The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 12 : § 6.8-12

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

§ 6. She has been recognized and honoured by all the Orders, firstly by the Military orders 

The Order of Mercy, or of the Ransom of Captives

 8   I have already spoken of James, King of Aragon, who was also known as Sancho and was nicknamed the Conqueror. Having learned of the wretchedness suffered by Christians made captive, he founded in Barcelona in the year 1223[1] the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, or of the Ransom of Captives[2]. This order was approved by Pope Gregory IX on the 17th of January in 1230. This King’s heart was sorely afflicted by the cruel treatment of the Christians at the hands of the Barbarians. There was also a certain French gentleman called Pierre de Nolasque, who was of considerable means and no less endowed with virtue. He too felt so strongly about their plight that all his thoughts were focussed on rescuing them. The zeal shown by these two men was so pleasing to the MOTHER OF GOD that she appeared to both of them and announced that it was her Son’s will and hers that they should establish a military Order with the aim of bringing relief and deliverance to the prisoners held by the infidels. Peter was to employ all his means to achieve this and the King was to use his authority to advance such a worthy undertaking. To ensure that the project might be beyond reproach, the same revelation was granted to the Blessed Raymond of Rochefort, a truly devout Dominican and at that time confessor to both men. The dress for the Order was given by St Raymond and consisted of a white tunic and cope, a scapular with a white cross and a shield displaying the arms of the Kings of Aragon.

 

Footnotes

[1] Bulla Canonizationis B. Raymund. a Clem. VIII, an. 1601, etc. ; Bzovius., an. 1023.

[2] Commonly referred to as the Order of Our Lady of Ransom, the members being known as Mercedarians.

The Military Order of the Virgin

 9   Around the year 1260[1], Pope Urban IV instituted the Military Order of the Virgin, charging them to taker particular care of poor widows and orphans. The members were allowed to live in their own homes with their wives and children. Their dress consisted of a white cassock with a grey cloak, displaying a red cross on a silver field underneath two stars.

 

Footnotes

[1] Sigonius, lib. III Episc. Bononiensium.

The Order of Our Lady of Montesa

 10   In the year 1317[1], the Templars having been abolished at the general Council called seven years previously by Pope Clement V in the city of Vienne in  Dauphiné,  King James II of Aragon instituted the Order of Our Lady of Montesa, which is in the Kingdom of Valencia. The statutes of the Order were like those of the Knights of Calatrava, specifying the Cistercian habit and rule. Later, the same Pope Clement V dispensed them from wearing the Cistercian habit and, as a sign of their status as Knights, they were authorised to wear a plain red cross on their breasts; on their shield, the same cross gules (red) on gold. The cross is usually called the Cross of the Knight St George, patron saint of the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon.

Footnotes

[1] Andr. Favin., Theatri Honoris, lib. VI.

The Order of the Annunciation

 11   In the year 1356 Amadeus Count of Savoy, nicknamed the Green Knight, instituted the Order of the Annunciation for noblemen, an Order inspired by and devoted to the MOTHER OF GOD. 

In the beginning, he did not want the Order to have more than fifteen members since this was to honour the fifteen mysteries in the life of the Holy Virgin. This was also the reason that, when the Carthusian monastery Pierre-Châtel was founded near the frontier of Savoy, he provided for fifteen priests who would make a daily offering of their sacrifices and prayers for his welfare and that of his house, as well as for his Knights. 

Love-knots around the Annunciation.
[Jemike, Public domain]

The ceremonial collar of the Order incorporates a triple link made of love knots. It also incorporates the four capital letters : F.E.R.T.[1] These love-knots represent a sacred and most noble link between those associated with the Order and :

    • a most generous service of the MOTHER OF GOD;

    • sincere and indissoluble friendship between themselves; and 

    • the memory of Amadeus the Great, his predecessor as Count of Savoy, who in 1310 (or 1330 according to some) came with a mighty army to the rescue of the Knights of Rhodes and prevented the capture of that island. The collar also incorporates an image of the Annunciation, a true mark of devotion to the glorious Virgin.

Footnotes

[1] Fortitudo ejus Rhodum tenuit (His courage held Rhodes).

 The Order of Our Lady of the Thistle 

CC BY-SA 4.0

 12   In the year 1370[1], Louis II the Duke of Bourbon, called Louis the Good, instituted the Order of Knights of the Thistle of Our Lady. This was during the reign of Charles VI, his nephew. This worthy prince placed all his hope after God in the most sacred Virgin MOTHER OF GOD and, during the very worst of the miseries suffered in France at the hands of the English, he founded this Order of twenty-six of the most valiant Knights in France. Their everyday dress included a girdle[2] of sky-blue velvet lined with red satin and edged with golden embroidery on which the word ESPERANCE (HOPE) was also written in golden embroidery. This ended with a buckle and tongue of pure gold, with indented green enamel like the head of a thistle. 

Jaligniacus, CC BY-SA 4.0 (reconstruction)

On solemn feasts and especially on the feast of the Conception which was the main Feast of the Order, the Knights were vested in cassocks of crimson damask with wide sleeves, along with their blue girdle. They also wore a great cape of sky-blue damask featuring bands of material embroidered with gold and a hood or mantlet of green velvet. Over this they wore the grand collar of the Order made of solid gold and weighing over half a pound, fastened by a buckle and tongue of pure gold. It comprised full and half lozenges with a double orle[3] with green enamel, open as through clechés[4] and filled with golden fleurs de lys. The word Hope is featured in antique capitals within each lozenge in red enamel. Hanging from the collar was an oval pendant containing the image of the most sacred Virgin clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars, incorporating purple and sky-blue enamel. At the end of the pendant was a thistle head in green and white enamel.

Footnotes

[1] Audr. Favin., lib. VIII Hist. Navar., et Theatro Honoris, lib. III.

[2] Meaning here a belt worn round the waist to secure or confine the garments, as in: 1749 The Venetian nobility..wear also a black girdle about four fingers broad, and garnished with plates and buckles of silver. [OED 1.a.]

[3] A term in heraldry: An orle is a subordinary consisting of a narrow band occupying the inward half of where a bordure would be. 

[4] Round shapes like key-rings. See Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, 4e édition (1762)

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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