“O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today!
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.”
During the 1968 May procession at St. Francis Academy in Bethlehem, Pa., a young Sister Carol Ann Papp (center) served as an attendant to May Queen Mary Reisteter. It was customary for the student body to process outdoors to the Blessed Mother statue while singing Ave Maria.
Some rituals carry on even today. Here, Sister Mary Martha Zammatore carefully places a crown atop the Blessed Mother in Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel at Monocacy Manor in 2021.
These snapshots memorialize May altars made by Sister Rosalia Giba and her students (above) in 1961 at St. Teresa School in Hellertown, Pa., and (below) in 1964 at SS. Cyril & Methodius School in Boonton, N.J.
The Rites of May
Sisters recall annual may crownings & altars
It is in the month of May that Catholics pay particularly prayerful tribute to the Blessed Mother, carrying on traditions dating back to the 17th Century and supported in more modern times by Popes Paul VI and Pius XII. Marian hymns, scripture readings, sermons and small ceremonies have traditionally been part of family, school and church life each May.
Among these special devotions are the May crownings and altars participated in and prepared by many of our Sisters, both as students and later as teachers. The coming of May and thoughts of these small but sacred rituals evoke special memories among many. Here are just a few:
generosity of spirit
As a young child, I was always in church for Mass, services and helping the Sisters clean and decorate St. John Nepomucene Church in Guttenburg, N.J. The pastor asked me to crown the Blessed Mother three times during my elementary school years. The one that stands out the most is one when I was in the middle grades. When Father William Hornak told me that he wanted me to crown the Blessed Mother in church that year, he also gave me money to purchase a dress. He knew my family could not afford it, as my dad was on strike from the railroad, and my mother was sick in the hospital. Father Hornak’s great devotion to Mary and his generosity to me and my family are the things I most remember about that May Crowning.
— Sister Frances Marie Duncan
Using items on hand and an old-school cutting technique, Sister Barbara Ann Webster put together this May altar in the Sisters’ community room at Mt. Assisi Place in 2021.
running out of room
In my first year of teaching. I was in charge of the second grade in St. Cyril and Methodious School in Bethlehem, Pa. It was the old school made of three adjoining buildings. My room was super rectangular. I had 16 rows, four desks in each row, with only two empty desks. I knew I had to make a May altar, so I got boxes, more boxes, blue and white tissue paper and set to work. I learned how to make “cob web lace” out of the tissue.
I was finally finished when I discovered the left side was bigger that the right. No problem, add a few additions. Now the other side was bigger. No problem, add a few additions. Now I had a real problem. The door was in my way. I had to stop. Lopsided or not, it was the largest May altar the pastor ever saw. He said if he needed to say Mass he could come to my room.
— Sister Barbara Ann Webster
Sister Rosalia Giba resurrects the tissue cutting techniques that made the May altars she and her students made in the 1960s such impressive tributes to Mary. The foundation was usually made of boxes covered by bedsheets before tissue adornments were added.
fond may memories
Since my childhood days, the month of May was always very dear to me. I always saw beautiful May Altars in the classrooms. Our teachers, the Sisters, always taught us to work with them and make those beautiful May Altars from blue and white tissue paper.
Later when I was teaching, I continued this custom and, one year, made a pink and white one. The children brought the flowers to school for the May altars. There we prayed to Mary, and my love to her was deepened.
Because May is the Month of Mary, we also had May Crowning. I went to St. Gabriel School and Church on Pittsburgh’s North Side. It was just natural to have May Crowning on the school playground, where, in one corner, we had Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto. One of the eighth grade girls was the May Queen, and she crowned the Blessed Mother.
— Sister Rosalia Giba
“The Ave’s strained through the air at the annual May crowning ceremonies on May 19. A procession composed of the entire student body, followed by the May Queen and her court, recited the rosary and sang hymns in the Heavenly Queen’s praise. The climax of the event, the crowning itself, unified the many individual tributes given to Mary in each girl’s heart.”