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
§ 7. How she was recognised and honoured in the Regular Orders
The Order of the Valley of Scholars
10 The year 1201 saw the birth of a new Order in the Diocese of Langres[1]. It was called the Valley of Scholars[2] and such was its devotion from the outset to serving the Queen of Heaven that all its houses incorporated her name : Our Lady of Bonneval, Our Lady of Beauroy, Our Lady of the Forest, Our Lady of the Isle, and so on.
Footnotes
[1] Franciscus Barus, t. II Monumentorum, an. 1201.
[2] Founded by scholars from the University of Paris.
The Order of Friars Preachers
11 In the year 1217[1], the celebrated Order of Friars Preachers came to the rescue of the Church of God. Its emergence was timely because:
• in France, the Albigensians were violating all laws, human and divine;
• in Italy, the Manichaeans and Sacramentarians were spreading their errors;
• the Moors were continuing to ravage much of Spain;
• the Eastern Church had fallen away from Rome into a tragic schism;
• Saladin, leader of the Saracens, had burst into Syria;
• the Guelphs and the Ghibellines were disturbing the whole of Christendom;
– in short, it seemed that Satan had been unchained and allowed the freedom to overturn everything.
St Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence and one of the wonderful luminaries of this Order, said in a few words (that he was to explain later) all that I would want to say about the Order and its close links to the Holy Virgin:
★ she procured its beginning and she guided it on its way,
★ she gave it the habit and
★ she protects it at all times.
★ She procured the Order as is made clear in the vision St Dominic had whilst he was praying one night in Rome, in the Church of St Peter. With a handful of companions, he was contemplating the idea of embracing the Rule of St Augustine, with the approval and on the authority of Pope Honorius III.
He seemed to see the Saviour of the world offended in the highest degree by the sins of men and determined to eliminate them with three spears that he held in His hand. These represented most certainly, it seems to me, the three scourges that God is accustomed to use when punishing our misdeeds. In this vision, he also saw the Mother of Mercy on her knees before the Saviour, and he was given to understand that the pleas for reconciliation that she was making meant that she did not disavow the excessive extent and nature of the grave sins being committed every day here on earth. But the Lord in His infinite goodness was more inclined to forgiveness than to vengeance and He had always been desirous of finding someone who might hold back his anger. She was able to present to him two of her children overflowing with zeal and with courage who would procure in every way the advancement of His glory and the conversion of sinners: namely, Saint Dominic and Saint Francis. Who will believe that the Saviour in his heart could refuse anything to his mother? On the contrary, he accorded her everything that she was asking and commissioned her to require them to do everything within their power to reduce the number of sinners.
Almost the same vision was communicated to a Religious of the same order, and to one of those people who were brought back by Saint Dominic from death to life, according to what is written in his History[2]. There is, moreover, no place under the Sun which has not at some point been enlightened by their teaching and has not felt the benefits of their work. This in itself is proof irrefragable of the truth of this vision. To this I might add a most remarkable event, that Saint Dominic and Saint Francis of Assisi met one another shortly afterwards, and they recognised and greeted one another without ever having met before. Readers are also free to consider how, in the revelations of Saint Bridget[3], Saint Dominic at the hour of his death commended all his children, both those present and those to come, into the hands of the most glorious Virgin, and the tender care she promised to show them out of love of him.
★ The glorious Virgin revealed the habit that was to be worn by the children of St Dominic to a famous Doctor called Renaud who was entering the Order.
★ As for the protection she has shown to the Order on various occasions, there is not enough space here to report all the details. Those keen to learn more may consult St Antoninus in the work already cited above. The favours and blessings she conferred on the Blessed Domicans Albert, Gilles, Léodat, Herman, Hyacinthe, Dupuy, Juvenance, Accursus and other luminaries of the Order will be known to everyone. It was not without reason that from the beginning they took the name Friars of Our Lady. Later, their exceptional achievements in winning souls led to their being honoured with the title Friars Preachers, a name they have retained to this day. Those who know the scale of corruption in the world can only be astonished to learn that, in the early days of this Holy Order St Dominic heard in a short period of time more than one hundred general confessions of his Friars and these men, by a special favour of the MOTHER OF GOD, had lives life of truly Angelic purity.
Those who value, as they should, the incomparable delight of those who enjoy the love of Queen of Angels, may well feel a holy envy of the children of this glorious Father when they recall[4] that he saw them one day under the great cloak of the Virgin. They were so numerous and occupied so much space that it seemed to him. there were enough of them to fill the heavenly Jerusalem. Something which happened at the beginning of this Order to blessed Rudolph of Faenza deserves to be included as an example as one of the principal favours received from the most glorious Virgin.
One day, he was feeling particularly overwhelmed, along with several of those who had taken the habit. They withdrew, feeding incapable of dealing with the Order’s severity. Our Lord appeared in the company of the blessed Saint Nicholas, and cradling his head, said to him:“Rudolph, my son, do not punish yourself any more; for as long as my Mother keeps the Order under her protection, there will never be a shortage of persons entering and remaining in it.”At the same moment, he saw a ship laden with Dominicans on their way to Bologna, and then heard a voice which said to him:“Rudolph, do not worry any more, for I promise that in short while the whole world will be filled with Religious of this Order.”
Events have proved the truth of this prediction and you only need to open your eyes to see it. I will say nothing of the reciprocal affection they have always born towards the blessed Virgin. Everyone knows that all their churches are dedicated to her, and no one is unaware of all the ways in which they have advanced her honour. The fruits deriving from the Rosary alone are such that it would need entire volumes to recount them. I seem to remember having read[5] that one day God revealed to a beautiful soul the sweetness of the love of the holy Virgin for this holy Order. All the religious who were there conceived such a perfect trust in her and such an extraordinary desire to love her, to honour her, to serve her, and to make her known to the whole world, that this shone in their eyes, in their speech and in their whole comportment. There was none among them who did not wish to have her image continually present, or whose pleasure and recreation was to be in her company night and day. In short you will never see bees swarming in greater number around their hives or amongst the flowers in a beautiful garden plot, then you will see souls flocking to the altar of the glorious Virgin, to contemplate her splendour and magnify her greatness.
Footnotes
[1] S. Anton., III parte, titulo 23, c. 3 ; Antonius Senensis, in Chronico Fratrum Prædicatorum, ad an. 1217 ; Bzovius, in Supplemento Annal. Baron., an. 1216 ; Alii scriptores supra laudati vitæ S. Dominici.
[2] Vitæ S. Dominici, lib. I, c. 12, apud Surium, t. IV.
[3] Lib. III, c. 18.
[4] Vitæ ipsius apud Surium, lib. II, c. 12.
[5] Vitæ S. Dominici cit., lib. VI, c. 6.
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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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