This post contains our translation of the first part of the Preface to the 1845 reprint of Fr Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 edition).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020) |
There may be some surprise at seeing this reprint of a folio published in 1643 and in a style already rather dated. The neglect into which this book has fallen might make our decision to publish a new edition perhaps difficult to understand. When drawing up our plans to produce a new edition of the Triple Crown of the Mother of God, we were happy to trust the public would give it a favourable reception. Far from being discouraged by the task, we felt all the more determined in our efforts to produce a new edition of Fr. Poiré's admirable book.
It seemed to us, in fact, that the publication might contribute towards establishing a more solid foundation for devotion towards the Blessed Virgin. This could not come at a more timely moment, because devotion to Mary, neglected in France for such a long time, has been returning with unexpected fervour. This presages new favours and a new period of protection for our country on the part of Her whose title as Queen of the French could no more be removed by political changes than her title as Queen of Heaven and earth could be taken away by heresy.
It has been a blessing to see more and more souls turning towards the Mother of Mercy. How many hearts there are who did not know God a few years ago but are living in grace today because Mary deigned to look down upon them in her maternal tenderness! The feasts of the Mother of God are now celebrated by the faithful with an enthusiasm and a confidence which recall the ages of the faith. The Month of Mary was at first observed secretly as a mystery in one or two isolated oratories. Now more and more of our most solemn sanctuaries are opening each year to the celebration which is becoming embedded in our catholic customs. In the heart of the capital, endless miracles of grace are pouring forth from the sacred heart of Mary who has chosen for this purpose the Church of Our Lady of Victories, an historical monument to our faith's victory over heresy.
From all corners of the realm, the faithful are gathering to hear the praises of Mary and her titles proclaimed from the pulpit, showing that the whole world can place trust in her. Every year, or rather every day sees the appearance of new writings which aim to exalt the MOTHER OF GOD, and to pour forth the feelings of love and gratitude that are in people's hearts. Pious devotions towards Mary, thought to have fallen away, have taken on a new lease of life and are dearer than ever to the hearts of the faithful. The sacred Scapular is worn with fervour; devotion to the Rosary has taken off in a new more and more fervent way. Pilgrimages to Marian sites are now better attended than ever before and the medal of the Mother of Grace may be seen worn on the chests of believers and even of those who are not yet believers. What testifies even more powerfully to this turning of faithful souls towards Mary is the fervent enthusiasm with which they greet her in the mystery of her Immaculate Conception. The acceptance of this as a dogma is not yet required by the Faith, but the solemn decision of the Church is anticipated soon and it is earnestly to be hoped that this century will not pass before the voice of the Apostolic See proclaims as a dogma the Conception of the MOTHER OF GOD was Holy and Immaculate, just as she is full of grace in every way.
What then could be lacking for the triumph of Mary, surrounded by such increasing devotion? One thing only, namely, that the feeling which draws all classes of the faithful towards her and which becomes each day more significant and irresistible, should be illuminated by a comprehensive study of the splendours of her greatness and of the lovable qualities of this most august Queen. In short, the dogma concerning Mary, Mother and Queen of Heaven and earth, source of mercy and pillar of the Church, needs to be better studied and better understood. We must be weaned from the milk of sucklings on to solid food. Love for our Mother arises from our acknowledgement of the benefits she bestows on us; but the time has come to show that our it is also founded on the whole economy of our holy religion, that is, upon the most imposing and massive corpus of truths ever given to mankind.
It is the duty of all God's creatures to love Mary. Getting to know Mary not only brings the assurance of loving her always but also enables us to penetrate the divine secrets of the mystery of the Incarnation, in which God has given us the means to rise up towards Him through charity. The dogma of the God-Man is the key to all truths of the faith, and living these truths leads us to our proper end. The dogma of divine maternity is a new source of illumination enabling us to understand more clearly the marvellous gift the divine Word deigned to bestow on us through Himself.
It is therefore not enough to honour Mary simply by singing her praises and abandoning ourselves to the power of her love. In matters touching religion, sentiment proceeds from faith and faith has a need to grow and develop by continual contemplation of the truths it reveals. Through faith, God shines His light for us upon certain truths and if we study them regularly He will reward us with further illumination. Let us therefore study the Sacred Scriptures and meditate on the most august testimony they give concerning God and His truth; let us delve into the teaching of the Church, a living commentary on this divine text; let us study the liturgy and prayers of our religion, the writings of the holy Doctors, the acts and monuments of our faith throughout the ages. In this way the dogmatic teaching, which began by bringing delight to our hearts and minds by a single shaft of radiance, will grow before our astonished gaze into a great and dazzling illumination as bright as the sun. Our whole intelligence will be suffused by this enlightenment and our heart will find therein an inexhaustible source of nourishment for life.
The neglect of this life-giving study has entailed for us a loss in understanding the truths of the faith. Popular practice has too often taken the place of solid doctrine and there has been an over-reliance on pious sentiment which, left to itself, ends in exhaustion or sterility. This is already only too noticeable in many books on devotion to Mary and in certain homilies given in her honour. On the surface, these works seem full of life and striking in their boldness and relevance. Gradually, however, repetition leads to a formulaic style lacking in depth. It is sought to remedy this by introducing innovations but these have their limits and risk changing the nature of these works. The conclusion must be that we have been following a false trail.
The time has now come for an in-depth study of Christian dogma as it relates to the august Mother of God. Everything calls for such a work, both the sincerity of our veneration her and the desire all children of the Church must have of passing on the love they feel for her whom all generations are to call Blessed.
Such a book needs to be accurate in presenting the depth of Marian doctrine and extensive or even universal in its range and detail; a book containing the full richness of antique piety, whilst at the same time presenting the most magnificent array of theological truths relating to its sublime subject. The style of this book has perhaps aged somewhat but it still shines forth with wondrous poetry. It was written before the Jansenists spread their errors throughout France and is re-appearing whilst all Catholic hearts and minds seek to know Mary more deeply so as to love her more fervently and to devote themselves more completely to her service. It seems now to us that the time is propitious for the reprinting of such a book.
There is certainly no shortage of pious and learned works on the Mother of God. Indeed, if all the works meriting inclusion in a Marian library were to be gathered together, there would be several thousand of them. What is really needed, however, is a work that draws together the varied strands from these numerous compositions: this series begins with St Ephrem [306-373] and continues to St Bernard [1090-1153], passing through the Middle Ages, bringing together the scholastics and the mystics, before finally blossoming with the great Marian literature of the 16th and 17th centuries in France, Belgium, Germany, Spain and in Italy. Such is the richness of these works that that even the defence and promotion of belief in the Immaculate Conception has filled one hundred or more folio volumes. In terms of its date, The Triple Crown which Fr Poiré has consecrated to Mary is not the last of the works which we consider worthy of such a sublime subject, but we consider it offers a substantial treatment of the greatest and most illuminating writings from previous ages. This is the reason for the choice we have made to meet the need referred to above for a work of solid Marian teaching.
These considerations aside, we doubt there could be found many men today capable of conceiving a plan comparable to the one realized in this volume we are presenting to the public, or many doctors sufficiently immersed in the necessary knowledge so as to fill it with such ease and with a quality worthy of comparison with that shown by the modest author whose forgotten name we are lifting from obscurity.
On each of the pages of this book, characterised by a fervent piety transcending all eras, the reader can detect a taste for theological science, a power and a mastery of learning which carries us back to that time when a thorough understanding of the Church's doctrine was the first qualification required of any man wishing to write seriously on religious matters.
Fr François Poiré was born in 1584 in Vesoul, situated in the Catholic province of Franche-Comté which has preserved to the present day signs of the lively spirit of faith which reigned there unchanged for such a long time. He was 17 when he joined the Society of Jesus where they soon recognised the precious gifts he had received from the Holy Ghost. He was appointed to teach the humanities, rhetoric, philosophy and Sacred Scripture. His gifts opened the path for him to higher learning. At first, he was placed in charge of the professed house at Nancy and was later the rector of the college at Lyon. He occupied a similar position in the college at Dole when he passed away at an early age [53] on the 25th of November 1637. Fr Poiré's interests inclined him towards mystical and ascetic writings. He approached these with all the benefits of his high level of theological learning. We may cite as monuments testifying to his aptitude in this material his fine Treatise on the knowledge of the Saints (1638) and his Collected Meditations, published after his death (1641). His most important work, however, which most clearly bears his imprint, is the one we are reproducing. Nourished by an Institute which has always featured in the first rank, benefiting from the means which God provided in recent centuries to maintain and promote within His Church the virtues of religion and love for the Queen of Heaven, Fr. Poiré discharged most worthily the role of interpreting the feelings of the Society of Jesus. The Triple Crown of the Mother of God first appeared in quarto format 1630 and then again in 1633. Ten years later in 1643 the work appeared in a larger folio edition, published by Sébastien Gramoisy. Besides the dedication by the author to the Holy Mother of God, the 1643 edition carried a second dedication to the pious Duchess of Aiguillon, signed by the printer. The book we are now offering to the public is based on this 1643 edition.
This massive undertaking seeks to make use of all that is most rich and eloquent in what the centuries have produced in praise of Mary. Fr Poiré has followed a plan that is a worthy response to the magnificence of his subject. Since the work's aim was to exalt the great Queen of heaven and earth, the pious author considered a Crown was an act of veneration that would best express the ideas and feelings he sought to present in his book.
A simple Crown, however, would not have been an adequate recognition of the Mother of God's royalty. On earth, the Vicar of Christ receives from the Church a triple Crown known as the Papal Tiara which represents the fulness of the spiritual royalty vested in His Holiness. All the more reason for Mary to receive the honour of a triple Tiara, for it is even more fitting that we venerate in her the three principal qualities in which her great dignities are subsumed. These three qualities are her Excellence, her Power and her Goodness. Her Excellence arises from a prerogative so exalted that it is second only to Divinity itself. This ineffable dignity is her divine Maternity. Her Excellence gives rise to her Power which is limitless, for her reign is second to that of God but she reigns alongside God. Her Goodness arises from her supreme dignity. The Mother of God becomes by adoption the Mother of men and of every creature. The sceptre of mercy is placed in her hands. Excellence, Power and Goodness become as one in a triple alliance at Mary's crowning. Such is the diadem crafted by the learned and pious author for the coronation of Mary.
Now the glory of a crown may be seen in the jewels which adorn it and Fr. Poiré set himself the task of finding the most precious of gems to embellish his three diadems. The number of gems for each diadem is derived from the prophecy of the beloved Disciple who in His revelation writes of the mysterious woman who had on her head a crown of twelve stars.[Apoc. xii. 1] With remarkable skill, he incorporated the most sacred of numbers, 3 and 12, into the overall design of his work. As we shall see, materials were not lacking to him for this purpose.
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 Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
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