Chapter 9 The Eighth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD
She commands the Church’s armies
Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).
*[NOTE from translator: My source text did not have any footnotes for paragraphs 3 and 4 below. The ones in Latin that I have included are taken from another source which has significant problems of legibility and they have not been checked.]
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020) |
§ 7. The first victory of the MOTHER OF GOD : defeating the Demons, enemies of her Son and His followers
The second characteristic of this combat
3 The second characteristic includes several others and shows us how this spirit, who calls himself the Prince of this world and seeks to be adored as such, was defeated by Mary in countless ways. In the first place, she defeated him in the person of her Son. I must acknowledge here my indebtedness to the Blessed Martyr Methodius[1] who provides much food for thought when he says that:
when the Holy Virgin provided a body for the Word incarnate, at the same time she armed and equipped Him from head to toe so that He do battle with our foe.
It was not His intention to engage in one-to-one combat as in a duel, using the might of His royal armour and weapons like Saul so as to vanquish his enemy. Pope St Leo[2] says in this regard that:
He preferred the honour of overcoming him with nothing more than our human infirmity, so that he would be brought down by that which he had used to strike the first man;
The great St Augustine adds[3]:
It was not His will to defeat him by main force, preferring for this purpose His justice and by this means vanquishing him by his own hand.
If he made to attack Him[4], he was himself hurled down on the ground; if he he tried to grapple with Him, he found that he himself was held fast; and believing that he was up against a mortal man, he found that he had fallen into the hands of the Saviour of mortal men. The nails used to pierce His hands served to attach him to the Cross which had been prepared for him; and the suffering inflicted on the Redeemer’s passible body would become incurable wounds for the powers of hell.
St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople[5], has this to say:
The Saviour wanted to begin the work of our salvation but chose only those weapons used by His enemy: the slime of the earth[6] he had exploited was used to do battle against him; and the leaven[7] which had ruined everything was used to restore corrupted nature.
What more could we ask for, writes St Macarius the Egyptian[6], since just as once Moses used a dead serpent to killed living serpents, so does the Prince of life, by losing life, bring death to all His enemies.
Footnotes
[1] Orat. in Hypapante. (Hypapante: Orthodox Church. Festival commemorating the meeting of the infant Jesus and His Mother with Simeon and Anna in the temple).
[2] Serm. 14 de Passione.
[3] Lib 3 de Trint. cap. 13.
[4] S. Leo Ser. 10. de Passione.
[5] Homil. 11.
[6] Gen. ii. 6: Douay-Rheims has slime for Vulgate's limus (mud, mire); Knox has clay and KJV has dust (of the ground).
[7] Cf. use in Matt. xvi. 11, Mark viii.15, Luke xii. 1 and 1 Cor. v. Vulgate fermentum can carry sense of taint or corruption as well as leaven/yeast (see DMLBS).
[8] Cap. 17.
4 This victory of the Saviour is represented in an enigmatic way the Prophet Isaiah[1], who said that he would come with His two-handed sword to do battle against Leviathan, who had been like a rod crushing the nations of the earth, and against the twisted serpent who, coiling and uncoiling, had been tormenting the world; and that he would put to death the great whale which had been the terror of the sea. Alternatively, according to the Septuagint[2]: The Lord will strike with great blows of his holy sword, long and powerful, upon thee cunning and dreadful dragon. Tertullian[3], St Basil[4], St Augustine[5], St Cyril of Alexandria[6], the Abbot Rupert[7], and all the Fathers together understand this sword to refer to the sacred humanity of the Redeemer. This is a most holy sword because of the interior unction of the Holy Spirit, the power of the divine Word who wields it and the great exploits that He achieves; the sword is very long because its effect can be felt everywhere; the sword is most powerful because there is nothing capable of withstanding it. If we had time and space here to extend this discussion and show just how this raging enemy was overcome and cast down by the Saviour, how many examples would I be bringing forward, to the undying memory of the Victor and to the confounding of the vanquished! Suffice it to say that the Saviour so humiliated him that not only did He cast him down beneath His feet, but He also caused him to be trampled upon by His servants and lead in triumph by young maidens, by little children and by people of every age and condition.
Footnotes
[1] Isaiah xxvii. 1.
[2] In that day God shall bring [his] holy and great and strong sword upon the dragon, even the serpent that flees, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent: he shall destroy the dragon. Isaiah xxvii. 1.
[3] In Psal. 44.
[4] In Psal. 7.
[5] In locum cit. Isai.
[6] Zachar. 9.
[7] Luc 1. Eph. 6. Ioan. 1. Rom. 16.
5 In the second place, she has defeated him by herself and in herself. She defeated him in her immaculate Conception, as I have explained elsewhere[1]. She defeated him in her childhood, forasmuch as, according to Saint John Damascene:
While she was yet very small, she already filled the demons with dread, even when she was still being carried in her beloved mother’s arms.
She has defeated him in every aspect of her life: in her thoughts, in her words, in her actions and, as the Blessed Bishop of Chartres[2], Saint Fulbert, has written:
She crushed his head when she rose above his three main suggestions and disabled his three main pieces of armament: vanquishing pride of life with her humility, stifling the appetite for sensuality through her virginity, and because she was poor in spirit, freeing herself from worrying about the perishable things of this world[3].
She defeated him with the ranks of her innumerable virtues and with the host of Blessed Spirits. Here is how her beloved son St Bernard speaks to her[4]:
Most Holy Lady, thou art no less terrifying for the demons than a mighty army, under the leadership of a wise and experienced captain, is to a weak and feeble enemy. Who could be in any doubt that the Princes of darkness did not turn pale with fright when, contrary to custom, they saw against them a woman fully armed, a woman both courageous and skilled in the use of arms, leading the serried ranks of her most excellent virtues, and surrounded with innumerable legions of the heavenly host, sent down on earth so as to guard the mystical couch of Solomon and the abode prepared for the Eternal King? They must have been frozen with fear, being forced to say: This is someone very different from the first woman, this is the Commander of God’s armies. Take flight as best ye can everyone, for there is no way we can withstanding her.
Footnotes
[1] Part I, ch. 7, § 1.
[2] Orat. 1 de Nativit.
[3] Lib. de Laudibus Virg.
[4] In deprecatione ad Virg.
👑 👑 👑
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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