Q: Why is May the Month Catholics honor Mary?

A: To double down on the importance of the month of May dedicated to honoring Mother Mary, Pope Paul VI said, “In this month (May), too, the benefits of God's mercy come down to us from her (Mary’s) throne in greater abundance" (Paul VI: Encyclical on the Month of May, no. 1). So what is so special about May?
     The practice of a month being dedicated to the Virgin Mary existed before it became known officially in the month of May. In the medieval times there was a 30-day devotion called “Tricesimum” originally Latin for thirtieth and also used to mean “Lady’s Month” that started from August through September. Later in the 13th century, the Jesuits were known to dedicate the month of May to honoring Holy Virgin Mary. It is suggested that May was chosen for three main reasons: 1) to combat in May secular pagan feasts dedicated to false gods or spirits, 2) several Marian devotionals already were said in the month of May and 3) because spring is the time of new birth that represents how Jesus came through a pure virgin into our world to give us new birth.
     By the 1500s Marian May booklets and books began to appear to foster this devotion. In the end of the 1700s, Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) located in Rome, made a vow to dedicate the month of May to Virgin Mary. He did this because of the infidelity and immorality of the students at that college and to ask Holy Virgin Mary to help them. This practice spread to other Jesuit colleges and thus the Catholic churches near them. In 1815 the month of May dedication to Mary was granted a partial indulgence by Pope Pius VII and a plenary indulgence by Pope Pius IX in 1859. Finally, in 1945 Pope Pius XII made the month of May officially the Catholic month of dedication to the Blessed Mother Mary. Some of the highlighted Marian days in May include: 
May 1 (or 1st Sunday)  – Our Lady, Queen of May. Often includes a May Crowning ceremony.
May 13 – Our Lady of Fatima
May 24 – Mary, Help of Christians
May 31 – The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
    In Mary’s Magnificat she correctly professed how all generations would call her blessed and so we do, not because of her, but because of the “greatness of the Lord” and His grace given to her and all of us through her and the Church she represents. She is forever bringing us to the will of Her Son, in her words to us “Do whatever He tells you”. As Pope Paul VI said in his 1965 encyclical, “the person who encounters Mary cannot help but encounter Christ likewise. For what other reason do we continually turn to Mary except to seek the Christ in her arms, to seek our Savior in her, through her, and with her?” She is a loving good Mother who loves the Father and Her Son wanting all of His children to be safe in His family, His Kingdom. In this “Lady’s Month” let us allow our Mother to bring us closer to Her Son Jesus. Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and especially to our dear Holy Blessed Mother Mary.​

---