Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 9 : § 2.5

Chapter 9 : The Eighth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the strong and valiant defender of 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)

§ 2.  How the Holy Virgin protects her children against physical dangers and external threats 

 5   The case of the Blessed St Sylvester[1], founder of the Religious Order which bears his name (sometimes referred to as the Order of Monte Fano) is similar because in both instances the Holy Virgin shows how she is not only a loving Mother but also a trustworthy Defender and Protector of her children. 

This Saint had left his cell during the night with the intention of going into the Church where his fellow Religious had gathered to sing Matins ; but as he began to descend some steps, the devil pushed him so violently that he lost his footing on one of the slippery slabs and fell down the rest of the steps to the foot of Monte Fano. This had certainly been planned because you would have said that Hell had weaponised the skies and the elements to bring about Sylvester’s death. It was a particularly dark night and furious winds had whipped up a violent storm; the driving rain was falling in such torrents that you would think it was the beginning of the deluge. The temperature had plummeted and in the midst of all this St Sylvester’s body lay prone on the ground, broken and bruised, his limbs incapable of movement. He cried out for help as best he could but the noise of the wind, intermingled with the torrents of water lashing down on the steps, not to mention the sound of the Religious singing in the choir, made it impossible for him to be heard by anybody. The cold and wet were having a serious effect upon his injuries and all that he had left was a little bit of warmth and life around his still beating heart. God knows whether the demons, seeing him in this state, took the opportunity to cause more pain to him on the inside than what he was suffering from without.     

Despite all this, the valiant Sylvester held firm against all their efforts and as a counterweight to their attacks he was able to rely on the trust he had in the MOTHER OF GOD, whom he implored most earnestly not to allow him to be taken away so quickly from this life without previously having strengthened with sound instruction his poor children of his Order who were on the point of finding themselves orphans without having been weaned from the breast, so to speak. He had scarcely finished his prayer when he saw before him the most sacred Virgin bathed in wondrous light and radiating incomparable majesty. Urging him to take courage and not to lose hope, she touched him in all the places where he had been hurt and healed him in an instant. He was left with no marks of the injuries he had sustained apart from a number of scars and traces of blood on his face and the rest of his body. She did not stop at that but, taking him gently by the arm, she returned him straight away back to his cell where she left him, filled with heavenly joy and with an extraordinary desire to love and to serve such a dear Mother quite differently thenceforth.  

His monks had been troubled at his failure to arrive in Church and at the conclusion of Matins they hastened to his cell where they saw the traces of fresh blood which were still visible on his face and body. They asked him what had happened and who had done this to him but the Saint kept quiet about his experience for several days. Finally, no longer able to resist their persistent questioning, he recounted in detail everything that had happened and his ardent language fired their hearts with a new fervour to accept suffering and an extraordinary trust in the goodness of the Queen of Heaven.

Footnotes

[1] St. Sylvester Gozzolini (1177-1267) who established a monastery on Monte Fano near Fabriano in the Province of Ancona, Italy. See Monaci Benedettini Silvestrini for more. 

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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