The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 12 : § 5. 24-25

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).

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

Spain

OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR, OUR LADY OF CASTELBRUEDO & OUR LADY OF THE CROSS

 24  Let us now proceed to Spain and we shall begin by discovering traces of the ancient devotion of this Kingdom towards the MOTHER OF GOD as shown in the history of Our Lady of the Pillar in Saragossa and by what happened to St James the Apostle.

 

This great servant of God had been sent to Spain following the special commission of Our Lady. He worked as hard as he could to spread the word about His master’s glory but his efforts were almost fruitless since in all the time he spent there he converted only nine people. He was lamenting this to his companions one day on the bank of the river Ebro when he suddenly saw Our Lady, who was still living at this time. She had been carried there by the ministry of Angels and she stood before him now on a pillar of jasper, consoling him and promising him that what he himself had been unable to do would be achieved by means of his successors. He should no longer feel sad and frustrated because she had taken this Kingdom under her personal protection as would become clear.  This message gave encouragement to the Holy Apostle and he pursued his mission with greater fervour still, building this Church which still stands, despite all the damage that was done throughout Spain by the various waves of Barbarians who occupied it at various times.

I am aware that there are learned men who have serious doubts about this history but I have found it supported by so many authors of quality that it would be quite improper to disavow them all or to go against the reasons they adduce. It would be impossible to recount, moreover, how many times the Virgin gave proof of her promises and the particular favours received by the people of Saragossa.

Jerónimo Blancas relates how one day she delivered them from the Saracens who had already managed to breach the defences.

In the year 718 Pelagius, who was formerly chief of King Theodoric’s forces, tried to escape the fury of a Saracen army by seeking refuge in a cave on a mountain near Astorga with a small detachment of Goths. There, they were besieged and urged to surrender, but he proclaimed that his wish was to re-establish with this little group of men both the faith and the Gothic nation in Spain. The Barbarians who were present in huge numbers launched countless volleys of arrows and rocks at them but the Goths hurled them back upon the Saracens. So many Saracens were wounded[1] and terror so gripped their army that they fled. Some were killed by the Goths who pursued them, some were hanged on the mountain and some were drowned. This shows the courage which the MOTHER OF GOD inspired in them and the terror with which she filled the hearts of their foes.

On another occasion when King Alfonso was giving battle to the Moors and the Saracens, the Queen of Heaven put such dread into the Barbarians that the mere sight of her banner born before the Spanish army was enough to lead to their total rout.

Seasoned travellers in Spain will know about Our Lady of Toledo where the glorious Virgin once presented a beautiful white chasuble to the Archbishop, St Ildephonsus, as I shall explain later. They will also know of Our Lady of Oviedo, of Seville, of León, of Barcelona, of Murcia, of Huesca, of Zuñeda, Our Lady of Mercy, of the Hospitals at Toledo, Alcala and many other places that attest to the fervour this nation has for honouring the MOTHER OF GOD.

Our Lady of Castelbruedo which is in Oliana near the river Segre in Catalonia is celebrated for a wonder that is witnessed every year on the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. Three blue lights can be seen coming up from the island in the river Segre near the Church. They shine through the windows of the Church and are able to light the lamps and candles. They then return whence they came and immediately disappear.  

Our Lady of the Cross is half a league away from Cubas, a small town five leagues from Madrid. It was here that Our Lady appeared as many as nine times to a little girl called Inés who was only three years old. On the last occasion she herself planted the Cross which has been found in the place where she indicated she wished to be served. This is explained at greater length in the life of the blessed Juana of the Cross.

Footnotes

[1] Rodericus Ximenes, de Rebus Hispaniæ, lib. VII, c. 36.

OUR LADY OF LA GARDIA, OF PUCHA & OF NIEVA

 25   In the Kingdom of Aragon, we will be shown the beautiful Church of Our Lady of Valvanera which I shall cover more fully in Part Three when discussing Philip II. It was built to house an image of the Holy Virgin that was found in an oak tree, surrounded by a swarm of honey bees that had made a little niche for it. 

In the same Kingdom there are few things more celebrated than the Church of Our Lady of La Guardia, so-called following an accident which befell a woman whose son was saved miraculously by Our Lady. He had fallen into a well and when his mother found out she turned to the glorious Virgin, imploring her to bring her son safely back. Scarcely had she finished her prayer when the water rose up to the top of the well, carrying the child still alive and lifting him over the parapet. The poor afflicted mother took him into her arms with a thousand thanks.

Around the time that King James of Aragon established the Military Order for the Redemption of Captives in 1223, the glorious Virgin wished to show her approval of this new order by allowing them to take possession of an image of her which was found miraculously not far from the town of Pucha which is in the kingdom of Valencia. Over the course of several days people could see seven stars which came down to that place and filled it with a wondrous light. They decided to dig in the earth at that spot and they found a beautiful image of the Holy Virgin. Bernardo Cornez writes in the tenth book of his History of Spain that the Holy Virgin gave them to understand that she wanted them to build a Church on the same spot where they found the image. He then adds that they dug deep into the soil and found the ruins of an old Church with a great bell, a beautiful marble altar two cubits tall on which an image had been engraved of the Holy Virgin. Various inscriptions and other evidence indicated that this was a Church of Our Lady used over five hundred years previously by monks of the Benedictine Order and that it had been sacked by the Saracens when they were occupying Spain. King James ordered a beautiful Church to be built on the ruins of the old one and the image of the Holy Virgin was placed upon it. This saw the start of countless miracles which have not ceased to this day.

In Nieva which is in the Kingdom of Castille, an image of the Holy Virgin was found in1400[1]. Miracles soon started to occur here and as access became easier so many came that eventually a fine town grew up around the site. Queen Catherine of Castile also commissioned the building of a Church here to increase devotion to the blessed Virgin.

Footnotes

[1] Mariana, lib. XIX, c. 10 de Rebus Hispaniæ.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

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.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

© Peter Bloor 2024