Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 7 : § 3.4-7

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).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 3. The care taken by the MOTHER OF GOD in conserving and propagating the faith

She obtains for some the grace to work miracles

 4   Miracles are like seals affixed to doctrine to confirm it is sound, and they are the most compelling reasons left by the Saviour to His Church so that people will embrace the truth of the faith. Do you not believe that the Virgin would play a big role in obtaining this gift for the majority of those to whom it is granted from on high? Here is one example that I would like to share with you, namely what she obtained for the Blessed St Albert, who was an altogether remarkable person and a renowned preacher of the Carmelite Order. He performed countless miracles promoting the glory of God and devotion to the most sacred Virgin. Amongst other things, it is noteworthy that he never performed a miracle without invoking not only the name of Jesus but also that of Mary, from whom he had received this grace.

How she is opposed to the enemies of the Church

Her opposition to heretics

 5   It is true that faith can cause many strange movements of the heart, but it is also true that faith suffers violent attacks, like a ship in a raging tempest. You would think that the whole of hell was busy trying to prevent a tiny grain of mustard seed from being sown in the ground or allowed to take root. You would imagine that all the demons had no other plan then tearing out the roots, such is the hardship and hostility faced by those who are trying to sow the seed of faith. To their front they are faced with the pagans, behind them are the Jews and the Mohammedans, to their left the heretics and to their right the schismatics. Great God! How many obstacles they face and how would they ever be able to overcome them were they not powerfully helped and reinforced from Heaven? Accordingly, all the forces on high send their help, but especially the Virgin Mary whose role it is, as Queen and Ruler of the spiritual empire of her Son, to devote her energies to conserving it and extending it. As for the heretics, we shall be discussing them more fully in the next Chapter where I shall demonstrate how throughout history she has waged effective warfare against them. It is no misrepresentation of the truth for the Church to have granted her the glory of having beaten back and trampled under foot all the heresies that hell was to spew into the world, from the time the Saviour left her as His visible abode.

Her opposition to schismatics

 6   When it comes to the schismatics, alas! Who is there whose heart will not weep at the sight of Ethiopia, Egypt, Greece the greater part of Asia and Africa – so many great kingdoms and beautiful provinces which once served as nurseries for bringing on Saints and were like paradises for Religion but which have been turned into awful wildernesses by the long and dreadful schism that separated them from the Church? What better can we hope for in the future, unless the Protectress of the law and the Reparatrix of piety intervenes in a fitting and timely manner? But take courage, dear reader, and let your tears for a moment cease as I have news that will console you: for I can tell you that she has taken a hand in such a way that, since the time of the Apostles, it is possible that there has never been found a state better disposed to accept obedience to the true faith than the great empire of Ethiopia and, unless misfortune snuffs out our hopes, the whole extent of those lands cut off from the Church. 

With regard to this, I can say to you that around one hundred years ago King John II of Portugal began to negotiate friendship with the Emperor of the Abyssinians (named Alexander). Since then, there has been no letting up with regards to this plan to bring the vast and powerful empire under allegiance to the Holy See and to purge it of the various errors of Nestorius and Eutyches which have infected it, as well as several Jewish and Mohammedan superstitions. The Patriarchs and their companions sent by the Popes from the beginning to clear the ground so as to cultivate this great vine, watered it with so many tears and so many beads of perspiration, cultivating it with such labour over a period of years that in the end God had mercy on them. For it is now nearly twenty years since the Emperor currently reigning, named Sultan Sedegue[1], a great-hearted and valiant Prince, and his brother called Ras Zelachrist[2], viceroy of Goyama who is a veritable Constantine in terms of his piety and courage, rendered all the necessary submission and homage to the Vicar of Our Lord on earth. They cooperated with those sent by Heaven to help them (and with their Latin Patriarch) in a project for the complete conversion of their subjects. They displayed such zeal and fervour that they could be almost taken for new Apostles and I am in no doubt whatsoever that they will one day receive this title, if it pleases God to continue blessing their victories and conquests.

Footnotes

[1] Sedegue: This seems to be a reference to the Sultan Segued. Fr Lobo S.J. arrived in Abyssinia in 1624 and wrote an account of his mission to convert the people from a form of Christianity peculiar to themselves, to orthodox Catholicism. The Abyssinian Emperor Segued was protector of the enterprise. For more, see: Fr Lobo’s work: A Voyage to Abyssinia.

[2] Sometimes written as Ras-Zela-Christ, Ras: An Ethiopian leader or prince. Goyama appears to be a reference to Gomma, a kingdom within Ethiopia.

 7   Now, so that everyone may understand that this praiseworthy enterprise was initiated and undertaken under the favourable auspices of the MOTHER OF GOD, it should be noted that of all the traits of the ancient piety retained by the Abyssinians, there will scarcely be found one more prominent in their hearts and minds than devotion towards and trust in the Holy Virgin. This devotion was the root, so to speak, which would one day cause their first faith to bud forth and blossom anew. Such was undoubtedly the feeling of one of their Patriarchs called Gabriel who, in a letter that he wrote to Pope Clement VIII concerning the reunion of this empire with the Church, humbly entreated his divine majesty to grant them all the grace of one day being part of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, with no divisions or disunity – all this coming through the mediation of the glorious MOTHER OF GOD, their beloved and powerful Advocate. The Patriarchs and the Fathers of the Society of Jesus who were employed in this task (even to the point of dying there in misery and poverty) always made her, after God, their principal recourse. Some of their number merited the grace of being notified by her of the day of their death, and of seeing her before dying, as I will explain in another context[1].

The Patriarch Andrew of Oviedo was approached one day by representatives from various villages in the neighbourhood of his home. They urged him to intercede with God on their behalf so that he might deliver them from a scourge that He had sent them – a plague of locusts so numerous that they were breaking the branches of trees. No sooner had he entered into Church to recite the litany of the Blessed Virgin than they found on returning to their villages that all the locusts had died and were rotting away.

The Emperor and his brother had from the beginning cherished a dream of making the Holy Mother honoured everywhere alongside her most beloved Son and they had adopted her as their guide in all their plans. The following story will serve to illustrate their devotion. 

In the year 1621[2], a group of schismatic religious were spreading so many calumnies against our faith that several groups of them, particularly the warlike people of Damot who were much to be feared when under arms, and who had sworn to eradicate every Catholic from Ethiopia. They succeeded so well in their secret plans that in a short while they had put together a sizeable army which they planned to use in a surprise attack upon the Emperor, during the course of which they planned to murder Ras and the Jesuits with the utmost cruelty. They were however unable to keep their plans secret and the Viceroy caught wind of their intentions. When they realised their plot had been discovered, they unfurled their banners and immediately put into the field a large and powerful army. Ras Zela Christ was determined to mount a valiant defence against his foes and he prayed that his soldiers would be strengthened with heavenly weapons. Once he was satisfied that all was ready, he took an image of the blessed Virgin into his hands and, casting his eyes upon her with deep devotion, he addressed her in the sight of all his soldiers as follows:

“Dear Queen of Heaven and Earth, it is thy cause that we are defending against these thine enemies. We go happily to face death in order to uphold the glory of thy name. It is all the more in thine interest to grant us thy help on this day since it is a question of thy honour.”

Then, as though suddenly seized with a feeling of invincible hope, he turned to his men in cheerful confidence and said:

“Be of good heart, most valiant soldiers, for we have nothing to fear but rather we have every hope of a beautiful and glorious victory. If God and His Holy Mother are fighting on our side, which cannot be doubted, then no matter what our enemies do they will not be able to escape defeat.”

The soldiers were so inspired by these words that they began marching towards the enemy (this was the 26th of October), just as though they were on their way to a wedding. The battle swung back and forth but when in the end the schismatics saw they were losing, they turned and fled. This in turn roused the spirits of our own men and they slew more than two thousand of the enemy. Ras did not want to sanction the killing of so many people and so he gave the order to sound the recall, otherwise not one would have escaped alive.

Footnotes

[1] Part III, ch. 13.

[2] Ex litteris illius anni a P. Gaspare Ludovico.

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >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