In some holy cards we see Mary holding a rose in her hand or contemplating a rose. Usually these images are used in conjunction with her title "Mystical Rose". It appears that this iconography came into view toward the end of the 13th Century replacing the scepter. "In her study of Christian iconography Gertrude Schiller explains that the theme 'Mary contemplating the rose,' may mean that the rose symbolized Christ; it is an allusion to the Tree of Jesse, Mary being the Virga Jesse: the Root of Jesse Bearing Jesus." (Web article by Rev. Theodore A. Koehler, S.M., The Christian Symbolism of the Rose)
Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming
played by Bro. Renatus Fuldenauer, CSC
Lo! how
a Rose, e'er blooming,
From tender stem hath sprung,
Of Jesse's lineage coming
As seers of old have sung;
It came, a blossom bright,
Amid the cold of winter
When half-spent was the night.
Isaiah 'twas
foretold it,
The Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
The Virgin Mother kind:
To show God's love aright
She bore
to us a Savior
When half-spent was the night.
As you can see from the Christmas Hymn written in the 15th Century, the Rose refers both to Mary and Christ. Mary was symbolized with a white rose indicting her purity while a red rose or roses indicated Christ in his passion and death. This shift of symbolism is inevitable because the reality is One-Christ's Incarnation in Mary.
Mystical
Rose