Ms. Krymow is a volunteer research associate at the Marian Library, University of Dayton. She received the Clinton Award for research from the Mariological Society of America in August, 2000.

Her work has been published in the Catholic Digest, St. Anthony Messenger and Queen of All Hearts magazines, Catholic Telegraph, Dayton Daily News and other publications. She is a contributor to the Mary’s Gardens Home Page (www.mgardens.org) and the Marian Library Mary Page (www.udayton.edu/mary).

Ms. Krymow conducts workshops on Mary Gardens and the flowers and flower legends associated with Mary.

Mary’s Flowers: Gardens, Legends and Meditations is a collection of early Christian and medieval flower legends that tell of the life of Mary, mother of Jesus. Each legend is accompanied by a full-color serigraph illustration by Marianist brother Joe Barrish and a meditation by Schoenstatt Sister of Mary, Jean Frisk. Chapters describe important Mary Gardens in the U.S. and tell how to plant a Mary Garden.

Her latest book, Healing Plants of the Bible, will be published fall of 2002 by the St. Anthony Messenger Press.

Gardens in the Bible

by Vincenzina Krymow

We don’t usually think of the bible when we think of gardens, but gardens are mentioned in the bible more than sixty times, with most of the references in the Old Testament. As various writers point out, life began in a garden, Christ was buried in a garden and Revelation promises us a new Paradise replete with gardens.

 Early in Genesis (2:8) we read: “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east…Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food….” The fall of Adam and Eve takes place in a garden. Contrary to God’s command, they eat “of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden.” (Genesis 2:3-6)  

 The earliest gardens contained fruit and nut trees (olive, fig, almond and pomegranate) and were planted with herbs and vegetables used for cooking and healing. These gardens were not ornamental but the fruit trees and many of the herbs bore beautiful blossoms. Almond and pomegranate blossoms are breathtaking. Rue and flax in bloom are lovely as are the tiny blooms of mint, oregano and other herbs.

King Solomon’s gardens were famous and are considered the basis for the beautiful imagery of the Song of Songs. Ecclesiastes (2:4-6) tells of Solomon, who “planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.” In the Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s Song, we read of a cluster of henna blossoms, gardens abounding with apple and fig trees, vineyards in blossom, an orchard of pomegranates, and trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes.

The Song of Songs, which contains several references to gardens, is thought to express the love of God for his people, Israel or the Church. In 4:16 God welcomes his beloved to his garden with its fragrance and choice fruits: “Awake, O north wind; and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden that its fragrance may be wafted abroad. Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits.” In medieval times the passage referring to “a garden locked” was interpreted to refer to the Virgin Mary, her purity enclosed in a locked garden (4:12), and a number of paintings depicted Mary in enclosed gardens. 

Some gardens in the Old Testament symbolize the Lord’s mercy and power. In Jeremiah the planted garden becomes a symbol of enduring faith. In 29:4-5 the Lord God of Israel commands the exiles to “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.” Those who trust in the Lord are rewarded. In Isaiah 58:11 the Israelites are told: “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places…and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.” The Lord God himself is as faithful as a garden. In Isaiah 61:11 we read that “For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.” 

Jesus went often to the garden of Gethsemane for prayer and meditation. Matthew (26:36) tells us that “Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray’.”  Judas betrayed Jesus in a garden across the Kidron Valley (John 1:1-3).

The Hebrews used gardens as burial places and so we are told that Jesus was buried in a garden. “Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.” John 19:41-42.  Two days later Jesus’ resurrection occurs in the same garden.

In Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, we read of “the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month…” growing on either side of the river (22:2) which runs through the middle of the street of the city. Gardens cut through the center of the new Jerusalem!