The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 3 : § 4. 5-6

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 François 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.

§ 4. On certain living and animated figures that have represented the MOTHER OF GOD, beginning with Eve, Sara and Rebecca.

Second Figure : Sara

 5   In confirmation of this truth, ancient Origen[1] brings forward a number of other examples which readers are free to look up in his learned writings.

What? Asks Maximus, a Florentine monk who lived at Monte Cassino over a thousand years ago[2]. He who was able to join Himself to our human nature without suffering and alteration whatsoever was incapable of preserving His Mother’s virginity from defilement?

St Titus, bishop of the Bostrans[3] in Syria[4], was an ancient and serious-minded Doctor of the Church. He confesses in plain language that great and marvellous things were worked in Mary, but they were not impossible to God’s omnipotence. 

For why would these things be impossible to Him, asks St Ambrose[5], since He worked so many other miracles just as difficult to believe? He caused water to be drawn from rock with a rod[6]; He stopped iron from sinking in water[7]; He caused a man to walk on the sea[8]; do you think it would be more difficult for Him to make a virgin conceive?

St Andrew of Jerusalem, addressing the Holy Virgin on this very matter, speaks to her through the mouth of the Angel Gabriel as follows[9]: 

Thou dost ask of me, Holy Virgin, how what I have announced to thee shall be done? Tell me firstly how Aaron’s rod bore fruit; how the rock, hard and impenetrable, conceived within itself and gave forth water; how the bush was seen on fire but without being burned to ashes? For I have no other thing to tell thee save that the same craftsman who produced all these wonders must now accomplish what I have told you. It is by His power that thou wilt conceive, not in the manner of Elizabeth thy cousin or Anne thy mother, who actually had union with their husbands. Thou wilt conceive in a manner singularly extraordinary, and extraordinarily singular, for thou wilt remain a virgin before and after conceiving and giving birth to thy child.

The MOTHER OF GOD, says St Germanus of Constantinople[10], had before her the example of several women whose infertility had not prevented them from conceiving. She however surpassed them all by joining motherhood to virginity.

I must admit that I find myself captivated by the sweetness of these reflections from the Holy Fathers and perhaps dwell here on them longer than I should. Accordingly, I shall bring the discussion to a close with the powerful words of Blessed Proclus[11], Archbishop of Constantinople:

Here, says he, are irreproachable proofs of the virginity of the MOTHER OF GOD. Accordingly, let all contradiction cease and, if we aspire to the kingdom of heaven, may the light of the Scriptures disperse the shadows of every sort of error.

 6   Finally, there is a last parallel: Sara had only one son but his worth was that of millions of others; this being the joy of his mother and father, the happiness of the universe and a lively source of blessings for all the nations of the earth.

St Jerome[12] says we have much more reason to believe this of the true Isaac, Son of Mary, which is to say Jesus, the delight of His Mother, the redeemer of the world, the happiness of all Adam’s descendants and all the ages to come.

Footnotes

[1] Homil. 1 de Diversis.

[2] Centuriæ I, c. 9.

[3] Bosra, formerly Bostra (Greek: Βόστρα) and officially called Busra al-Sham is a town in southern Syria.

[4] In c. 1 Lucæ.

[5] Epist. 81 ad Siricium Papam.

[6] Num. xx. 

[7] 4th Book of Kings (2 Kings) vi.

[8] Matt. xiv. 29.

[9] Orat. in Annuntiat.

[10] Orat. de Nativit. B. Virg.

[11] In fine Orat. in Christi Nativit.

[12] In c. 1 Marci..

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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