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
Lorraine
OUR LADY OF NANCY, OUR LADY OF GOOD HELP & OUR LADY OF BOUSSIÈRE (BOUXIÈRES)
55 Let us proceed now to Lorraine, not only because it is nearby but also because we shall find they have there a most heartfelt devotion to the glorious Virgin. She is honoured there as protectress along with St Nicholas and she shows in various ways how pleased she is with the devotions offered to her. In Nancy the capital she has a house at the highest point of the city. She is like a guardian and the people consider her protection to be as reliable as the strength and stability of the walls and ramparts. Near the St Nicholas gate may be found the Church called Our Lady of Graces. It is in the care of the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus and has a fine little chapel with a beautiful image of Our Lady of Montaigu where the faithful may find relief in their time of need.
Outside the city gates to the south of the St Nicholas gate we come to the small chapel of Our Lady of Good-Help. It was formerly known as Our Lady of the Burgundians because of the large numbers of soldiers from there who were buried near the chapel after the bloody battle in which Charles the Bold, last Duke of Burgundy, was defeated along with his men by René Duke of Lorraine in the plain below the Chapel. Later, it was also known as Our Lady of Victory, for the same reason. Today the Chapel retains the name of Our Lady of Good Help not only because of the aid she supplied to Duke René and the people of Lorraine but also because of the favours she grants on a daily basis to all sorts of people who implore her in their hearts to help them in their physical or spiritual difficulties and problems.
Two leagues outside Nancy on the crest of a hill you will see Our Lady of Boussière in a locality now known as Bouxières-aux-Dames which is so named from the dames or ladies who lived there as religious sisters or canonesses. The first reference to the origin of this Church is found in the Breviary of the See of Toul on the Feast of St Gauzelin, Bishop of Toul and descendant of the house of France.
There we read that St Gauzelin felt an urge to build a Church to the most glorious Virgin but he did not know where to locate it. The Virgin appeared to him at night whilst he slept and told him to build a Church at the place where in the morning he would find a white doe. This turned out to be the hill at Boussière and Bishop Gauzelin built his Church there. As the day of its dedication approached, he invited the Archbishop of Trêves and the Bishops of Metz and Verdun. The night before the day of the great ceremony, something made him get up to double-check nothing had been forgotten for the next day. This was truly the reason he had in mind for doing this, but God’s plan was to show him and the Bishops he had invited that the dedication was being done by Our Lord in the presence of the most sacred Virgin and countless blessed spirits. He entered the Church and, noticing an extraordinary illumination he realized what was happening and ran to get the Bishops. They arrived in time to see the end of the ceremony and received Our Lord’s blessing and a partial indulgence which remitted one third of their sins.
Pont-à-Mousson is known for its learning and for its devotion to Mary which is shown by the way they have placed her at all their gates as though giving her the keys of the city and entrusting its defences to her. The Virgin has amply shown how pleased she is by their devotion through the miracles that have been associated with her images there.
OUR LADY OF SION
56 About six or seven leagues from Nancy there is a beautiful hill in the county of Vaudémont called Mont-de-Sion where the Holy Virgin is honoured under the name Our Lady of Sion. Vassebourg wrote the Ecclesiastical history of the Bishops of Verdun and in his life of Thomas de Blamont, the sixty-fifth Bishop, he links the foundation of the Church on this hill to Henry III, count of Vaudemont and nicknamed the Just, and to his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Ferri the second Duke of Lorraine. The foundation is said to have taken place in 1306. There are, however, reasons to suspect this Church is much older and that those nobles merely restored and improved an existing Church.
The current Dukes of Lorraine, Francis I and Charles IV, have a particular devotion to the honour of God and His glorious Mother, as I shall explain in Part III. They noted that devotion seemed to be falling away from this place which had previously seen crowds of pilgrims. They wanted to halt this trend and make it flourish better than ever before. Accordingly, they resolved to make this Church a centre of devotion as accessible as possible. To this end, they looked to the Fathers of the Third Order of St Francis as having the necessary zeal in the service of God and being well-suited to advance the glory of the Virgin. They built and founded a fine monastery, with the first stone being laid on the 27th of September in 1626. Today we can see that God has so blessed the holy intentions of these Nobles and the courage of the Fathers that people have been coming from all parts and Heaven has been looking favourably upon their prayers and requests.
The devotion of the most illustrious house of Lorraine, especially towards the glorious Virgin, requires me to let future generations know about the Confraternity instituted in Our Lady of Sion in November 1393 by Ferri of Lorraine, Count of Vaudemont, and his wife Marguerite of Joinville, and which was joined by numerous Lords and Ladies of Quality. This may be seen in the document sealed with fourteen seals which is in the collection of papers held by the Dukes of Lorraine. The rules of this Confraternity limited membership to gentlemen or people of noble extraction; all Members were to attend Our Lady of Sion on the day of the Assumption of the most glorious Virgin, failure to do so resulting in a fine; every member was to display on his person for eight days before and eight days after the Assumption, an image of the Holy Virgin, whether in silver, or a painting or embroidery; anyone failing to wear such an image would be liable to a fine. There was to be mutual peace and Christian friendship between the Members and this was to be procured and maintained in every way possible; if there were any dispute between members, then all would be required to do everything in their power, either as a group or as individuals, to restore peace and good will between the parties. Apart from this, there were rules about praying, offices, devotional practice and several instructions with pious regulations, all of which I shall pass over in order to avoid straying here beyond the limits I have set myself in this work.
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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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