Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 13 : §6.6-11

Chapter 13 : The Twelfth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She safeguards her children at the hour of death and provides them with their passport to Heaven

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. How the Holy Virgin consoles her children amid the flames of Purgatory and the care she takes of their bodies

 6   Fourthly, she prompts people who are still alive to help the suffering souls through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, through prayers and through other works of satisfaction; or she can indeed permit them to petition for the deliverance themselves.  

Pope Innocent III appeared after his death to St Lutgarde, as is recounted in the life of this holy virgin. She saw him surrounded by flames and heard him say that through God’s mercy he had been spared from hell but not Purgatory; and that Our Lady had nevertheless granted him the favour of coming to ask her to pray for his release.

 7   Finally, she visits the prisons of Purgatory as a Queen wielding the authority of her dear Son and by a special grace she delivers at certain times those whom she decides have merited this favour. The saintly Carthusian Denis Ryckel recounts the following noteworthy story[1] 

concerning two friends, one of whom departed this world around the feast of All Saints. The friend who survived was carried away by sorrow and mourning for his loss but without thinking to pray for his departed friend’s soul. The friend later appeared to him on the feast of the Nativity, rebuking him for his neglect. 

“What good are all these tears of thine? They are just so much water washing the eyes and seeking comfort for the mind. The wind simply carries away thy lamentations whilst I am grilled mercilessly over these fiery braziers. Now, let me tell thee something : on Christmas Eve the Holy Virgin cometh down into Purgatory with the power of delivering a number of souls, because on this very night she gave birth to Him who was to redeem all mankind. I was hoping to be among this number as a result of thy prayers for me; but my hopes were disappointed. So I am now letting thee know that she will do the same thing on the night of the Resurrection, in imitation of her dear Son who on that night long ago delivered those detained in the Limbo of the Fathers. In this connection, therefore, I implore thee to help me with thy prayers and tears of devotion which will in this way be put to better use than when thou merely felt sorrow for thy personal loss. Thou wilt know thy prayers have been successful if I do not come to see thee again.  

This is exactly what happened and he understood this to be a sure indication that his friend had indeed been delivered from Purgatory through the intercession of the Mother of Mercy.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 2 de Assumpt.

 8   Blessed Peter Damian writes in the last Epistle of his third book that: 

In the year 1070 a woman died in Rome and later appeared on the eve of the Assumption to one of her friends who asked her how everything was. The woman who had died replied that she had thus far had to endure most grievous sufferings but on that very night the most sacred Virgin had prayed for her and for a number of others with the result that she delivered her from Purgatory along with many more souls than there were in the whole of the city of Rome. Because her friend clearly found it difficult to believe such a thing, she went on to say that she would give her irrefutable proof of what she had said and told her she would die after a year had elapsed on the same day that they were now speaking to each other. This was fulfilled to the letter. just as she had predicted. 

 9   It would be remiss of me were I to deprive readers of a truly remarkable story about what happened when Pope Boniface VIII declared that 1300 would be a great year of Jubilee[1]. 

There was a cleric who had a strong devotion to the glorious Virgin and she appeared to him , holding her son in her arms. The cleric immediately prostrated himself before her and she said to him: 

“The Lord hath shown mercy on all.”

The cleric inquired of her if he was included in this great act of mercy as well as the living and the dead. When he asked her this same question a second time, she replied : 

“He hath shown mercy to the living and the dead, and to thee also.”

Historians have noted that the truth of this account has been confirmed by a number of possessed people, when demons in various different places were forced to make known the Lord’s mercy and unanimously confirmed that all the souls in Purgatory had been delivered in that year of Jubilee. There is every reason to believe that she who brought this news on earth had been the principal Mediatrix for them in Heaven.

   

Footnotes

[1] Jacob. Card., lib. de Jubilæo.

 10   If we now consider the tombs containing the remains of those who have departed this world, we shall find that the incomparably tender heart of our loving Mother goes so far as to take most particular care of the bodies of her faithful servants after their death. I believe I have demonstrated the truth of this by the example which is taken from the second book of the Revelations of St Bridget[1] which I discussed earlier[2] in connexction with Blessed Brynolph, Bishop of Skara in Sweden.

Footnotes

[1] Chap. 30.

[2] Sup. c. 7, § 6.

 11   What we have been discussing is but a small sample of the great Splendours of the Mother of Goodness and of the happiness enjoyed by those of her children whom she cherishes with a special affection. If even this rough outline of these privileges prompts us to conceive in our minds something truly great, what will it be like to contemplate the children of the Queen of Heaven gathered around their dear Mother, enjoying the riches of grace and glory they acquired through her mediation? What will it be like to share in this inestimable joy? How devoutly to be wished is the happy lot of those whose souls, as Scripture says, are kept as in the bundle of the living[1] by virtue of the special favour of the Mother of Goodness!

Footnotes

[1] 1 Kings (1 Samuel) xxv. 29.

[End of Chapter 13]

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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