Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD
She rules and guides the Church
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) |
§ 3. The care taken by the MOTHER OF GOD in conserving and propagating the faith
Her opposition to the Pagans
11 In the Kingdom of Angola on the coast of Africa, the Society of Jesus had a small house with a Chapel in which stood a statue of the Holy Virgin called Our Lady of Victory. This title was most apt because it is impossible to say how many times Our Lady had placed palms of victory into the hands of Christian soldiers.
In 1587 alone, two battles were won over the Angolans where a mere handful of soldiers took on an enemy numbering in the one case six hundred thousand and in the other twelve hundred thousand soldiers. In the first battle, our men were forced to pull back for a while before the furious assault of the enemy. The image of the Virgin (who had been at the head of their army) was left in the baggage train but was never noticed by the enemy, even though they carried off everything else that they found. After the second battle, one of the Portuguese reproached an Angolan for the faint-heartedness of their soldiers but he insisted that if they had been fighting against anyone other than the Portuguese, the matter would have been quickly settled. All the Angolan soldiers had seen in the sky over the battle a Lady of extraordinary greatness and incomparable beauty, with an old man at her side. They both carried flaming swords and they had swiftly put the Angolans to flight.
I cannot begin to describe the crowds of devout Christians who flocked to this chapel in Angola: I will however point out that it all of them knew their most famous victories had been gained on feast days of the Blessed Virgin.
There can scarcely have been anything more memorable[1] than what happened during the siege of the fortress of Diu, which was built by the Portuguese near the main and westernmost mouth of the river Sindh, known to the ancients as the Indus.
The King of Cambay had been besieging the fortress for seven months with more than twenty thousand men. The defenders numbered no more than three hundred and were in the citadel under the command of Don John Mascarenas. They were on the verge of defeat when in 1546 John de Castro, Viceroy of India, came to their rescue with around three thousand men who launched an attack upon the enemy on the very day of their arrival. The action was so successful that they killed more than four thousand of the enemy and took more than six hundred prisoners, including some of the most important lords of Cambay. They themselves suffered the loss of some sixty men. Captured soldiers confessed that Heaven had been against them for, although the day had been calm and sunny, four of their most powerful cannons had been unable to fire, and all the Angolan fighters had seen over the chapel in the Citadel a Lady of most incredible beauty. The rays of light streaming from her were so brilliant that their eyes were blinded, they were unable to maintain order and they were rendered helpless. The dazzling splendour of this Lady put dread into their hearts, making it impossible for them to fight.
Footnotes
[1] For a colourful description, see Government of India by Don Juan de Castro, from 1545 to 1548, (with acknowledgements to Prof. Emerita Frances W. Pritchett).
12 History is full of such examples where the help she provided was altogether miraculous. I am personally inclined to set greater store by the invisible help which she has given to countless thousands of souls, enabling them to escape from the quagmires of their own errors, to be delivered from their blindness, and to see the beautiful and heart-warming light of the truth. These are the real conquests of our gentle Mother; these are the victories which have peopled Heaven rather than depopulating the Earth; they are in truth the miracles which render her and will always render her a source of fear and dread to the enemy, consoling to those suffering in defeat, beloved and esteemed by all.
I shall conclude this discussion with an example from recent history which occurred in the kingdom of Cochinchina. For a better understanding of this story, we need to remember that this kingdom, where the Christian faith came only a few years ago, is called in the native tongue Anam, which signifies western part, because from the point of view of China (which is another great kingdom about which both they and the Japanese speak very highly), it is indeed situated on the western side. This is why the Japanese gave it the name of Cochi, which in their own tongue means the same as Anam in the Cochinchinese. This is what led the Portuguese who were trading in this part of the world to take the Japanese word Cochi and add the name China so as to call the area Cochinchina, which would mean Cochin of China – or Kingdom to the west of China.
The kingdom is divided into five provinces, one of which is called Pulucambi. Father Christopher Borri, a member of the Society of Jesus from Milan, was based there for a time in the town of Nouëcman and it is he who recounts the following story, along with a fellow member of the same society. One day they were chatting casually, wondering what Heaven was going to bring them that day, when suddenly they saw a large group of people walking in a most impressive procession across the fields towards them. They asked them what it was that had brought them and what they wanted. They replied that they had seen in their country a most beautiful Lady in the sky, seated in splendour on a throne amidst the clouds. She had told them they were to go to Nouëcman where they would meet the Fathers who would show them the right and true path leading to glory, and would teach them about the true Lord of Heaven. Both the priests and the people in the group acknowledged that this remarkable blessing had come from the most holy Virgin, to whom they offered heartfelt thanksgiving. They duly received instruction and catechesis in preparation for Holy Baptism and finally they were sent back happily to their homes.
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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 Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2025
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