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).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020) |
§ 6. The sixth sign of love: loving for love of Mary all those who belong to her, whether through family, marriage, or election ; wherein special mention is made of St Joachim, St Anne and St Joseph
Their chastity
8 They were great in chastity, in which regard we may recall the words of St Peter Chrysologus[1] who said abstinence is the banner of chastity, the triumph and trophy of modesty; and according to St Basil[2], it is the it is the guard of honour for marriage and the foster father of virginity. St Vincent[3] is in no doubt about the chastity of this holy couple, adding that:
as soon as St Joachim realised that St Anne was indeed barren, he did not approach her again until he received the express commandment from Heaven.
The reason he gives is that because marriage was instituted by God for two ends only – namely to bring forth children into the world and to assuage the ardours of concupiscence – the excellent virtues of these great servants of God as well as the calling they had received protected them from those movements of animal passion to which so many others of lesser standing are prey. It followed that, since they had no expectation of any issue, there was no longer any question of their availing themselves of the permission given by their conjugal status. The glorious Virgin explained this one day to St Bridget[4], saying that:
the fires of carnal desire were extinguished in her parents and they would have preferred to die rather than yield to the marital act for reasons of pleasure alone. They were in the end obliged by the command they had received from on high and the love of God had a power over them which sensual love would never have achieved. Accordingly, their daughter's body most chaste was conceived through a pure action of divine love and not through the disordered sensual appetites.
St Ephrem writes as follows:
God operates in a way contrary to the promptings of the flesh and frequently sows seed in bodies which are dry and cold[5]; and tthe Holy Spirit is attracted by those who cherish chastity[6].
If what he says is true, then reason would require that the bodies from which purity itself was to emerge should be characterised by their spiritual rather than bodily sturdiness and that the vessels which were to receive the operation of the Holy Spirit with such an abundance of graces should have been prepared long in advance with the sweet odour of chastity. The quarry which would supply the stones for the mystical Temple of the most holy Trinity should be most holy and heavenly; and the flower of holy virginity should grow on the stem of the most holy marriage in all the world. In short, it was right and fitting that if God was to give proof of His omnipotence by causing the Virgin of Virgins to come forth from a father and from a mother who was barren, then these should be two persons made worthy of such an outstanding privilege through their perfect chastity. This will become even more evident when we weigh carefully the words of St Peter Chrysologus, the “Golden-mouthed” Bishop of Ravenna[7].
How happy that nature which had proved wanting in a man and a woman should nevertheless have received the honour it had been denied, along with so many blessings, through the person of God Himself! How happy for that nature to have seen the deficiencies of barrenness repaired by the marvellous blessings of a second virginity! How happy to have made more progress through this one conception than in so many woeful pregnancies in the past! How happy for that nature to have become the Mother of life after previously being the Mother of stillborn, who would give birth in pain to little victims of pain and suffering, who would bring forth only amidst tears those whom she would be exposing to a life of ruefulness, who was delivered only at great risk to herself of infants who would have to grow up and live surrounded by dangers, who would threaten her babies at the dawn of their lives with the setting of the sun which would bring them to a close, who would devour the fruit she brought forth knowing full well that she was begetting with many labours creatures who would no sooner be born than find themselves condemned to death!These considerations made her barrenness easier to bear, as she feared her very fruitfulness would have a sorrowful outcome, bringing forth tears rather than children. Amidst all these cries and lamentations, however, the one blessing to emerge was that they were directed to the Author of this very nature who, having made it without these defects, could repair it just as easily as He made it in the first place. This was an opportunity for Him to construct a new route in nature itself, proceeding with a confidence more divine than human through a virginal conception and birth, following gate path previously unknown, leaving no signs of passage, so as to restore nature by this birth to its first freedom and to cleanse the streams by purifying the source.
Footnotes
[1] Serm. 12.
[2] Homil. 2 de jejunio.
[3] Serm. 2 de Nativit. B. Virg.
[4] Revel., lib. I, c. 9.
[5] Serm. exhortatio ad fratres.
[6] Parænesi 46.
[7] Serm. 87.
Their faith and hope
9 They were great in their faith and in their hope. If faith, as St Ambrose says[1], continues to live and even to work miracles after death, who will be able to deny that the faith of St Joachim and St Anne was so great that, to borrow the words of St Peter Chrysologus[2],
It brought springtime greenery back to bodies that had grown dry and withered, it rejuvenated people who had become advanced in years and, in a mysterious way, it took life from its sunset to back to its dawn at break of day.
If the property of hope, in the judgement of Blessed Antiochus[3], is to bring forth wonderful fruit by means of faith which serves to water it, what must have been the hope which brought into the world such beautiful fruit as Mary, the fruit of benediction? If tears are the lifeblood of the soul, as St Anthony of Padua[4] calls them, and if hope is the lifeblood of faith, as Clement of Alexandria[5] says, what then must have been the faith of these Saints who shed so many tears and what must have been their hope which was founded on such a firm faith? How much blood would it have cost them to deliver this precious pledge to the world? Sacred Scripture has praised to heaven the faith of Abraham who is honoured with the glorious title of Father of the faithful[6]. This is even though St John Chrysostom[7] and St Jerome[8] accuse him of a certain lack of trust, based on what is written in the 17th chapter of Genesis where it says that after the Angel had told him he would have a son, he fell upon his face, and laughed, saying in his heart: Shall a son, thinkest thou, be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sara that is ninety years old bring forth?[9] It is true, however, that St Paul seems to defend him vigorously in the 4th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, saying that he was not weak in faith and against hope believed in hope; and neither did he consider his own body now dead, whereas he was almost an hundred years old, nor the dead womb of Sara[10]. Be that as it may, in order to take nothing away from the merits of the Saints, if the faith of Abraham and Sarah was great then I can state confidently that the faith of St Joachim and St Anne was no less so, granted that St Epiphanius, St Jerome, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, St Germanus, St Andrew of Candia and the other Fathers cited above declare that they never hesitated once in their belief, not even to the slightest degree, in what the Holy Angel had prophesied. If Abraham and Sarah believed that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through the Son who was to be born of them, St Joachim and St Anne firmly believed they would be the parents of her whom St Ephrem[11] calls the hope of the ancient Fathers, source of joy for men of goodwill, a light for the just, the honour of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the glory of Moses and Aaron and the crown of all the Saints. The former were hailing from a distance the rich jewel of Heaven who was to be the honour of their race; the latter had merited to hold in their arms both the Mother and the Son through whom the whole world was to be redeemed. The former learned of the happiness which was to come to them through Isaac only after the Angel brought the news to them; the latter had for a long time felt a presentiment of their joy, whence came the earnest prayers and requests that they made continually to God, as is clear from the writings of the above-mentioned Doctors. To sum up, if faith was in its infancy amongst the Patriarchs and in its youth amongst the Prophets, as Abbot Guerric[12] has said, can I not say that it was in Joachim and Anne, who came so close to the grace of the New Testament, that faith came of age ?
Footnotes
[1] Orat. in Funere Theodosii.
[2] Serm. 87.
[3] Homil. 2.
[4] Dominica I post. Epiph.
[5] Lib. I Pædagog.
[6] Rom. iv. 16-17.
[7] In cap. 17 Gen.
[8] Lib. I adversus Pelagianos.
[9] Gen. xvii. 17.
[10] Rom. iv. 18-19.
[11] Serm. de Laud. B. Virg.
[12] Serm. 4 de Nativ. Dom.
© Peter Bloor 2025
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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.
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.
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