At the center of the garden is the granite statue of Mary and Jesus. He looks to be about 9 or 10, and he gazes up at her with the kind of love in his face that only a mother ever sees. Created by sculptor Leo Irrera, it recalls the holy family's peaceful time in Nazareth, when Mary might have had a garden of her own. Around the statue and fountain are the flowers that carry Mary's name or praise her attributes or recall some Mary of Nazareth household possession. You'd recognize them all.
None is rare.
But you know them by other names, not the names given them by priests, poets and storytellers in the Middle Ages. The Mary names were erased during the Reformation when devotion to the Virgin went out of fashion. But early Chrlstians found reminders of Mary in every flower that bloomed. The rose was an emblem of her love of God. The lily represented her purity, the myrtle her virginity, the violet her humility and the marigold her heavenly glory.