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
France
OUR LADY OF CHARITY, OUR LADY OF LA RUE AUX OURS
46 Passing along the street called la rue des Jardins, you may feel moved by a spirit of holy curiosity to visit the priory or conventual house called Our Lady of Charity. This is referred to in common speech as Billets because a Jew once had his premises there and hanging outside were three or four billets[1] advertising the nature of his business. The foundation of this priory and hospital came about as follows[2]:
At Easter in the year 1290, the fifth in the reign of Philip the Handsome, there was a Jew living in premises on the site where the monastery is now located who agreed to loan a sum of money to a poor woman. In return he made her promise to bring him the Host she would receive at Holy Communion. The woman duly brought the Host to him and he then did everything that a demon could think by way of mistreatment and abuse. Firstly, he stabbed it with a pocket-knife and then he pressed the point of a large nail into the Host and hit it several times with a hammer. After that, he contrived to scourge the Host but, seeing that blood started to pour from it, he tossed it in fury on to the fire. The Host emerged unscathed and began to float around the room. This so enraged the wretched man that he seized a large kitchen knife and tried to cut the Host into pieces. His planned act of sacrilege also came to nothing and so he chose the dirtiest place of his house and taking a lance he drove it hard into the Host. This opened a sizeable wound causing a stream of blood to flow. This did nothing to assuage the man’s bestial fury but rather drove him wild and he threw the Host into a pot of boiling water which was on the fire. The Host emerged triumphant from this torment as from the others, for it filled the pot with blood and then rose miraculously upwards, leaving the Jew so overwhelmed that he was unable even to cover up the evidence of his crime, with the result that he was arrested and burned alive, so that he might begin to experience in this life the flames of God’s anger that would consume him in the next.
The Jew’s house was sequestered and given by Philip the Handsome to the brothers of the Charity of Our Lady and a Church was built called Our Lady of Charity. This and the house were soon found to be too small and were later rebuilt on a larger scale, being dedicated on the 13th of May 1408.
At the corner of a street called la rue aux Ours, you will see an image of Our Lady. Every year after hanging a tapestry before the image, they light a bonfire and fireworks. This is because of the following[3]:
In 1418, a wastrel emerged from a nearby house where he had gambled away all his money and was left with just the clothes he was wearing. He slashed out at the image of Our Lady with his knife and this opened a wound which bled profusely. Justice was not slow in coming and bringing a punishment for his crime. He was strapped to a stake and flogged from six in the morning until his guts spilled on the ground from the force of the beating.
The following Churches in Paris are similarly famous:
• the Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto in the Temple district;
• the Chapel of Our Lady of Montserrat which is in Saint-Jacques de l’Hôpital; and
• the Chapel of Our Lady of Good-Deliverance, which is in Saint-Étienne des Grecs.
Footnotes
[1] Billets : rectangular shapes representing bars or ingots of gold or silver. See billet in Complete OED: 3. A small bar of metal, & 6. Heraldry. A bearing of the shape of a rectangle placed on end. Cf. The three golden balls outside a pawnshop.
[2] Jac. Du Breul, in Antiquit. Parisiens, ex vet. monum.
[3] Du Breul, loc. cit
47 If we were to visit all the places where our Queen of Heaven is honoured here, we would never leave this great and devout city. What is still more remarkable is that whichever side we choose to leave Paris, you will find only places of devotion dedicated to her service. In the great road of Saint-Denis where there was once a wood, you will see the Chapel called Our Lady-of-the-Woods, next to the Church of Sainte-Opportune. Neart to Chaillot, is the Church of the Minim Fathers which is called Our Lady of all the Graces. Princess Anne of Brittany was wife to two Kings, namely Charles VIII and Louis XII. Her devotion was such that she donated her ancient house in Brittany, the old Chateau of Nigeon, to the glorious St Francis de Paul as a place of devotion for the Holy Virgin and to provide a house for his Order.
In the village of Haubervilliers you will see numerous people going to the Chapel of Our Lady of Virtues. It has acquired this beautiful name because of the great miracles reported there and some of the main ones are represented in the paintings which hang the length of the Chapel.
You will also hear people speak about the following places of devotion:
• Our Lady of Chelles which was founded by Queen Bathild or Baudour, wife of King Clovis II;
• Our Lady of Long-Champ, sometimes referred to as Our Lady of Humility, founded by the Blessed Isabelle of France, sister of the glorious St Louis;
• Our Lady of Long-Pont, where there is a Benedictine Priory;
• Our Lady of Hierre, so called from a little river of the same name overlooking which the Church is located;
• Our Lady of Footel;
• Our Lady of Boulogne which citizens of Paris and others who had been on pilgrimage to Our Lady of Boulogne on sea built on their return in the village of Menuz, near Saint-Cloud;
• Our Lady of Grace, outside the Saint Anthony Gate in Piquepuce, which is in the care of Fathers of the Third order of St Francis;
• Our Lady of Vincennes, where there are tow images of the Holy Virgin for which the Parisians have had a great devotion since the reign of Louis the Younger and Philip Augustus, who were the founders;
• Our Lady of Malnoue, four leagues from Paris;
• Our Lady of Argenteuil;
• Our Lady of Maubuisson, called Royal;
• Our Lady of Good News, a Chapel of St Victor; and
• Our Lady of Miracles, which is in the Cloister of the Church known as Saint-Maur des Fossés. On the altar near the tomb of St Babolin, first Abbot of this Monastery, there is an image of the Virgin which was made miraculously by an invisible land as the master sculptor called Rumolde was applying himself to the work.
There are several other places of devotion that I might mention but I shall pass over them so as not to burden the reader with too much detail. Ten leagues from Paris, near Senlis in Valois, you would find Our Lady of Victory which Philip Augustus built in honour of the Blessed Virgin around 1240 having finally brought to a happy conclusion the long and difficult troubles he had with the English and the Flemish. He also donated two silver lamps which were to lit before the image of the Holy Virgin.
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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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