippo Neri gathered young people around an image of the Virgin during this month, encouraging them to adorn it with the first flowers of the beautiful season and with acts of virtue; in Naples, in the royal church of S. Chiara, an hour of sacred songs in honor of the Madonna was dedicated each evening, followed by Eucharistic Benediction. But in its present form, the most practical method was proposed by the Jesuit Annibale Dionisi, who published Il mese di Maria o sia il m. di m., consegnato a Maria coll'esercizio di vari fiori di virtù (Parma 1726). The practice consisted in displaying and adorning with flowers and lights a devotional image of Mary Most Holy in the most frequented room of the house, reciting together before it the Rosary or the litanies of the Blessed Virgin, then reading a brief meditation for each day and an example, and drawing by lot a “little flower,” or act of virtue to be practiced, an example, and an ejaculatory prayer. The month concluded with the offering of one’s heart to Mary.
Father Dionisi merely gave form to a pious custom that already prevailed in several Marian congregations of students, especially in Rome at the Collegio Romano and in Milan at the Chapel of the University of Brera. It was the merit of Father A. Muzzarelli (1786) to obtain that the most distinguished members of the Italian episcopate introduce the m. of m. into their dioceses, so that the devotion might become widespread among the faithful. Ferrara was the first city to give a public form to the m. of m., celebrated solemnly in the church of S. Michele, in that of S. Crispino, and in the church of the Ministers of the Sick Fathers. Having become established and soon popular, the devotion was enriched with indulgences by Pius VII (21 March 1815) and by his successors, and it soon spread to France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany (1840), and thereafter throughout the Catholic world. In Italy the m. of m. encouraged popular preaching and the “little songs” in honor of the Madonna.
BIBLI: P. Vannucci, Il mese di Maria ricercato nella sua istituzione e nelle sue origini, Firenze 1876; A. Manganotti, Il m. di m. nel sec. XVIII, ossia notizie storiche dello sviluppo e stabilimento del m. di m., Modena 1892; E. Campana, Maria nel culto cattolico, I, Torino 1933, pp. 467-500. Arnaldo Lanz