Chapter 8 : The Seventh Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD
She is the Protectress of 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 second Image represents the wondrous care shown by the MOTHER OF GOD towards the Church : the second quality she shows as Protectress
1 You must all have seen a painting of the Royal Flagship and I invite you now to consider how this can represent Holy Church for us, noting how it is able to carry a large number of people, armed and equipped with all the necessary weapons, munitions and supplies. St Peter is at the helm, the Apostles and the Prelates their successors surround him and help him in steering and running the ship; the Doctors get the vessel under way so that it moves according to the cadence of the oars, so to speak, of Sacred Scripture; Ministers of every rank and grade are in charge of defending the vessel, having charge of the necessary weapons and munitions; Preachers sound the trumpet, whilst Confessors are at hand to purge foul waters from the bilge – there is in fact no office or ministry on board lacking in honour or importance. The almost infinite number of people of all ranks and quality that you can see on the main deck represent the generality of the Christian faithful. Aloft may be seen God the Father within a bright cloud surrounded by several thousand Angels; above the mainmast is the Saviour, who is Admiral and Captain of the ship; at His side is the Holy Spirit who provides favourable winds; on the mainsail, the MOTHER OF GOD is like a seated presence guiding and watching over the vessel. Here you have a fair idea of how the Church might be portrayed and the loving care that the Holy Virgin has in protecting it.
2 Do not imagine that the image we have been considering is a new idea, for over fifteen hundred years ago Pope St Clement published an Apostolic Constitution ordering that Christian Churches were to be built in the form of a ship. We must remember, moreover, that (according to the opinion of all the Fathers) it was over four thousand years ago when God provided details for the design and building of Noah’s Ark, which was at the time the only Church and the first ship in the world.
In fact, if you consider the measurements and proportions of a ship you will find that they actually correspond to our Church buildings as well as to the true Church itself as the assembly of Christians. In the first place, note how we use the word vaisseau[1] both for a ship and for the nave of a Church; inasmuch as a Church is like a ship on dry land whilst a ship at sea has the form of a Church. The main entry at the west end of our Churches is square and corresponds to the stern on a ship; the choir corresponds to the prow of a ship; the spires are the masts and they also, with the yards, represent the cross; the three decks of a ship correspond to the three orders in the Church, namely: marriage, celibacy and virginity; the three longitudinal divisions of a ship correspond in Church to the law of nature, the Synagogue and the Gospel; fresh water on board corresponds to the waters of Baptism; ship’s biscuit is the bread of life and the food for souls that the Saviour left us in the Eucharist; other provisions on board correspond to the other Sacraments, to the Word of God and to everything else that the Church provides for the faithful.
Footnotes
[1] vaisseau = vessel: in French this can refer either to a ship or to that part of a church between the main entrance and the sanctuary, which in English would be called the nave. Since nave is derived from the Latin word navis which means ship, the parallel is seen to exist in English usage as well.
3 We could in fact explore these parallels further but all I will say for the moment is that no ship on the high seas is exposed to so many risks and dangers as the Church endures amidst the turbulence of this world. The winds that howl from all quarters, together with the storms they bring, almost capsize this poor vessel; they are the demons who are rightly called in this context the powers of the air[1]; these have sworn to bring about the ship’s total destruction, but the wicked wretches will never succeed in their plans. The waves and surf of the raging seas are stirred up by these same winds and correspond to the ten waves of persecution suffered under the pagan Emperors who were incited by the toxic enemies of the faith. It is said that the tenth wave is always the worst and so too, out of these persecutions, the tenth was the cruellest and the bloodiest of all. The reefs and hidden rocks are heretics, masquerading with a superficial reforming spirit which gives them an appearance of being with us, but actually planning an ambush so as to smash our ship into pieces. The sea monsters, dreadful on account of their massive size, are the powers of the earth working together against the rights and privileges of Holy Church. The treacherous sand banks are scourges sent from God : wars, plagues and famines which at least for a while halt the progress and spread of the Gospel. Finally the Mahommedans are like the pirates and scavengers of the seas who steal the fruits of Christian labour and the booty won in conquests, so that they themselves can enjoy that which the Christians acquired through so much effort in Asia, Africa and a large part of Europe.
Footnotes
[1] See Eph. ii. 2. & vi. 11-12.
4 God understands how amidst so many attacks the poor Church has real need of help and how the loving care of the MOTHER OF GOD would never to see this is so. God knows how she controls the sails, how she summons forth propitious winds, how she keeps a watchful eye to prevent the Church from drifting off course, to avoid dangerous situations, to calm storms and tempests and to steer His barque to its safe haven. God knows how many times it would already have been blown off course by the winds, overwhelmed by the waves, broken on the rocks, stranded on sandbanks, overturned by monsters or pillaged by pirates – if she had not taken it in hand and her loving care had not protected it against these hazards. We can be in no doubt about this since the Saviour himself, whilst complaining one day to the blessed St Bridget[1] that Christians had grown distant from Him, added this warning, that:
their sins had become so excessive that, were it not for the prayers of His Mother, there would be no hope of mercy left for them anywhere in the world.
The Saviour has never ceased to insist on this truth, and he has even made use of words from the mouths of his enemies. Caesarius, a learned and pious member of the Cistercian Order (German by birth), recounts[2] a memorable incident that happened in his province during his lifetime, around the year 1222.
He tells us that whilst Holy Mass was being sung in a Church the image of the Virgin began to shed large teardrops, something everybody saw and which caused great wonder and alarm amongst all those present. The Ladies in the Church approached the image and used their scarves to wipe away the tears. People of all ranks and ages flocked to this remarkable and moving sight. Amongst their number, there was by chance a man possessed who, after he was exorcised, was heard to cry out that the Son of Man had determined to punish men and that if His Mother had not stayed His arm, the world would have been reduced to nothing. This was the reason for the tears on this image.
Footnotes
[1] Lib. VI Revelat., c. 26.
[2] Lib. VII, c. 2.
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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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