The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 12 : § 7.17-19

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 Order of Mount Olivet

 17   The Order of Mount Olivet[1] owes its origins, just like the previous ones we have mentioned, to her who is the common Mother of Religious[2]. 

St. Bernard Ptolomei was a Senator and professor of philosophy in the City of Siena. Here is how he played his part in raising the holy standard of this order.

He had lost both his eyes in a terrible accident, but this had made him lose any vain contentment in things of this life. His physical blindness opened the eyes of the spirit and two other Sienese Senators were attracted to his plans. He withdrew with them to a mountain near Siena which they called Mount Olivet[3], where they began to lead a very austere life, enjoying altogether Heavenly colloquies. Now, it is often the case that good intentions are never wanting people to thwart them, and Pope Gregory XI, who had transferred his seat to Avignon, had been told so many bad things about them that he decided to summon them for a meeting, resolved to do some straight talking with them. As soon as they arrived, the Pope immediately changed his negative opinion and began to speak kindly to them. At the end of the meeting, he sent them straight to the Bishop of Arezzo whom he instructed to make all due arrangements for these Fathers and to draw up the rule that they were to follow from that moment onwards. The Holy Virgin, however, did not omit to play her part as far as this Bishop was concerned, for she gave him advanced warning 

    • that these Religious were on their way to him, 

    • that he should remember they were coming from her rather than just from the decision of the Holy Father, 

    • that he should receive them just as though they were his children, and 

    • that he was to give them the white habit and the rule of Saint Benedict. 

This was all done just as she had requested and Pope Gregory approved their rule in the year 1371.

Footnotes

[1] The Olivetans.

[2] Arnoldus Wionius, lib. I Ligni vitæ, c. 67 ; Platus, lib. I de Bono status Religiosi, c. 34, an. 1371.

[3] From the name of the Order's original hermitage, called Monte Oliveto in honour of Christ's Passion.

The Order of St Jerome

 18    The Holy Virgin showed herself no less favourable when it came to the beginnings of the Order of Saint Jerome.

This order had first appeared in the year 1405 but after a fair amount of time had elapsed it had still not made much progress, having only three houses in Spain which were all quite poor. This so crushed the hearts of the first Religious that they packed their bags and began to leave, each one to wherever it pleased God to lead them, despairing that they would ever be able to grow in numbers. The MOTHER OF GOD did not let them down in their hour of need and she appeared to them as they were in this sad frame of mind. She upbraided them for their lack of courage and trust in God and in herself; she urged them to go back, to start once again and from that moment onwards to have the confidence that soon they would see a growth in their numbers. Her promise was duly fulfilled by events. Henceforth, these Fathers took her for their loving Mother and their faithful Advocate. In order to leave posterity with a memorial of what had happened to them, they adopted in her honour the white tunic which they wear under their normal brown habit. 

The Order of Minims

 19    Around the year 1470, the blessed Saint Francis of Paola (in Calabria) founded the Order of Minims to help reinvigorate the Church Militant. You would have to be completely unaware of the remarkable devotion this saint had for the Blessed Virgin to have any doubts that from its very beginning she took the Order which he founded under her most particular care and protection.

From the time that he was a very small child, whenever he wanted to greet his mother and father or to say something to them, he would always begin with these two words: Ave Maria. He continued this practice in all his conversations for the rest of his life. His dear children followed his example and would never exchange greetings or talk to each other without having spoken this greeting to the Virgin. At the age of 13, he spent a year with the Fathers of Saint Francis of Assisi. He then left, under the secret guidance of God who wanted him to offer his service elsewhere. He asked his parents to be taken to the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, otherwise known as the Portiuncula, of Saint Francis and this they happily agreed to do.

I have no difficulty in believing that it was here that he received from the Holy Virgin and from the glorious Father Saint Francis the commandment to found his new Order. As soon as he had returned to his own country, he immediately set about building a church in honour of the Holy Virgin. It seemed to him, however, that his project was somewhat lacking in ambition and the plan was too small in scale. At this point, a Friar wearing the habit of Saint Francis came to see him and urged him to lay foundations for a more substantial and noble building. The Friar urged him to place his confidence in God and then proceeded to pull down what the Saint had  built thus far. With that, he suddenly disappeared, leading some to say that this was none other than the blessed Saint Francis of Assisi himself who had been sent to Saint Francis of Paul by the glorious Virgin, she being the patron of the work he had undertaken. This belief (which I share with them) is, moreover, confirmed by the fact that the Religious of this Order were called Minims of Jesus and Mary. They would begin their long night prayers and profound meditations with the Rosary, having learned through long experience just how many graces and blessings they had obtained thereby from the MOTHER OF GOD, attributing the miracles performed to this. The Order’s Oratories were never without an image of the Virgin, to whom they ever had confident recourse.

When King Louis XI, who had huge respect for the Order, realised the importance of the Virgin’s image for them, he wanted to present one as a gift which was valued at 17,000 écus[1]. The Saint refused the gift, saying that the Order’s devotion was not linked to gold or silver but simply to the Queen of Heaven herself. The Catholic King Ferdinand asked for the prayers of the Saint to help him in his war with the Moors. He was told by the Saint that he would be victorious and this caused him soon after to build a fine convent for the Order, which he called Our Lady of Victory. In short, the Saint and the members of his Order had always recognised the Holy Virgin as their beloved Mother and their special Advocate; they experienced in a thousand different ways her gentle care and a loving help. 

Footnotes

[1] écus: gold coins so named from the royal shield or coat of arms which they bore.

👈Écu d'or of Louis XI. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

👑       👑       👑

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 2025