Bye to May, the month of Mary

The Catholic practice of assigning a special devotion to each month goes back to the early sixteenth century.
Since the best known of those devotions is probably the dedication of May as the month of Mary, it might come as a surprise that it was not until the late eighteenth century that this devotion arose among Jesuits in Rome.
In the early years of the nineteenth century, it quickly spread throughout the Western Church, and, by the time of Pope Pius IX’s declaration of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, it had become universal.

An opportunity
May crownings and other special events in May in honour of Mary, such as public recitation of the rosary, stem from this time.
However, such communal events are more rare today, but many Catholics take the month of May as an opportunity to renew their faith by dusting off their rosaries and adding a few more prayers to their daily routine.
A number of traditions link the month of May to Mary. Alfonso X of Castile in the 13th century wrote in his Cantigas de Santa Maria about the special honoring of Mary during specific dates in May.

Devotion
Eventually, the entire month was filled with special observances and devotions to Mary.
The origin of the conventional devotion is still relatively unknown.
Herbert Thurston identifies the seventeenth century as the earliest instance of the adoption of the custom. It is certain that this form of Marian devotion began in Italy.
Around 1739, witnesses speak of a particular form of Marian devotion in May in Grezzano near Verona.
In 1747 the Archbishop of Genoa recommended the May devotion as a devotion for the home. Specific prayers for them were promulgated in Rome in 1838.

Spread to other places
According to Frederick Holweck, the May devotion in its present form originated at Rome where Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, to counteract infidelity and immorality among the students, made a vow at the end of the eighteenth century to devote the month of May to Mary.
From Rome the practice spread to the other Jesuit colleges and thence to nearly every Catholic church.
In Rome by 1813, May devotions were held in as many as twenty churches.
From Italy, this soon spread to France. In Belgium, the May devotions, at least as a private devotion, were already known by 1803.
The tradition of honoring Mary in a month-long devotion spread eventually around the Roman Catholic world in the nineteenth century together with a month-long devotion to Jesus in June and the Rosary in October.

Special prayers
In his 1965 encyclical, Mense Maio, Pope Paul VI identified the month of May as an opportune time to incorporate special prayers for peace into traditional May practices.
There is no firm structure as to the content of a May devotion.
It usually includes the singing of Marian anthems, readings from scriptures, and a sermon.
Although prayers likely include the recitation of the Hail Mary, the rosary itself is not usually a part of this particular devotion.
Catholics offer Mary special honour in May: pilgrimages, visits to churches dedicated to her, sacrifices in her honour, periods of study and a more attentive recitation of the rosary.

Why May 31 is special
The last devotion on May 31 is often followed by a solemn procession, during which a statue or portrait of the Virgin Mary is carried back into the church. Some May devotions may take place outside.