Location in Church: Sacristy
Holy Mary, Mystical Rose, you are the most beautiful flower created by God,
in venerating you we praise God for his holiness and beauty.
According to Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman*, the Blessed Virgin Mary is called Rosa Mystica, the Mystical Rose, because she “is the Queen of spiritual flowers; and therefore she is called the Rose, for the rose is fitly called of all flowers the most beautiful.” That would explain the name “rose” but Newman asks the reason for the adjective “hidden.” His reply is that her tomb was not to be found on earth as that of the saints and martyrs. “Is it conceivable that they who had been so reverent and careful of the bodies of the Saints and Martyrs should neglect her—her who was the Queen of Martyrs and the Queen of Saints, who was the very Mother of our Lord? It is impossible. Why then is she thus the hidden Rose? Plainly because that sacred body is in heaven, not on earth.”
* Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was an Anglican convert to Roman Catholicism at the age of 44. On January 22, 1991, Pope John Paul II declared that John Henry Newman had lived all of the Christian virtues in a heroic degree and was thus henceforth to be called by the title “Venerable”.