The day lilies are living large these days,
making it easy not to notice the looming outburst
in honor of Saint Anthony, queueing up behind them.
You probably think Easter lilies bloom at Easter, and you would have good reason to do so; and in the managed and massaged world of the greenhouse, they do. But on their own and in the wideness of the weather, the story is different. In fact, so-called Easter lilies are only part of a progression of lilies that only begins after Easter, and because the campus here has so many garden spots on it, this progression is a delight to follow.
First in the progression come the lilies of the valley, easy to miss because they are so small. These tiny white bells hang in an arc along their branches, wrapped in a trumpet of dark green succulent spears for leaves. The whole plant is less than a foot tall and easy to miss, even when growing in a broad swath, as they do here behind the Mother Seton statue next to the rectory. I have no idea how they got there, but when they appeared for the first time a few years back, it was the first time I had seen them since my family moved from our first house when I was seven years old. Clearly that makes them a sentimental favorite. Lilies of the valley hereabouts come early in the season, shortly after the hyacinths and daffodils open.
Then after the azaleas and irises and flowering trees have had their fun, and the weather turns summery, the day lilies open up. This outburst of peachy orange, their classic color, started about two weeks ago around the rectory and is still going strong. Attractive as it is, it can distract us from buildup to the big show to come.
Every year after Easter, we plant the flowers that have decorated the altar for the Solemnity. This also explains our abundance of hydrangeas; they will bloom in a few weeks. But right now, the tall, straight stalks of lilies of Easters past are growing more prominent around and along every edge or circumference on campus, and looking like they could burst forth at any moment.
It turns out, they are right on schedule according to the liturgical calendar, even though the long Easter season is ended, late as it fell this year. Because when they are in the wild, these are known as Saint Anthony’s Lilies, after the Franciscan saint associated with Padua; his feast day is Monday, June 13th. I looked up Saint Anthony of Padua on catholictradition.org to learn more:
Most images of the Wonder-Worker of Padua depict him holding the Child Jesus and with lilies. Now, it is a part of tradition in Christian art to use lilies as a symbol of purity when portraying Our Lady or the Saints and even Angels.
With Saint Anthony lilies have special significance. Lilies are in bloom around much of the world in the month of June, the month of his Feast Day [the 13th]. Of even more import there are two incidents hundreds of years old relating to the Saint of Padua and these magnificent flowers:
In 1680, on June 13, in the church at Mentosca d'Agesco in Austria, someone placed a cut lily in the hand of his statue. For an entire year the lily remained fragrant and fully alive, without wilting. Then the following year it grew two more blooms, so that the church was filled with the fragrance of the flowers.
A little over a century later, during the anti-clerical, anti-Catholic French Revolution, on the island of Corsica, the Franciscans were forced to leave their parishioners. The people refused to give up their devotions although they had no choice in the matter of the Sacraments because they had no priests. They invoked the intercession of Saint Anthony. On June 13 they erected a shrine to the Saint in the deserted church; the shrine included lilies in his honor. Months later the blooms were still fresh as if they had just been placed there.
Every year, I take pains to express my gratitude and that of the parish to all who donate flowers to decorate our holy altar at Easter. The outpouring is always generous and expressive of the glory of God’s salvation and our gratitude. You’ve heard of gifts that keep on giving? Look around this week!
It is only fitting that the lilies should find further calling in culminating annually the progression of lilies on our campus, reminding us of purity of the saint who lovingly holds in his arm the child Christ, whose resurrection we mark at Easter – with more lilies.
Monsignor Smith
