Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 8 : § 2.6-8

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).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020)

§ 2. Second sign of honour : singing her praises

 6   Hemming was a Bishop from Sweden and a great friend of St Bridget. The Holy Virgin revealed[1] to this Spouse of her beloved Son that, in recognition of the devotion this Bishop showed her by beginning all his sermons with her praises, she would be his Mother forever, she would help him at the hour of his death and she herself would present his soul for judgement by God. 

St Vincent was never able to hear praises of the Virgin’s excellence without his heart melting and his eyes filling with tears of devotion. 

It was the laudable custom of the devout Dominican Fr Venturino of Bergamo to preach every Saturday on the greatness of the Holy Virgin. The crowds flocking to hear his sermons frequently numbered up to thirty or forty thousand. The Queen of Angels showed her gratitude for the devotion of this her servant in various ways, especially in appearing to him and revealing a number of secrets to him.

Footnotes

[1] Revel. extravag., c. 104.

 7   Blessed Stanislaus Kostka would only ever call her his dear Mother; And as for the joy he experienced when speaking of her, this was so great that those who knew him, in order to in order to please him but also for their own delight, would turn the discussion towards her as soon as they saw him coming. I say also for their own delight because it was just not possible for people to see him become animated by the theme and continue the discussion, his noble face lit up with devotion, without being touched, their souls bathed in happiness.

What could produce greater rejoicing than to hear St Gregory Thaumaturgus making a clarion call to all the world, inviting people to praise, glorify and proclaim the blessedness of the Queen of Heaven, and to honour her memory with celebrations and canticles of joy? What a consolation to see how the devout Richard of Saint-Laurent made every effort he could to offer the highest honours to her whom he loved more than his own life? What could be more pleasant than to follow this gentle soul who in the dozen books he wrote praising the my sacred Virgin[1], loses himself in his contemplation of her prerogatives, her privileges and her virtues; who explores the earth in all its fruitfulness, the depths of the oceans, the skies in their vastness and the immensity of the starry vault in an effort to satisfy his devotion; in short, Who leaves nothing unturned in the whole of nature in his quest to exalt the Queen of Heaven?  

Footnotes

[1] Ricardus de Sancto Laurentio, author of De laudibus beatae Mariae Virginis, died c. 1250.

 8   In speaking of people such as these whose devotion to singing the praises of the most sacred Virgin was so great, God forbid that I should fail to mention St Casimir[1]. This young Prince was infinitely more noble by virtue of his outstanding piety than his birth into a noble family and he dedicated himself from his infancy to serving the MOTHER OF GOD. Amongst all the other tokens of the love and gratitude he offered to the Holy Virgin, he never allowed a single day to pass without praising her with a Latin composition that he himself had written in the rhyming style of the time. When he knew that his death was approaching, he expressed his desire for a piece of this composition to be buried with him. When in the year 1609 they came to open the tomb where he had been buried, this Marial was found on his chest, as though serving as a guardian of his heart. Readers who are interested will be able to see it at the end of this work but I am now going to present a selection of the more tender ideas contained in his composition, transposed from Latin into French. 

Footnotes

[1] 1458 -1484: Prince and later Patron Saint of Poland and Lithuania.

 

© 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.