The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 3 : § 3.7

Chapter 3 : The Second Star or Splendour of the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

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)

That from the beginning of the world she was announced by the Prophets and represented by ancient figures

In the previous chapter, I presented the Holy Virgin as a trial design by God when considered in relation to the Saviour, who was Himself the first actual masterpiece in the world. In comparison with the rest of creation, however, it cannot be denied that Mary was the second masterpiece by God who produced hundreds of preparatory sketches, as will be seen in the following discussions.

§ 3. On the three other figures, namely the Ark of the Covenant, Solomon’s Throne and the Cloud of Elias

Third Figure : the Cloud of Elias (continued)

 7   For all these considerations and for several others, the Holy Spirit has often used the Cloud in Sacred Scriptures to signify the MOTHER OF GOD. In this way, St Ambrose[1], St Jerome[2], St Cyril[3], Procopius[4], Eusebius of Caesarea[5], St Germanus of Constantinople[6] and several others have understood the glorious Virgin to be represented by the nubes levis (swift cloud) of Isaiah[7], on which God was borne when He made His entry into Egypt to cast down the false gods of this idolatrous people. 

Mary is represented by nubis levis, says St Ambrose[8], because of her virginity, the sincere intention she always had of pleasing God and her temporal generation of the divine Word which she had conceived in a fashion altogether heavenly and admirable. 

She is called nubes levis, says Procopius[9], because of her generous rejection of everything base and earthly. She is called the triumphal Chariot of the Saviour, victorious over the idols in Egypt; He was carried in the arms of the Holy Virgin into that country when He was a little child and on His entry the statues of the false gods were cast down. 

In fact, the historians Rufinus[10] and Palladius testify to having seen a Temple in the Thebaid region near Hermopolis which the Saviour entered, causing all the idols to fall to the ground. St Epiphanius[11], St Andrew of Crete[12], and several others compare the Virgin to the Pillar of fire[13] which guided the children of Israel across the desert towards the promised land, as we have seen earlier. I say The same holds true, in my opinion, for the white Cloud[14] on which the Son of man was seated, in the fourteenth chapter of the Apocalypse.

Footnotes

[1] Exhort. ad virg., et Lib. de Inst. virg.

[2] In c. 19 Isaiæ.

[3] In c. 19 Isaiæ

[4] In c. 19 Isaiæ

[5] Lib. VI de Demonst. Evang., c. 20.

[6] Orat. de Nativit. B. Virg

[7] Ecce Dominus ascendet super nubem levem,(Vulgate)  Behold the Lord will ascend upon a swift cloud, (Douay-Rheims); levis , e: (adj.), of little weight, light; thin, slender; delicate, tender; fleeting, fleet, swift, flying; flitting, airy. (FriezeDennisonVergil)

[8] Exhort. ad virg., et in Psal. 118, serm. 5.

[9] Loco cit.

[10] Lib. I, c. 7.

[11] Histor. Lausiac., c. 52.

[12] Serm. 1 de Laudib. Mariæ.

[13] Exod. xiii. 21.

[14] Behold a white cloud; and upon the cloud one sitting like to the Son of man, having on his head a crown of gold, and in his hand a sharp sickle. Apoc. xiv. 14.

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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