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) |
§ 3. Third sign of honour : celebrating her feasts religiously
The Purification
4 The Feast of the Purification, was called by the Greeks Hypapante[1] or the Meeting and by the ancients the feast of Holy Simeon and Anna the Prophetess. It is later than both of the above but there is some disagreement about the exact date of its institution. Nicephorus[2], Theophanes[3] and St Augustine place it in the fifteenth year of Justinian which would be 543 A.D. Sigebert[4] places it at 542; Cedrenus puts it in the ninth year of Justinian the Elder which fell in the year 518 A.D. They all agree, however, in attributing its cause to a great epidemic which was brought to an end by the Mother of Mercy. It began to be observed first in the Latin Church and some authorities date it to the time of Pope Gelasius who lived more than 30 years before the Emperor Justinian. They say this saintly Pope took the opportunity of instituting this feast to counter the abuses which were committed throughout the month of February in the Lupercalia rites which had their roots in paganism. He replaced these rites with the saintly custom of honouring the mysteries of the encounter or presentation celebrated by the Church on the feast of the Purification. Pope Sergius[5], who was elevated to the Pontificate in 688, increased the splendour of this feast by introducing a procession with specially blessed candles, a custom which continues to this day.
Footnotes
[1] From ὑπαπάντη, rendered in Latin by obviatio: meeting.
[2] Lib. XVII Hist., c. 28.
[3] In Miscellan., II p., Summ., tit. XII, § 5.
[4] n Chronico, eo anno. Sigebert(1030-1112) was a writer and historia most celebrated work is the Chronicon sive Chronographia.
[5] Beda, lib. de Temporibus.
The Assumption
5 The Assumption, which we can call the Queen of the Feasts of the MOTHER OF GOD, is very ancient as we learn from the sermon or epistle of Sophronius to St Paula and to St Eustochium her daughter, an epistle which we have cited several times before. The author lived in the time of St Jerome, as may easily be shown and several of the ancient authorities attribute this piece to him. When Nicephorus[1] wrote that the Emperor Maurice ordered this feast to be celebrated everywhere, this did not refer to the time when it was first instituted[2] but to an edict he published commanding it to be adopted and observed throughout the East in imitation of the Western Church. The Octave was added by order of Pope Leo IV[3] as an act of thanksgiving for the favour received from the MOTHER OF GOD when she delivered the Roman people from a terrible affliction[4] which had caused great damage in the city. I cannot omit to mention here the miracle recorded by the venerable Abbot of Cluny[5] who states that it was unquestionably accepted in his day that the candles which burned in the Church of Saint Mary Major in Rome from first Vespers of this solemnity until the end end of second Vespers, were found after twenty-four hours to be in the same state as when they were first lit.
Footnotes
[1] Lib. XVII Hist., c. 28.
[2] Baron., in Notis Martyrologii, 15 Aug.
[3] Sigebertus, in Chronico, an. 847.
[4] Perhaps a reference to the Saracens’ raid on Rome in 846.
[5] Petrus Clun. dictus Venerabilis, lib II de Miraculis, c. 30.
The Presentation
6 Apart from her five principal feasts[1] there are others celebrated either throughout the Universal Church or in a particular Church, even though they might be celebrated with less pomp. The feast of the Presentation is very ancient in the Greek Church as appears from the writings left to us by St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, George, Archbishop of Nicomedia and others; by the Menologion[2] of the Greeks[3] and by the Constitution of Emmanuel according to Theodore Balsamon[4]. It was already being celebrated in France in the year 1375 under King Charles V as may be seen in the Monastery of the Celestines of Metz Which was established in honour of this feast by Philip de Philippe de Mézières, Chancellor of the Kingdom of Cyprus. Pope Paul II added it to the Roman calendar in the year 1464 to appease the wrath of God and to bring an end to the misfortunes which were besetting the Church. He also offered indulgences[5] to the Christian people for the celebration of the feast, as his predecessor Pope Pius II had done. Later, Pope Pius V removed it from the calendar along with several other feasts but it was reintroduced through a Brief issued by Pope Sixtus V, demonstrating the antiquity of this feast in the Church of God. The learned Franciscus Turrianus (Francis de la Tour or Torres) was a Jesuit who played no small part in this. The most sacred Virgin took him from this world on the feast of the Presentation, as I mentioned elsewhere[6].
Footnotes
[1] Her Immaculate Conception, her Nativity, her Annunciation, her Purification et son Assumption.
[2] A hagiographical collection of a type compiled in the Byzantine Empire from the 9th cent. onwards, in which the saints' lives, usually of substantial length and often interspersed with homilies or verses, are arranged in the order of the dates on which their subjects are commemorated.
[3] 21 Novemb.
[4] In Nomocanone Photii, tit. VII, c. 1.
[5] Molanus, in Martyrologio.
[6] Part III, ch. 13, § 3.
© 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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