Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 4 : § 6.21-22

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)

§ 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 

God’s first plan for St Joseph : to make him the Spouse of the holy Virgin 

 21   Just as in the Holy City (as described by the beloved Disciple in chapter 21 of the Apocalypse) God laid foundations of rubies, sapphires, emeralds and other precious stones so that He could erect walls over them built of jasper and porphyr, along with gates of pearl of prodigious size; in the same way, the great Architect of the universe laid foundations in Blessed St Joseph of outstanding virtues on which He was to build three wonders He had planned that would redound to His own glory, to the honour of this Saint and the astonishment of the whole world. The first of these was to make him the Spouse of the Mother of His only-begotten Son and by this means to present us with the idea of the most holy and honourable marriage that there has ever been. 

In the first place, this marriage was between two people who were the most celebrated that could be found in terms of their nobility, their natural perfections, their graces freely bestowed, their merits, their purity and their possession of every sort of virtue. In the second place, the marriage came about through the sovereign Wisdom of God inspiring the priests (in whose power the most sacred Virgin found herself at the time) with the means of making it happen and contributing through His own agency certain miraculous occurrences, as we shall see later[1]. In the third place, this was a true, unshakeable and perfect marriage which was declared to be such by the Holy Spirit at various places in Holy Scripture, in Sacred Councils and in the writings of the ancient Fathers[2]. In the fourth place, it was accompanied by every conceivable blessing it is possible to imagine within a marriage. It was blessed with fecundity, which is one of the first fruits of conjugal union. Even though the Saviour might not have been born through the ordinary use of marriage, the great St Augustine nevertheless has no difficulty in calling Him the fruit of virginal marriage. The marriage was holy in its perfection, holy in the person of the Spouse, more holy in the person of his Bride, and most holy in the person of the Son who was Jesus. It was truly exemplary in the mutual love and understanding of the parties, for they loved one another with a chaste love which was the holiest and most total there has ever been. They loved one another with a natural love which had for its foundation the exceptional qualities of both and the wonderful closeness they enjoyed in terms of nobility, their family (being the issue of two brothers), in physical beauty, in their gentle dispositions and in every other sort of perfection. They loved one another with a love acquired and honed through long association and continual service to one another, through the intimate communications of their hearts and through everything that flows from a noble and sincere friendship. They loved one another with a supernatural love, in consideration of the extraordinary graces they perceived in each other (following on from the choice God had made of them) and for the love of Jesus, the honour of their marriage, along with the sacred bond and indissoluble ties of their reciprocal affection. This marriage was more of Heaven than of earth and more angelic than human!  

“Do you want me to tell you in one word what Gorgonia’s husband was?” St Gregory of Nazianzus[3] once asked his brother. “He was the husband of Gorgonia[4] – that says it all, for these few words are a short eulogy containing the essence of everything I could want to say about a man of outstanding merit.”

Do you want to know who St Joseph was? asks the pious Abbot Rupert[5]. You will know him by a single word that the Evangelist St Matthew mentions, almost in passing: he was the husband of Mary[6]; do not ask for anything more than that: since in hearing it said that he is the Husband, the Head and Superior of the MOTHER OF GOD, and consequently the reputed father of the Saviour, you have all you need to form the most elevated idea your mind could conceive.

    

Footnotes

[1] Chap. 11, § 4.

[2] V. Suar., t. II in III p., d. 7.

[3] Orat. 11.

[4] St Gorgonia (died c370). Wife and mother, sister of St Gregory of Nazianzus.

[5] Lib. I de Gloria et honore Filii hominis, in c. 1. Matth.

[6] Matt. i. 16.

His second plan : to make him the father of His Son 

 22   Without thinking, I have just introduced the second plan that God had for St Joseph : to make him the reputed Father of His beloved Son. When I call him the reputed Father of the Saviour, I am not suggesting that he was Father only according to the opinion and estimation of men. In fact, the Holy Spirit[1] and the Holy Virgin[2], who were not governed simply by public opinion, had no difficulty in giving him the name of Father. I should stress that I have no wish to prejudice in any way whatsoever the more than angelic purity of the most immaculate Mother of Jesus, may God forbid! But I want to follow what St John Chrysostom[3], St Augustine[4] and several other Doctors have stated that, with the exception of physical generation alone, he was Father in all the other ways which are associated with this title.  

He was the Saviour’s Father, says St Augustine[5], not only according to the belief of men but also in reality inasmuch as Jesus was the natural Son of his true and lawful wife, over whom he had power according to the words of St Paul the Apostle[6] who said that the woman is not mistress of her body but the husband to whom she transfers the right. This is all the more true since she had conceived this Son after contracting marriage and after her spouse most chaste had acquired rights over her body.

Footnotes

[1] Luke ii. 33.

[2] Luke ii. 48.

[3] Homil. 4 in Matth.

[4] Lib. II de Consens. Evang., c. 1.

[5] Ibid.

[6] The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. 1 Cor. vii. 4.

© 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.