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
Italy
OUR LADY THE GREAT, OUR LADY OF THE TIBER, OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS, OUR LADY OF THE WAYSIDE & OUR LADY IN THE PORTICO
97 Italy now beckons and I agree with the pious writer Bozius[1] who says this country has every right to claim it belongs to the MOTHER OF GOD for by her aid alone was it delivered from the tyranny of the Goths and wickedness of the Arians. The city of Siena in particular is her possession and this is attested by their coins on which the following words may be read: Siena ancient city of the Virgin. The same may be said of Luceria where they defeated the Saracens on the feast of the Assumption and which has been known ever since as the City of Our Lady. The whole of the Ancona region claims the same privilege along with others such as the city of Lesina which stakes a strong claim because it it was given to the Holy Virgin around 1400 through the devotion of Margaret Queen of Poland and mother of King Ladislas. It is truly extraordinary as the afore-mentioned Bozius has observed that there is no city in the whole of Italy that does not have a Church dedicated to Our Lady where miracles are reported thanks to her intercession.
Footnotes
[1] Lib. IX de Signis Ecclesiæ.
98 Rome will always be Rome, the city with no rival. Is it not indeed a wonder that out of more than three hundred churches in this city there are as many as forty-six that are dedicated to the MOTHER OF GOD[1]? Amongst these there are some that have become very famous such as the one which, following a miracle everyone knows, was called firstly St Mary of the Snows and later the Church of Sixtus, because of this great Pope’s zeal in restoring the Church when it was in danger of collapse. He enlarged it and also decorated it in a striking manner. This saintly Pope had it built around the year 432, a short while after the Holy Virgin had defeated her enemies at the Council of Ephesus. Afterwards, the Church came to be known as St Mary of the Manger because the infant Saviour’s manger is preserved there[2]. Nowadays, because the of the large number of Churches dedicated to the Holy Virgin and in order to distinguish this one from the others and accord to it the honour it deserves, it is known as St Mary Major. There is a beautiful statue there which is carefully preserved and is said to be the work of St Luke. It is known by the same name as the Church : St Mary Major.
It was here that an incident occurred which has been handed down to this day. When Pope St Gregory the Great during a solemn Mass had chanted the words : Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum, the response was chanted by Angels in Heaven : Et cum spiritu tuo. This memory is religiously observed since when the Holy Father celebrates Mass here, the choir makes no response to these words. The Church on the other side of the Tiber is very famous following a miracle which has been described in multiple histories concerning a fountain of oil which flowed a whole day long on the birth of the Saviour. The Rotunda, formerly the Pantheon, was dedicated by Boniface IV and has featured in accounts by hundreds of writers. The Church known as Our Lady of the People reflects the devotion of the Roman people towards the MOTHER OF GOD.
Footnotes
[1] Merula., Cosmographiæ parte II, lib. IV.
[2] The Title refers to the five pieces of sycamore wood that are believed to part of the manger upon which the Infant Jesus was laid. Recent scientific studies date the wooden pieces, which are kept in a crib-shaped crystal reliquary designed by Giuseppe Valadier (1802), to the time of Jesus’ birth. See St Mary Major official site.
99 The Church of Our Lady of the Angels is notable in particular for having been built on a site watered, so to speak, by the sweat and blood of countless martyrs : Christian slaves who died during the construction of the baths of Diocletian, later converted into a Church dedicated to the Holy Virgin by order of Julius III. The church of Our Lady of the Wayside not only has an image of the Holy Virgin wearing a ring on her finger, said to be a work from the hands of Saint Luke, but is worthy of special honour because it is the very place that Saint Paul calls his house of praise[1]. This is where for the space of two whole years he lived with the soldier that kept him, bound by a heavy iron chain. This is where he preached the gospel to all those coming to see him, where he performed several miracles, where he was honoured hundreds of times by sublime revelations, and given the courage to undergo suffering. In short, this is where he wrote several of his epistles, such as those to the Ephesians and the Philippians, the second epistle to Timothy, the one addressed to Philemon and the one written to the Hebrews.
Footnotes
[1] Acts xxviii.
100 The Church called Our Lady in the Portico is the proud possessor of the miraculous image brought from Heaven to blessed St Galla, widow and daughter of the consul Symmachus[1].
This holy lady spent much of her time in works of piety and charity for the relief of the poor. She was responsible for feeding twelve hundred of them every day, ministering to them with her own hands. As a result of these beautiful works of charity and especially of the great devotion that she had for the Holy Virgin, she was granted the grace of receiving in her house an image of the Virgin brought to her by Angels. It is believed that they had made the image using gold on a tablet of porphyry. The Angels held it up high, surrounded by resplendent light, infusing this holy widow with feelings of pure devotion which words cannot be found to describe. After she had knelt for a long time in veneration and thanked the MOTHER OF GOD for the favour she had received, she made her way straight to Pope John I, who later became a glorious martyr, and told him all the details of what had happened in her home. The saintly Pope went to her house and at the very instant he said foot on the threshold, all the bells of Rome started to ring of their own accord. Now what made this miracle even more extraordinary was that, after he had knelt down to show his reverence for the image, the Angels who were holding it up on high slowly came down and placed the image in his hands. The image was for a long time kept in the Pope’s private chapel and was later transferred to the Church called Our Lady in the Portico, where she is kept and preserved with every honour and care.
During the time of Callixtus III, the plague was ravaging the whole city of Rome but it was only necessary to carry the image in solemn procession through the streets to bring an end to the pestilence. The same thing happened in the time of Pope Adrian when two other things worthy of memory took place. As the image was being born through the streets, a Jew turned his head to look back and mocked the statue and those who were carrying it. He soon received the recompense for his wickedness because his head became fixed in that position, so that he was never able to turn and look forward again. At the same time, a Jewish woman who had turned her face away so as to avoid looking at the image was deprived of her faculty of sight, which she had so abused.
In the year 1518, everyone was fearful because of the powerful army that the Turk had assembled. Pope Leo X ordered the image to be carried through the city and he himself walked behind barefoot. The Church would soon reap the benefits that he prayed for.
Footnotes
[1] Ex Monumentis S. Mariæ in Porticu. The French text says she was widow of the consul Symmachus but all other authorities consulted state she was his daughter.
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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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