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Thank you, John Stokes

Thank you, John Stokes, for your beautiful legacy of work to restore the Mary Garden movement and for gifting your research to the world.      

John Stogdell Stokes Jr., an engineer and founder of an international Catholic movement that fosters devotional flower gardens to the Virgin Mary, died Nov. 14, 2007 at age 87.

Mr. Stokes was born October 21, 1920, in Huntingdon Valley, PA. Raised as a Quaker, Mr. Stokes in 1946 experienced what he called a “lightning bolt Catholic conversion” in the garden of his family home. His longtime interest in mysticism found a home in Catholic spirituality and social teaching.

Soon afterward, Mr. Stokes read an article about a devotional garden to Our Lady, planted in 1932 at St. Joseph's Church in Woods Hole, Mass.

He developed a passionate interest in studying medieval religious names, symbolisms and uses of flowers--especially those associated with the Virgin Mary--and incorporating them into present-day religion and gardening. With a Philadelphia partner, Edward A.G. McTague, Mr. Stokes in 1951 founded “Mary’s Gardens,” an effort later joined by Bonnie Roberson of Hagerman, Idaho.

Through articles in Catholic publications, newsletters and distribution of seed packets, Mr. Stokes promoted the idea of gardens filled with plants specifically named in honor of the Virgin Mary, such as marigolds and the Madonna lily. He launched this www.mgardens.org Web site in late 1995 and devoted the rest of his years adding his vast archives of flower photos, scholarly research and correspondence. This site has generated many thousands of inquiries and fostered devotional gardens worldwide.

Excerpted with permission from mgardens.org

Mary Gardens Worldwide

Mary’s Gardens can be found at the Knock Shrine in Ireland, the Church of Our Lady of Akita, Akita, Japan, and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Stokes’ Mary's Gardens archives have been donated to The Marian Library at the University of Dayton. To support this continuation of this work, you may make a contribution to the library at 300 College Park, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469-1390.

Courtesy of The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute.