Chapter 12 : The Eleventh Star or Splendour of the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God
Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020) |
She has been and is still recognized and called blessed by all generations in the world
§ 5. She was recognized and honoured by all Nations everywhere in the world
1 This is what filled with joy the heart of St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, as may be seen in how he addressed the Blessed Virgin with the following words[1]:
May thou blessed by all generations and may all the nations of the earth be blessed in thee; for there is no place in the world where thy praises are not proclaimed and no country where thy goodness hath not been at work. Those very countries who had no knowledge of thee whilst thou wast here on earth now call thee blessed.
The Abbot Rupert comments on the following words from the Canticle of Love[2]: they have made me the keeper in the vineyards. He says that
they apply very aptly to the Blessed Virgin who says herself that her dear Son and her sweet Spouse was not content with giving her one vineyard to keep safe, namely the Church of her people, but that He entrusted to her care and vigilance all vineyards in the vast expanse of the earth. There is not one which can feel safe if it it is not blessed with the care and protection of the Mary.
This does not mean, however, that she does not have her own Churches and places which are especially given to honouring and serving her. In fact, if you take the trouble to seek out some of the most famous you will find they are so numerous that it would be hard to find a corner of the inhabited earth where people have not been eager to show her homage and where she has not distributed her favours with great generosity. The following discussion will take us on a journey around the world but I hope that the consolation this brings will be more than a match for the effort involved, for you will discover that your Mother has been glorified all over the earth and that there are signs everywhere of the influence God has allowed her to have.
Footnotes
[1] Serm. de Dormit. B. Virg.
[2] Cant. i. 5.
The Holy Land
THE HOUSE AT NAZARETH
2 Reason requires that we start in the Holy Land, not only because it is said by many to be the centre of the world but also because there are grounds for believing it is where the Holy Virgin first took possession of her domain here on earth. In his description of the Holy Land, Adricomius identifies the little house in Nazareth which today we call Our Lady of Loreto as having the honour of being the first Church that the Holy Virgin had in the world. He relies for his authority on William Archbishop of Tyre and Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem[1], Breidembachius[2], the Deacon of Mayence[3], and Barthélemy de Salignac, Protonotary Apostolic[4].
I might add at this point in passing that there are four Churches that have been proposed as having this primacy. Apart from the one I have already mentioned, we find there are reliable authors who give the glory to a town in Tripoli, now called Tortosa but then known as Antaradum, where they say that St Peter the Apostle, travelling to Antioch, built the first Church consecrated to Our Lady and offered the first Mass there himself. Thomas Waldensis[5] concluded the honour belonged to Our Lady of Mt Carmel, which I shall discuss later[6]. There are Spanish writers who argue they have strong evidence that her first Church was Our Lady of the Pillar, built on the orders of St James the Apostle. I will cover this when we come to the section on Spain.
I shall leave this question to my learned and curious readers whilst we return to Jerusalem, capital of Palestine, where the Holy Virgin had lived for such a long time and where she was to take solemn possession of a Church[7] which St Helena built on the site of her tomb in the valley of Josaphat. She also built Churches in Bethlehem on the site of the Nativity[8] and in the place[9] where news of the Saviour’s birth had been announced to the Shepherds.
Much later, in 530 A.D., the Emperor Justinian built another Church in her honour at Jerusalem which was called the New Church of the Mother of God. This building was described by Procopius in his fifth book (which he wrote about the Emperor Justinian’s buildings) as magnificent and was to be numbered among the foremost buildings in the world. He adds two other things which bear wonderful witness to how pleased the Queen of Heaven was at being honoured in that location. Firstly, the architects were having difficulty in finding timber of the height and width they needed for the roof until the MOTHER OF GOD herself came promptly to their aid. She revealed to them a forest of cedar trees not too far from their site and they were able to use these for the roof of the Church. The second miracle concerned the fact that they had no marble for the columns they planned to erect. The city of Jerusalem is some distance from the sea and is surrounded by rock where hitherto only common stone had been discovered. Mary revealed to them a quarry where they were able to extract a bright red marble which had never been seen there before. The Emperor was so delighted with the work that, not content with building the Church, he endowed it most generously so that the Virgin would be served by it in perpetuity. He built another church on the Mount of Olives in honour of the same Virgin, a third in Jericho and a fourth at the foot of Mt Sinai, being unable to do so on the summit because of the strange noises that filled with horror all those drawing near. This is all reported by Procopius in the same Book.
Footnotes
[1] Belli sacri, lib. IX, c. 5.
[2] Probably Bernard von Breydenbach who wrote: Peregrinationes in terram sanctam.
[3] 12 julii.
[4] T. VII, c. 2.
[5] Lib. de Sacramentalibus, tit. 9, c. 48.
[6] § 7.
[7] Niceph., lib. VIII, c. 30.
[8] Beda, de Locis Sanctis, c. 8.
[9] Niceph., loc. cit.
Syria
3 Syria adjoins Palestine and was like a nursery for the propagation of holiness. As such, it could not be otherwise than that we should find here impressive signs of the ancient devotion shown towards the Queen of the Universe. One league and a half away from Damascus, the Syrian capital, there was once a fine monastery at a place called Saidnaya[1] of which only a small chapel has survived. It housed a miraculous image of Our Lady which had been brought from Constantinople to Jerusalem and was then given by a Patriarch of Jerusalem to an Abbess of this monastery. This image had been painted on wood and with passage of time had bonded with the wood so that it could not be erased. Those who saw it describe how a sweet balm would seep from the surface, so gentle and delicate that it was able to heal all manner of illnesses and became a regular place of resort for Christians, Turks and Saracens, especially on the feast days of the Nativity and the Assumption of the Virgin. What was particularly miraculous was that no matter how much oil was taken away, it never suffered any diminution. In the year 1203, the Sultan of Damascus was struck by blindness[3] and he had recourse to the oil that seeped from this Image. He rubbed it on his eyes and he recovered full use of his sight. As a result of this benefit received he felt duty-bound to fund a silver lamp that would burn continually before the Image of the Virgin. This is what he did, gifting twelve measures of oil every year. In the following year, 1204, something even more extraordinary took place which led to a massive growth of the esteem in which the Saracens held our faith. Around the time of the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, the miraculous oil in the vessel was changed into flesh, and this was witnessed by crowds of people who came from all parts.
Footnotes
[1] See Saidnaya.com; see too: Our Lady of Saydnaya Patriarchal Monastery.
[2] Arnoldus Abbas Lubecensis apud Baron., an. 870.
[3] Westmonasteriens in flor. hist.
Asia Minor
4 The same historian writes[1] that in the year 542 when Justinian brought relief to the noble city of Antioch which had been burned by the brutal Cosroës, he ordered the building of a Church dedicated to the MOTHER OF GOD that was so magnificent and awe-inspiring that no words could be found adequate to describe it.
Whoever has read the story of St Alexius will recall the beautiful Church dedicated to the Virgin Mother in the city of Edessa. It was at the entrance to this Church that Alexis was identified by an image of the same Virgin and called to be a great servant of God.
St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, wrote an epistle which was read at the second Council of Nicea[2] that had been called in defence of holy images. He explained that in Sozopolis, a city of Pisidia, there was an image of Our Lady which shed miraculous oil. In the life of Theodore the Sykeote, Bishop of Anastasiopolis and Abbot, it is said[3] that this great Prelate was prostrate before the same image when oil started to seep out in abundance and came over his eyes, eventually covering his whole face. All present were struck with wonderment and, as they left the chapel they called out in unison that Theodore was a great servant of God and His Blessed Mother.
Footnotes
[1] Lib. II.
[2] Act. 4.
[3] Georgius Presbyter, ejus discipulus, 22 april.
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2024
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