The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 1 : § 1. 2-4

Chapter 1 : On the title of the Mother of God, true source of all the great Dignities of the glorious Virgin

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

 § 1.  On the excellence of the title MOTHER OF GOD

 2   I confess this has caused me something of a problem, especially because when studying more deeply the writings of the Saints, I have learned how little they trust themselves to speak of the excellence of this incomparable title. Some of them, such as St Anselm,[1] make plain that we can proceed no further than the thought that the Blessed Virgin is the MOTHER OF GOD. This in itself leads to the noblest understanding accessible to minds lower than God’s Majesty. Others, such as St Gregory of Neocaesarea,[2] whom we have quoted previously, are loud and clear that this one title surpasses all other praises that she could be given.

 3   There are some, says St Bernardine of Siena,[3] who make use of proportion as we do when we wish to speak of God. Because we cannot know His simple nature, we gather from all sides the perfections we perceive in His creatures and clothe them with Divinity; he adds that there is infinitely more to this than we can conceive. In the same way, they gather all the rare qualities that they find scattered here and there and say that she who possesses them to perfection and incomparably more is the MOTHER OF GOD. There are others, such as St John Damascene[4] and St Idelfonsus[5] who aim more highly. To show the origin of this singular honour of being MOTHER OF GOD by temporal generation, they adopt no less an idea than that of the eternal generation of the Word, saying that just as the Son of God takes His origin from the fruitful self-knowledge of the Eternal Father, with communication of His substance unaltered and integrally, in the same way He is born from the holy Mother in time, unaltered and integrally. Others, such as St Thomas,[6] go further still and hold discussions at an even higher level. Through the light inaccessible, they observe that the Virgin, having received the honour of being MOTHER OF GOD, is united to a term of infinite perfection and so she is thus in some ways elevated to the divine order. As a necessary consequence, she herself enters into possession of infinite perfection. But don’t wait for them to say more than that because now e have to stop there.

 4   I would be doing an injustice to several important figures with a great love for the Queen of Heaven if I were to pass over in silence a discovery they made in their tender devotion. As they found no direct opening in their attempts to unravel the Excellence of the title MOTHER OF GOD, they took an indirect approach, expressing their thoughts through various enigmatic figures and symbols. Blessed Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople, gave an admirable address to the Council of Ephesus on the birthday of the Lord. He shared his own sentiments and those of all Nature, when he described the MOTHER OF GOD as follows::  

She is, he says, the purest treasure, the adornment and honour of virginity; the second Adam’s spiritual paradise, the office of the divine marriage celebrated between two natures; the great chamber of general reconciliation for the world; the nuptial couch of the eternal Word; the burning bush, unconsumed by the flames of celestial birth; the beautiful little cloud who held to her breast Him who is enthroned above the Cherubim; the fleece moist with the pleasant dew from heaven, from which was crafted the garment worn by our divine Shepherd when he put on the livery of His lost sheep; slave and Mother, Virgin and all heaven together; the bridge whereby God Himself came down on earth; the piece of cloth used to make the estimable robe of the hypostatic union, work of the Holy Ghost; the hand, the power of the Most High, the old body of Adam, the weft,[7] the immaculate flesh of the Blessed Virgin, the incense boat, God’s bounty beyond comprehension, who brought to us the ineffable person of the Word. Who has ever heard tell of such a one?

Blessed Methodius, who was firstly Bishop of Olympus in Lycia and afterwards of Phoenician Tyre, and who died a glorious martyr for Jesus Christ, greeted the Blessed Virgin as follows:[8] 

Most noble and most desired of our hearts, thou art a shining light for the faithful; thou dost shelter within thy womb Him who encloseth all and who cannot Himself be enclosed; thou art the root of the foremost and most beautiful flower in the world; the Mother of the Creator of all things, nourishing the great father and sustainer of the universe; the living carriage bearing Him who beareth all things; the gate through which God cameth down to earth; the Seraph’s tongs for a live coal;[9] the bosom for Him who encloseth all in His own bosom; the spotless robe around Him who is surrounded by light; the Holy Ghost’s pavilion; the furnace that Almighty God hath set o fire with the flames of his divine love.

Footnotes

[1] Lib. de Excellentia Virginis, c. 2.

[2] Serm. 2 in Annuntiat.

[3] T. III Concionum, serm. 1 de Nomine Virg.

[4] Orat. 1 de Nativit. beatæ Mariæ.

[5] Lib. de Virginitate, et parturitione Mariæ.

[6] I part., q. 28, art. 6, ad 4.

[7] trame, weft. Ensemble des fils tendus sur le métier à tisser et passant transversalement entre les fils de la chaîne, pour constituer un tissu.

[8] Orat. in Hipapante.

[9] Is. vi. 6.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >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. 

© Peter Bloor 2024