Flower Crowns

When I was young, I made flower crowns out of clover flowers from my back yard. I think I also made some crowns of forsythia branches. I didn’t make a rose crown until during the COVID lock down when my brother who chants at an Oratory in St. Louis told me he needed a crown for a May crowning that would take place despite the fact that no one could come.

So, I measured the statue of Our Lady and made a crown with pink roses for her. It was a delight!

I have since made many crowns for this statue of Our Lady. Here is one with white roses I did for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception:

Then a sister showed me how to make a crown for my older sister’s first vows:

You can see we’re using spray roses.

And here I am with my sister in her crown after it was blessed by His Eminence Cardinal Burke with a special blessing for “ornaments” in the vow ceremony:

After many years of making crowns for Our Lady and sisters, I admit, I rather wanted to make one for myself. But this world of ours is sadly prosaic. There aren’t many opportunities where one can simply wear a flower crown.

Then it came to me! I could make a crown to wear for the procession of St. Louis, King of France. The Feast of St. Louis is a great occasion for Catholics in St. Louis, Missouri. He is our patron, our King, our royal Crusader Father. We have liturgies and banquets and a procession with his relic to honor him every year at the end of August. It seemed to me perfectly appropriate for a daughter of St. Louis to don a crown of flowers to help beautify her King’s feast. However, I was a little nervous to do it alone. I emailed some girlfriends and said, “Don’t let me be the only crazy medieval peasant!”

And so:

We now have a flower crown party every year to make our crowns prior to the procession!

The photo below shows my sister and me in the back of the Oratory of Ss. Gregory and Augustine where the procession assembles. She is handing out leftover carnations from a flower crown party the night before to men for their button holes. The big bags behind us contain 24,000 yellow rose petals for little girls to pave the path of the procession. It’s glorious.

And here is a group of us at the end of the procession:

The world does not have to be drab and prosaic. The true Catholic way of life is full of festivity and flowers. Don’t be shy to “be eccentric” and bring more color and beauty to everyday life. Many people are afraid of standing out. They think it’s holier to be plain. But this is not the Catholic way. The Catholic was is revel in the beauty of creation which points straight back to God.

Finally, as a coda to this post, an artist friend of mine asked me to make a crown for a Rose of Lima painting she was doing for a church. I decided to do something very exotic! Roses, orchids, Birds of Paradise, and more. So much fun.

See the completed painting of St. Rose of Lima here.