Q. How did the month of May come to be associated especially with the Blessed Virgin Mary?
A. The custom of consecrating the month of May to Our Lady with special observances arose in relatively recent times—no earlier than the late 1600s. The May devotion in its present form originated in Rome about a century later. There, Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) wanted to counteract immoral behavior and a lack of faith among the students, so he made a vow to devote the m