Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 4 : § 1.1-4

Chapter 4 : Love – a third feature of the gratitude we owe the Mother of God

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)

Although Love holds third place in the divine virtues according to the order of its genesis, it comes incontrovertibly first in terms of perfection and nobility. It is truly the most worthy form of gratitude that can be shown to the Mother of love. The following signs of love have been distilled from Parts I-III of this work.

§ 1. The first sign of love: offering oneself to the Holy Virgin through a solemn and irrevocable act of consecration

 1   I am placing this sign before the others forasmuch as it contains them all to perfection, giving them a value and merit which cannot be explained in simple terms. I am attaching two conditions by requiring this act of giving must be solemn and irrevocable. 

I am saying that it has to be irrevocable firstly because there is no reason that could be found to make us retract something we have once promised to the Mother of goodness, and secondly because such a retraction could only amount to an infamous sacrilege. The act of consecration must also partake of solemnity and ceremony since it is one of the most honourable and important actions of our lives. This is because not only are we entering ourselves on the list of those formally joining the Queen of Heaven’s own, but also because we are glorifying her in a most excellent manner by signing over to her everything that we as mere creatures can give. It is of course true that I am not so much calling here for human preparations and external ceremony but rather for heavenly conversations and spiritual acts of preparation. I am not saying that spiritual persons or those making the same profession are not to be invited, but I do maintain the main ceremony should centre on a Heavenly procession. Without speaking of the Holy Virgin herself who is central to the solemnity, the most Holy Trinity should be invited to honour the event; along with the Saviour of the world, being more interested than any other person in the glory of His Mother most venerable; the Holy Angels – in particular the Guardian Angel who will serve as Paranymph[1] and Master of Ceremonies; those who belong by right of nature or covenant to the MOTHER OF GOD, her favourite children and those who have distinguished themselves through the outstanding affection they have for her; and the whole of the Heavenly Court. 

Footnotes

[1] Paranymph: a bridesmaid or best man; an advocate: OED 1. & 2. 

 2   The best preparation we can make will involve a review of the whole of our past life followed by a general confession, a precise examination of what it is that prevents us from being pleasing to His divine Majesty, along with fervent acts of Faith, Hope, Charity and other holy virtues. The place for the consecration can only be a Church or Chapel forasmuch as these are the places where God holds His Court and where may be found all that is most noble and divine in Religion. The banquet is the very one prepared by Uncreated Wisdom to nourish and give joy to His children, namely the most holy and most adorable Sacrament of the Altar. The principal action to which everything else properly relates is a solemn protestation made by the devout soul to the sacred Virgin in the presence of earth and Heaven expressing the desire : to be hers by a free and unchangeable act of the will; to belong to her in all things with the rank and position of a most humble servant; to recognise her as his Lady and Sovereign in perpetuity; to abandon himself to all that she might wish and to place himself entirely at her disposal; to offer her every moment of his life, including all the fruits of his faculties both interior and exterior; to offer all he is or can hope to become in the order of nature and grace – meaning everything the soul might possibly offer by way of homage; in short : to beg her to take absolute dominion over him in the best and most secure manner that she knows, and to treat him as something which belongs completely to her (after God Himself). 

I believe this represents the authentic profession as made by St Gregory of Nazianus at a certain point in his writings[1] where he chose the Queen of Heaven for his Lady, for his unique treasure and for his sovereign Mediatrix.

Footnotes

[1] Tragæd. de Christo patiente.

 3   Such was the noble resolution that St Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, had no difficulty in making when in the flower of his youth he offered himself to God and His holy Mother[1] in a remarkably spiritual and loving way. 

He swore to God a vow of perpetual chastity in front of a statue of the Virgin whom he took from that moment as his Spouse and his Queen. As a pledge of his fidelity he placed on the finger of the Virgin’s statue a golden ring on which the words Ave Maria were engraved. It was noted after his death that the same words were engraved on the Episcopal ring worn by the Saint and what subsequently transpired is well worth recounting. 

Whilst different people were looking to take away relics of the Saint, the Sacristan of the Monastery at Soisy-Bouy (where he died), looked with great interest on the Saint’s ring, hoping that it might be left for him to take after the others had left. When he finally approached the Saint’s body and tried to take off the ring he seemed to meet with resistance and, although he used all his strength, he could not manage to remove the ring. With a holy fear that he had done wrong and would be punished, he knelt down in front of the body and spoke in a low voice into the Saint’s ear, humbly begging forgiveness for his temerity and at the same time promising he would ask for permission were he to try and take even one thread from his clothes as a relic. No sooner had he completed this prayer than the ring of itself slipped from the holy Prelate’s finger into the hand of the Sacristan who subsequently told the whole story to the Abbot. This ring later caused several miracles and various sorts of illnesses were healed.

Footnotes

[1] Vitæ ipsius, c. 6.

 4   What happened to a young man (according to the account written by the learned and devout Vincent, Bishop of Beauvais[1]) is worth recalling here because of the link it has to what has just been said concerning St Edmund.  

Two young men were amusing themselves near a Church and one of them mentioned a ring he had received from a girl. Anxious about not losing it or damaging it, he took it off his finger and, looking for somewhere he could keep it safely, he went into the Church and there he set eyes on a high-relief image of Our Lady. She seemed so beautiful in his eyes that he could not help himself but knelt down and swore, in the presence of the Angels surrounding her, that there was no beauty in the whole world comparable to hers, being indeed different from the girl who had given him the ring. He went further and said that if she would agree to accept him as her servant he would from that moment renounce any other love and would devote himself exclusively to her. Having said that, he arose and placed his ring on one of the fingers of the holy Virgin, whom he found more beautiful the more carefully he looked at her. In order to signify her assent to his proposal, the Virgin bent the finger which she had previously held straight. The young man was overwhelmed by joy no less than astonishment and went into the street, calling his companions to be witnesses of what had happened to him. They all went to verify the truth of his story, they all envied what had happened to him, and they all urged him to leave the world in order to serve more effectively the Holy Virgin to whom he had offered his service and devotion.

Several months passed by, however, and the pleasures of this world which held him prisoner in chains of gold and silver tempting him with empty promises slowly extinguished the heavenly flame which the Virgin had kindled in his soul. Finally, carried away by the ardours of youth, he banished the memory of her to whom he had solemnly pledged his word, stooping so low as to be in complete breach of the explicit promise he had given. On his wedding night the Holy Virgin appeared to him and asked him what had become of the fidelity he had sworn to her and what could have moved him to abandon her in order to take someone else. She then spoke a second time warning him worse would befall him if he did not keep his promise. Finally, she succeeded in penetrating his heart to such an extent that he fled like a second Saint Alexius and, having secured his liberty, he employed the rest of his days in the service of the Virgin of Virgins.

Footnotes

[1] Vincent. Bellovac., Speculi Exempl., lib. VII, c. 87.

© Peter Bloor 2025 

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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.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.