Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 7 : § 6.13-15

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is a true model of generosity towards her children

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)

§ 6. On God’s Gratitude towards certain Prelates and other persons 

Walter of Biberach

 13   The noble Walter of Biberach has already featured once in this work[1] as being numbered amongst those most devoted to the service of the Holy Virgin and I shall be referring to him again in Part IV. 

One day while he was present at Mass[2], the celebrant raised the chalice after the words of consecration and noticed a beautiful golden cross at the foot of the chalice and a scroll with the following words : Take this Cross on behalf of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to Sir Walter, a knight who liveth in Biberach. Once the holy sacrifice of the Mass had concluded, the priest went up into the pulpit and asked the congregation if there was anyone who knew of a knight called Walter of Biberach. The young man himself came forward and, after the priest had recounted in the presence of everyone what had happened, he gave him the cross. Walter understood clearly from this that he was being called to carry the cross of Jesus Christ and soon afterwards he entered the Cistercian Order, where the Holy Virgin is especially honoured.  

The pious monk Cæsarius[3] was a Cistercian in the same Monastery where Walter made his profession and had many dealings with him. He saw the cross with his own eyes and reported that it was more dazzling than any goldsmith could ever have crafted.

 

Footnotes

[1] Chap. 5, § 3.

[2] Chap. 4, § 1.

[3] Lib. VII, c. 39.

Blessed Elsa

 14   If the Blessed Elsa[1], a member of the Dominican Order from India, worked miracles to defend the honour of the glorious Virgin as being MOTHER OF GOD, he himself was the beneficiary of wonders worked by her to keep him alive and lead him to triumph over the enemies of the Catholic Faith.

The King of the Abyssinians had called upon him to argue against a certain heretic who was stubbornly following the errors of the wicked Nestorius, who sought to take away from the Virgin that which was most precious to her, namely the title of MOTHER OF GOD. The error was not confined to him but, like a cancerous plague, it infiltrated various countries and infected the minds of many. The hideous aspect of this heresy prompted a courageous response from Elsa so that by the power of his reasoning and through the spirit which spoke through his lips he destroyed the heretic in argument and reduced him to confusion in the presence of the King and a large number of people. 

Heresy, which is the spawn of Satan, possesses some of his characteristics and this explains why the poor wretch, instead of confessing his error, began to look for support and to behave worse than before. This caused such offence to the King that he ordered him to be bound head and foot, before being fed to four lions who straight away devoured him. Now you will see the story of Daniel repeated in the case of Blessed Elsa. Those who supported the heretic came in numbers to the King demanding that, to provide an unquestionable proof of what the Dominican was teaching, he too should be set before the same lions. If he emerged unharmed from this experience, they would acknowledge the truth of what he had been saying. 

This placed the King in a difficult situation, fearing these turbulent individuals could easily provoke a seditious uprising. Accordingly he consulted with Blessed Elsa, asking for his opinion about this. The brave-hearted friar, filled with confidence in God, gave his reply not in words but in his actions, for he made the Sign of the Cross and, after commending himself to her whose honour he was defending, he walked boldly into the midst of the hungry lions. These ravenous beasts, however, showed themselves more humane in his case than they had with the heretics. Instead of rushing upon him, they curled up at his feet and began to lick them. Whereupon the King, with infinite rejoicing, offered a thousand thanks to God and to the Holy Virgin, who would later render him many other favours. One such, by no means the least, is that she so arranged things that he was taken from this world on the very day of her Assumption, so that he might partake of the glory of her triumph and of the honour she received in Heaven on that day. 

Footnotes

[1] Michael Pius de viris illustribus Ordinis S. Dominici.

Diego Laynez and Martin Gutierrez

 15    I mentioned in Part I what happened to Diego Laynez, the second General of our Society, when he was at the Council of Trent.  

He went up into the pulpit to speak about the Immaculate Conception of the MOTHER OF GOD , saying that he would not talk long because he was suffering from a fever at that time. His fervent and filial affection for the Mother of God, however, made him forget himself so entirely that he proceeded to speak for three full hours in honour of his beloved Mother and in support of this teaching which so greatly honours her. His gentle Mother showed her gratitude on the spot for what he had done, for apart from the strength she gave to his body, apart from the abundance of beautiful thoughts she supplied to him, and apart from the fervour and remarkable delight which showed on his countenance – so that he had never spoken better from the pulpit – he was so fully healed of the fever that he never suffered from it ever again since. 

I have also stated in another connection how the Holy Virgin thanked Father Martin Gutierrez of the College of Salamanca for the way he had urged Father Francis Suarez to spread his abundant graces in the first public lecture he gave in that city’s University.

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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