WELCOME TO MAY
The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this month, Catholics in every part of the world pay a super tribute, offering up to Mary from their hearts a fervent and loving homage of prayer and veneration, both in church and in the privacy of their homes. In this month, also, the benefits of God's mercy come down to us from the dispatcher of all graces in abundance.
This Christian custom of dedicating the month of May to the Blessed Virgin arose at the end of the 13th century. In this way, the Church was able to Christianize the secular feasts which would not take place at that time. In the 16th century, books appeared and fostered this devotion.
The practice became especially popular among the members of the Jesuit Order — by 1700 it took hold among their students at the Roman College and a bit later it was publicly practiced in the Gesu Church in Rome. From there it spread to the whole Church.
This practice was granted a partial indulgence by Pope Pius VII in 1815 and a plenary indulgence was granted by Pope Pius IX in 1859. With the complete revision of indulgences in 1966 and the decreased emphasis on specific indulgences, it no longer carries an indulgence; however it certainly falls within the category of the First General Grant of Indulgences. (A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who, in the performance of their duties and in bearing the trials of life, raise their mind with humble confidence to God, adding — even if only mentally — some pious invocation.
Excerpted from Enchiridion of Indulgences.
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