Chapter 8 : Honour – a seventh 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) |
The practice of adoring the Holy Virgin’s relics
22 It is people such as Julian, Vigilantius and other Apostates and wicked men like them who laughed at the honour rendered to the relics of Saints and called it idolatry and superstition. The true children of the Church, however, have from the very beginning viewed them in a very different light. They have honoured that which God himself honoured through so many miracles; they have revered the bones which held the germ of immortality; they have adored the precious remains of those who did so much and suffered so much for God, so as to have a share in the blessing which God granted them. As might be expected, however, they made a special effort to find the sacred tokens which the holy Virgin left us of her love and her time here on earth, so that they might render them every possible honour.
VARIOUS RELICS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
23 I do not know whether it was through good fortune or to the care she took (or perhaps through a combination of the two), but St Helena made a happy series of discoveries and she was able to collect many treasures and relics from various locations. I am sure there will never be found a love to match that which she showed in seeking out everything which, through having been in contact with the holy Virgin or in some other way, deserved to be revered. In the church which she had built in Rome, called the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, She deposited[1] a number of relics including a sample of the Queen of Heaven’s hair and part of the veil[2] which she wore on her head. As for the Saviour’s garment over which lots were cast[3] and which had been woven by the Holy Virgin, there are some authors[4] who state that it was sent to Trêves but there are others[5] who maintain that at present it is kept safe in a marble chest on the altar of St Mary Magdalene in the Basilica of St John Lateran. The comb belonging to the same Virgin which is today on display in Trêves was also given by St Helena to whom we owe the preservation of a good part of the relics that were found in the Holy Land and elsewhere.
Footnotes
[1] Onuphrius, lib. de Septem. Eccl.
[2] Ibid.
[3] tunicam / coat : John xix. 23.-24.
[4] Jacobus Mindendorpius, lib. V. Acad. Trev.
[5] Onuphrius, lib. de Septem. Eccl.
24 St Pulcheria was a worthy successor to St Helena in her piety no less than in her great achievements. She it was who built a beautiful Church for the MOTHER OF GOD in the city of Constantinople, in the Metalworkers’ marketplace[1]. There she placed the Holy Virgin’s girdle which she had received from her father Arcadius who had made a magnificent chest to house it. She also had built the famous Church of Blachernae in the port of Constantinople. This was to house the sacred winding cloths she had received as a gift from St Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem and which had been used to cover the Holy Virgin’s body during her dormition. The third Church she built was called Our Lady of the Guide (or the Conductress) as mentioned elsewhere[2], and there she placed a distaff used by the MOTHER OF GOD, the Saviour’s swaddling clothes (which her sister-in-law Eudocia had sent her, or rather to her husband Theodosius the Younger, brother of St Pulcheria) and also the image of the Queen of Heaven attributed to St Luke the Evangelist.
Footnotes
[1] This would seem to be the Church of Theotokos Chalkoprateia (also known as St. Mary of Chalkoprateia), named from a copper/bronze-workers’ market in the city. See, e.g., The Byzantine Legacy.
[2] Part III, ch. 7.
25 I have shown elsewhere[1] how the Emperor Leo I built another Church to the MOTHER OF GOD in Blachernae. There in a place of honour he installed a robe belonging to the Holy Virgin which he had received from two famous brothers, Galbinus and Candidus, who had managed to obtain it from the hands of a Jewish woman. She was said to be a descendant of one of those two virgins or widows to whom the MOTHER OF GOD had left it in her will. This is set out in greater detail by Metaphrastes[2], Nicephorus[3] and by other sacred Historians.
Footnotes
[1] Pt III Ch 7.
[2] Orat. de Obitu Deiparæ, apud Surium, 13 Aug.
[3] Lib. II Hist., c. 21, et lib. XV, c. 14.
26 King Hugh Capet sent a sample of the glorious Virgin’s hair to St Henry and this pious Emperor freely handed it over to be kept safe in his famous Monastery on the Isle of Croylandie, according to the writings of the Abbot Ingulf in his history[1].
Footnotes
[1] The reference appears to be to be to Ingulf and the History attributed by some to him of Croyland (nowadays Crowland) Abbey on an island in the Lincolnshire Fens (England).See Ingulf and the Historia Croylandensis (1894).
27 Holy Charlemagne, Emperor and King of France, brought with him[1] on his return from Constantinople part of the Crown of thorns, a nail from the Cross and one of the Saviour’s winding sheets ; but he also brought a white robe belonging to the MOTHER OF GOD which he presented to his beloved Church in Aix-la-Chapelle (where he was later to be buried). An ancient tradition in this Church maintains that this is what the Blessed Virgin was wearing when she gave birth to Him who was to be the Prince of Peace. The garment of the Holy Virgin which I mentioned earlier as being the most precious possession of the ancient city of Chartres[2] was a gift of Charles the Bald and the image which is kept in Notre-Dame du Puy en Velay which I mentioned elsewhere[3], was a present from the King St Louis.
Footnotes
[1] Philippus Bergom., lib. X Supplem. Giron.
[2] Malmesburiensis, lib. II de Gestis Angelorum ; Vicentius, Speculi, lib. XXIV, c. 46 ; S. Antoni-nus, II p. Hist., tit. XVI, c. 2, § 5.
[3] Part I, ch. 12, § 5 ; Part III, ch. 7, § 3.
28 Apart from the ones we have already mentioned, there are several Churches which can claim the glory of possessing similar relics. The Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome has a little sample[1] of the Blessed Virgin’s hair and part of one of her robes[2] which it zealously protects and cherishes, and so do does the Basilica of St Lawrence Outside the Walls. The Basilica of St John Lateran[3] can boast similar riches, including a shirt made for the infant Jesus by His holy Mother and a veil belonging to her which some claim was what she used to cover the nudity of her Son when He was placed on the Cross. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is proud to possess the Holy Virgin’s milk[4], as is the Sainte Chapelle in the same city[5] which also has[6] part of one of her robes. Marinæus Siculus declares[7] that the Church in Oviedo (Spain) enjoys the same privilege and also has a sample of her hair. With regards to her virginal milk, there are other places where it is carefully guarded such as in the Church of San Damiano in Assisi, having been once carefully collected by St Francis and held ever since by the sisters of St Clare; in the Church of Toledo[8] in Spain and in several other locations too. In Semur there is a Priory founded by Gérard Count of Roussillon where they keep the ring with which the holy Virgin was betrothed, according to the account given by the learned Archbishop of Aix[9]. Soissons considers itself fortunate to have an item of the Queen of Heaven’s footwear[10]. At Bruges in Flanders may be seen a tress of her hair[11] given by a Bishop from Syria called Moses to one Lambert, Provost in the same Bruges Church. At Arras they have part of her veil[12], as does the Church of the Jesuit Novitiate at Nancy in Lorraine, called Our Lady of Grace. The Church of the Jesuit College at Forli in Italy[13] has a statue of Our Lady brought from Germany in which a significant piece of her robe is mounted. I have spoken elsewhere of the chasubles which she gave to St Ildephonsus[14] (Archbishop of Toledo) and to St Bonitus[15] (Bishop of Clermont). Those who have a keen desire to find out more details concerning the Holy Virgin’s relics and the places where they may be found have only to consult the inventory put together by Blessed Antoine de Balinghem S.J. I have to confess that personally I would prefer much more to know how to render these relics the homage they deserve.
Footnotes
[1] Onuphrius, lib. de Septem. Eccl.
[2] Onuphrius, lib. de Septem. Eccl.
[3] Idem, ibidem.
[4] Onuphrius, lib. de Septem. Eccl.
[5] Bonfonius, lib. II Fastorum Paris.
[6] Bonfonius, lib. II Fastorum Paris.
[7] Bonfonius, lib. II Fastorum Paris.
[8] Lib. V de Rebus Hispaniæ.
[9] Marinæus, loc. cit.
[10] Genebrardus, Chron., ad an. 870.
[11] Hug. Farsitus Canonicus Laudunens., lib. Miraculorum B. Virg. Suessionensis.
[12] Ex litteris ejusdem Episcopi, an. 1532.
[13] Ex Diplomate Callisti III, an. 1455.
[14] Part III, ch. 7, § 6.
[15] Ibid.
© 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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