The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 12 : § 7.15-16

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

§ 7. How she was recognised and honoured in the Regular Orders

The Celestine order

 15   In 1274 at the Council of Lyon Pope Gregory X approved the Celestine Order, under the Rule of St Benedict[1]. St Peter of Morone, who was later to become Pope Celestine V, practised the first exercises in a cave in the Maiella mountains which are in Abruzzo, part of the Apulia region.

 

I have not come across much detailed information relating to our theme of Marian devotion but it is clear that Our Lady worked wonders in the person of this Saint:

    • through his mother’s tears, she restored sight to an eye which he lost when he was three years old;

    • from his childhood onwards, he enjoyed a close friendship with the Holy Virgin who would often visit him, accompanied by St John the Evangelist and keep him company when he was reciting the Psalms;

    • he served an apprenticeship learning monastic discipline in the house of the same Virgin : the convent of Our Lady of Mt Carmel at Fiesole in Tuscany; and

    • there are several other instances of the trust he placed in the Queen of Angels and of the good will she for her part bore towards him.

All this convinces me that the Holy Virgin identified him as one of her most devoted servants who would advance God’s glory and whose undertakings she was happy to bless.

Footnotes

[1] Petrus de Alliaco Cardinal., Cameraceus, Dioni. Faber, Benedictus, Gononus et alii, in Vita S. Petri Celestini.

The Servite Order

 16   You only have to hear the name of the Servites to understand that they were dedicated from the moment of their foundation to serving the MOTHER OF GOD. The birth of this order came about in the following manner.

In the year of Our Lord 1233, the seventh of Gregory IX’s Pontificate, seven worthy Florentine merchants who were members of a Confraternity sworn to offer praise to the MOTHER OF GOD had gathered on the Vigil of the Assumption to sing  her praises. Their names were : Bonfilius, Amadeus, Buonagiunta, Manettus, Alexis, Sostene and Uggucioni. They heard a voice telling them to go to Monte Senario (which is three leagues from Venice) and there to give themselves up to prayer and wait until they learned of Heaven’s plan for them.  These men of God obeyed immediately under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They gave away all their possessions to the poor and began in that place to lead the life which assigned to them, in great poverty and remarkable self denial. Other people were so greatly moved by the extreme discipline they showed in their lives that they determined to join them. Eventually, the numbers increased to such an extent that it became necessary to found additional houses. It was their practice to walk through the streets of Florence begging for alms, and soon children still being nursed by their mothers, would cry out: “Those are the servants of the Blessed Virgin, give them some money.” This name stuck with them.

Seven years had already gone by since they adopted this way of life and nothing had been heard from Heaven. One night, the blessed Virgin appeared to each of them separately, surrounded by a bright light and accompanied by a host of Angels. In one hand she held an open book, which was the rule of Saint Augustine that she wanted them to keep; in the other hand she held a black habit which she was giving to them as a mark of the life that she had spent in tears and travail. The next day the men all spoke together about what had happened to each one of them separately, and this was enough to make them comply immediately with the holy Virgin’s request. Pope Gregory IX approved their order and several other Popes after him.

I cannot omit to mention some remarkable things which happened in the early days of this Order. 

The first is that around this time the blessed Peter of Verona, popularly called Saint Peter the Martyr, had been sent to Florence in order to combat the heresy of the Manichaeans who had swarmed out of hell to bring trouble to all Italy. He saw in the spirit on more than one occasion a high mountain covered with a great light and clothed with every sort of flower. Amongst these, he noticed seven lilies of incomparable beauty, whose silver heads were higher than all the other flowers. His astonishment increased still further when he saw a group of Angels picking these flowers, watched with envy by the others, and presenting them to the MOTHER OF GOD who received them with indescribable joy. Finally, he saw something which overwhelmed him more than anything else: all these lilies in the hands of the glorious Virgin joined together to become one. Saint Peter asked several times to be told what the secret meaning of this vision could be; he learned eventually that these lilies were the blessed servants of the Holy Virgin and they were leading a truly angelic life on Monte Senario. He subsequently found himself so closely bound to them that he was unable to part himself from them. This may be the reason why the Fathers of this Order have for their device lilies on an azure field, bound with an S, which is the first letter of the name Servites. Others say that it was an M crowned, standing for Mary. 

The second miracle is one that occurred near Florence in a place called Cafaggio where they had built a Church in honour of the MOTHER OF GOD. They had decided to dedicate the church under the title of the Annunciate, and they commissioned a painter to produce a picture portraying the mystery of the Angelic salutation. It was then that the miracle occurred which is now known to all the world. The artist had painted the whole of the body of the holy Virgin and he had left the head to the last. Whilst he was musing deeply about this but without being able to produce an idea he found satisfactory, he had a sense that there was something in him which was displeasing to the MOTHER OF GOD and this was making it hard for him to bring his work to a conclusion. On that thought, he made a general confession of all his sins and then something beautiful happened. He had just taken up his brush when he found that the face on which he had been reflecting for so long had been so perfectly completed and with a beauty so rare and a majesty so remarkable that he had no doubts that this was a heavenly intervention and some Angel had set his hand to the task. When he saw the completed picture, he could not stop himself from uttering a loud cry of astonishment and this made all the religious come running. In a little while the whole city of Florence had heard the tale of this miracle and no one could have any doubts about it once they set eyes on the radiant and divine countenance in the painting.

I shall discuss elsewhere[1] the remarkable vocation of blessed Philip Benizi to this Order and of the sweet and blessed decease[2] not only of this same Philip but of the seven first Fathers whose names I provided above. I fear there is neither time nor space here to recall all the things I could in support of our theme.

Footnotes

[1] Part III, c. 5, § 5.

[1] Part III, c. 13, § 3.

👑       👑       👑

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