Miracle of the roses

A miracle of the roses is a miracle in which roses manifest an activity of God or of a saint. Such a miracle is presented in various hagiographies and legends in different forms, and it occurs in connection with diverse individuals such as Saints Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–1231), Elizabeth of Portugal (1271–1336), St. Dorothy, a 4th-century virgin martyr at Caesarea in Cappadocia (died ca. 311), and Our Lady of Guadalupe (appeared in 1531).

In the Latin West the symbolism of the rose is of Greco-Roman heritage but influenced by and finally transformed through Latin biblical and liturgical texts. In Greco-Roman culture the rose's symbolic qualities represented beauty, the season of spring, and love. It also spoke of the fleetness of life, and therefore of death. In Rome the feast called "Rosalia" was a feast of the dead: thus the flower referred to the next world.

This symbolism attained a deeper complexity when contrasted with the rose's thorns. This contrast inspired the Christian Latin poet Coelius Sedulius, who wrote (between 430-450) a very elaborate comparison between Eve, our first mother, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus our Savior. He illustrated the parallelism already made by Justin Martyr (around 150) and developed it in a deep poetic and doctrinal liturgical teaching in his Easter song, Carmen paschal.

The rose was a privileged symbol for Mary, Queen of heaven and earth. We see this development later during the Middle Ages, when the rose became an attribute of many other holy women, including Elizabeth of Hungary, Elizabeth of Portugal, Casilda of Toledo, and for the martyrs in general. The rose is even a symbol for Christ himself, as seen in the German Christmas song, "es ist ein 'Rose' entsprungen."

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