The Crown of Excellence : Introduction - Origin of Crowns

First Treatise: The Origin of Crowns

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

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

 1   Majesty, the Mother of Excellence, was no sooner born on earth, or rather no sooner came down from heaven, than she was immediately given Crowns. Those who decided to render honour in this way were quite right, for Crowns were only ever invented in order to serve as signs of Excellence and Majesty. As soon as conversation began amongst men and they sought to order their social and communal existence together, it was Majesty that awarded the Crown to those most deserving, causing them to wear her livery and favours. The first to receive this honour were the princes and kings on whose countenance were imprinted such signs of Majesty and Excellence that those seeing them could not but render them honour and respect. In the beginning, these Crowns took the form of twelve rays of light seeming to radiate from their faces, as may be seen with the first kings of Italy,[1] making them more worthy of veneration in the eyes of their subjects who would the more readily believe those who governed them came from heaven.

 2   Let us draw back the veil of these poetic fictions to reveal the truth. We may say with certainty that God alone is eternal Majesty and sovereign Excellence; He is the source of all Excellence and Majesty and to Him belong all the Crowns of dignity. Immediately after this Monarch of the Universe resolved to send down to earth uncreated Majesty and Wisdom, which is to say His only-begotten Son, He crowned Him with glory and honour as we learn from the Prophet-King,[2] and set him over the works of His hands, giving Him power to award the Crown to whomsoever He deemed worthy, not only here on earth but also in heaven above. Now with whom should He commence, in your opinion, other than with His Mother, who had herself crowned Him with the crown of our humanity? Among all created beings, which head could He find more worthy of wearing the Crown? He honoured her before all others with a Crown composed not of twelve beams of light but of twelve beautiful Stars, each one sending forth a thousand rays of light. According to St Augustine,[3] St Gregory,[4] and several others, twelve is a number associated with perfections. I could say that we are to understand this number comprises all the perfections with which God honoured the most Blessed Virgin by virtue of her status as Mother, Daughter and Spouse of God. Nevertheless, I wish to hold strictly to this number twelve and, from all the excellent qualities of the Blessed Virgin, to choose the twelve principal ones which show forth her dazzling splendour and her majesty. These will be twelve signs of her great Dignity which raise her above all created beings and which apply to none other beside herself. The subject will be rich in majesty and, I pray, in sweetness. Before we begin, please allow me to provide a little clarification, by way of introduction, to the glorious title: Mother of God.

Footnotes

[1]   Virg., de Latino.

[2]   Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour:  and hast set him over the works of thy hands. Ps. viii. 6-7.

[3]   Lib. III de Doctrin. Christi, c. 35, et in Psal. 86.

[4]   Lib. X Moral., c. 30.

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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