It is referred to in the French work by Fr François Poiré called The Triple Crown of the Holy Mother of God (1630) which I translated on this blog starting on the 1st of May 2024.
I offer this annotated edition of St Bonaventure’s work as a small gift to our gentle Queen and Mother in gratitude for all her graces and favours, requesting her continued help and protection for the author and his family.
👈The Annunciation, early 1460s; by Willem Vrelant (Flemish, died 1481, active 1454 - 1481). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
The Latin text and references are based upon Speculum Beatae Mariae Virginis (1904). The English text is based upon that attributed to Sr Mary Emmanuel O.S.B. (published by Herder in 1932). Amazon's various editions ackowledge that this text is in the Public Domain worldwide, attributing it to the text of a Dublin edition (author unknown) published in 1849.
Chapter 2 -- Freedom of Mary from the Threefold Woe of Actual Sin, from the Threefold Woe of Original Misery, and from the Threefold Woe of Eternal Punishment
Part 1 of 2
Hail Mary, full of grace. Let us all utter this good and sweet word Ave, by which our redemption from eternal woe was begun. Let each one of us, I say, utter it; let all utter it most devoutly, saying: Ave Maria, Ave, Ave, and again a thousand times, Ave! Behold, Ave is said to the most holy Virgin Mary because of her absolute immunity from any fault; because of her perfect innocence and purity of life; rightly is Ave said to her in the very beginning of her salutation, Ave indeed and without woe (“a” or “absque vae”)[1].
We must consider that the “vae” or woe, from which she is entirely immune, is threefold. There is the woe of guilt, misery, and hell. There is the woe of actual sin, of original misery, and the woe of the punishment or pain of hell. Of these three woes we may fittingly understand what we read in the Apocalypse[2]:
“I heard,” says John, “the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven, and saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth!”
Behold how each of these woes is multiplied by three, so that all together we have nine woes, against which Ave is rightly said to Mary. For there are three faults, three miseries, three hells in this woe, for the absence of which Mary is rightly saluted by the Ave.
First, the woe of guilt is threefold, i.e., the woe of the guilt of the heart, of the guilt of the lips, and of the guilt of deeds. On account of these three woes it may be said: “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth!” Woe, therefore, to sinners because of the guilt of the heart, as it is said in Isaias[3]:
“Woe to you who are of a deep heart, that ye hide counsel from the Lord.”
Woe, indeed, to those who are of a deep heart unto evil, for the deep hearts of evil-doers are haunts of the devils, and sepulchres full of the filth of vice. Woe, therefore, to them, as is said in St. Matthew[4]:
“Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who are like to whited sepulchres, which appear outwardly to men fair, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all abominations.”
Oh, how far from this woe was the most innocent heart of Mary, as St. Bernard says[5]:
“Mary had no fault of her own, and far from her most innocent heart was repentance.”
Of what could the heart of Mary repent when she had never admitted into it anything worthy of penance? Therefore, her pure heart was not the haunt of the devil, nor the sepulchre of vice. Rather, it was a garden and a paradise of the Holy Ghost, according to that word of the Canticle of Canticles[6]:
“A garden enclosed is my Sister, my Spouse.”
“A garden,” says St. Jerome[7], “a garden of delights, in which were planted the seeds of all virtues, and the perfume of virtue.”
Because Mary was far from this woe of guilt, therefore it is rightly said to her: Ave.
Again, woe to sinners because of the guilt of the lips, as it is said in Isaias[8]:
“Woe to you who call evil good, and good evil.”
Woe to these, woe to all who sin by the lips, who bear the venom of the devil in their mouth, as is said in the Psalms[9]:
“The poison of asps is under their lips.”
Oh, how far from this woe was the most innocent mouth of Mary! Therefore Blessed Ambrose says[10]:
“There was nothing evil in the eyes of Mary; nothing wanton in her words, nothing forward in her deeds.”
On the lips of Mary there was nothing of the gall and poison of the devil, but only the honey and milk of the Holy Ghost, according to the word of the Canticles[11]:
“Thy lips are as the dropping honeycomb, my Spouse; honey and milk are under thy tongue.”
Had not Mary this most pure milk under her tongue when she uttered those most chaste words[12]: “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” Had not Mary also this most sweet honey under her tongue when she uttered the words[13]: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.” Because the woe of the guilt of the lips was so entirely absent from Mary, therefore is she rightly saluted with Ave.
Again, there is woe to sinners because of the guilt of their deeds, as it is said in Ecclesiasticus[14]:
“Woe to them that are of a double heart and to wicked lips, and to the hands that do evil”
Here all these three woes are touched upon. Woe to the double heart, for the guilt of the heart; woe to the wicked lips, for the guilt of the lips; woe to the hands that do evil, for the guilt of their deeds. Oh, how far removed from such a woe was every deed of Mary and the whole of her life! Therefore St. Bernard saith[15]: “It behoved the Queen of Virgins, by a singular privilege of sanctity, to lead a life entirely free from sin, that while she ministered to the Destroyer of death and sin, she should obtain the gift of life and justice for all.”
Note that never did she contract the least stain either in thought, word, or deed, so that the Lord could truly say to her[16]:
“Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is no spot in thee.”
So, therefore, the most innocent and holy Mary was without woe in thought, word, and deed, and therefore is it said to her, Ave.
Footnotes
[1] Cfr. Petr. Cellens., serm. 24. in Annunt. B.M.V. in medio: « Quid est Ave? Sine vae»/ “What is Ave? Without woe.”
[2] Apoc. viii. 13.
[3] Isa. xxix. 15.
[4] Matt. xxiii. 27.
[5] Serm. 2. in Assumt. B. V. M. n. 8.
[6] Cant. iv. 12.
[7] Epist. cit. n. 9.
[8] Isa. v. 20.
[9] Ps. xiii. 3.
[10] II. de Virginibus c. 2. n. 7.
[11] Cant. iv. 11.
[12] Luc. i. 34.
[13] Luc. i. 38.
[14] Ecclesus. ii. 14.
[15] Epist. 174. n. 5.
[16] Cant. iv. 7.
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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. 30-31.30-31.
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