St Bernard's Praises of the Virgin Mother: Homily 2, Part 8

St Bernard. Musée de Cluny [Public domain]

'To this warm love of Jesus Christ was joined a most sweet and tender devotion towards His glorious Mother, whose motherly love he repaid with the affection of a child, and whom he jealously honoured. (from Pope Pius XII's Encyclical 'Dr Mellifluus', on St Bernard, the 'last of the Fathers' - 1953)

Our series on St Bernard's homilies in praise of the Virgin Mother continues with the second homily. The Latin text and an English translation are followed by references and notes on vocabulary.

A woman shall compass a man.

 Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Tecum tutus semper sum. 

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

8. Audiamus et Jeremiam nova veteribus vaticinantem, et quem praesentem monstrare non poterat, venturum et ardenter desiderantem, et fidenter promittentem: Novum, inquit, creavit Dominus super terram: femina circumdabit virum [1].

Let us now hear Jeremias, foretelling a new, unheard-of wonder, while he ardently desires, and confidently promises, the coming of Him Whose presence he was not able to show: for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: a woman shall compass a man.[1]

Quae est haec femina? quis vero iste vir? Aut si vir, quomodo a femina circumdatus? aut si a femina circumdari potest, quomodo vir? Et ut apertius dicam, quomodo potest simul et vir esse, et in utero matris?

Who is this woman, and who is this man ? And if a man, how is He encompassed by a woman?Or if he can be encompassed by a woman, how is he a man? And, that I may speak more openly: how can he be at one and the same time a man and in the womb of his mother?

hoc est enim virum a femina circumdari, Novimus [alias, dicimus] viros, qui scilicet infantiam, pueritiam, adolescentiam atque juventutem transeuntes, ad gradum usque senectuti proximum pervenerunt.

For this is a man compassed by a woman. We know men who, passing through infancty, childhood, adolescence and youth, attain the next stage of old age.

Qui ergo jam adeo grandis est, quomodo a femina circumdari potest? Si dixisset, Femina circumdabit infantem; vel, Femina circumdabit parvulum; nec novum videretur, nec mirum.

He who is already a grown man, how can he be compassed by a woman? If it were said: a woman compassed a baby; or a woman compassed a tiny infant, it would seem to be nothing miraculous or even out of the ordinary.

Nunc autem quia nil tale posuit, sed dixit virum, quaerimus quae sit haec novitas, quam Deus fecit in terra, ut femina circumdaret virum, et vir intra feminei unius corpusculi membra sese cohiberet? quid est hoc miraculi? Nunquid potest homo, ut ait Nicodemus, in ventrem matris suae iterato introire, et renasci? [2]

Now, because he did no such thing but rather spoke of a man, we ask what might be this novelty that God did on earth, that a woman might compass a man and that a man might confine himself within the members of one small, female body.What is this type of miracle? Can a man, said Nicodemus,  enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born again? [2]

References

[1] [22] Usquequo deliciis dissolveris, filia vaga? quia creavit Dominus novum super terram : femina circumdabit virum.
How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN.

[2] [4] Dicit ad eum Nicodemus : Quomodo potest homo nasci, cum sit senex? numquid potest in ventrem matris suae iterato introire et renasci?

Nicodemus saith to him: How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born again?

Latin vocab

cohibeō, uī, itus, 2, a.: to hold together, restrain, confine; check, curb, repress
fēmĭnĕus, a, um, adj. id., of or belonging to a woman, womanly, feminine
nŏvĭtas, ātis, f. novus, a being new, newness, novelty.
vāticināns m, f, n (genitive vāticinantis); third declension prophesying, foretelling
vetus , eris: (adj.), old, aged, freq.; ancient, early, former