The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 6 : § 3.3-5

Chapter 6 : The Fifth 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)

§ 3. On Mary's fine Mind

She needed a fine mind to keep Our Lord company

 3   Secondly, she was destined to keep company with the Son of God, the very Phoenix[1] of great minds, in whom according to St Paul[2] were hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. This makes me conclude that there must have been a proportion between these two minds. Otherwise, on the one hand the King of Heaven would have found Himself in a difficult position as He would be for a long time without company and conversation suited to His greatness; and on the other hand the Virgin, His faithful companion, would have good reason to complain that she did not have the necessary ability to understand the remarkable secrets that her Son continually shared with her so that she could pass them on to posterity.

Footnotes

[1] A person who excels in his domain, whose talents surpass all others. You are the phoenix of those who live in these woods, a compliment by the fox to the crow in the fable of La Fontaine. Personne qui excelle dans son domaine, dont le talent surpasse celui des autres. Vous êtes le phénix des hôtes de ces bois, compliment du renard au corbeau dans la fable de La Fontaine. Dict. De l’Acad. Fr. 9 Ed. 

[2] Coloss. ii. 3.

She needed a fine mind to be Mistress and Teacher of the Church

 4   After these[1], I find myself imperceptibly drawn to consider a third office of the MOTHER OF GOD which will help our discussion of her intelligence. After the Ascension, she was left to the Apostles and the Disciples of the Saviour, says St Anselm[2], to help them in what the Saviour had taught them and in what they later learned from the Holy Ghost, for her understanding was incomparably better than all of theirs. Because of this, the Saints call her the Teacher of the Apostles and St Ignatius[3] calls her the Mistress of our Religion. The Venerable Rupert[4] makes a subtle observation:

For Mary there was a time for silence and a time for speaking. During her silence, she was the garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up[5]. Conversely, during her regency she made the air fragrant with the sweet scents of her garden and she bedewed the fields with the healing waters of her Son’s teaching.

To say now that she could carry out this mission so important to the Church without a mind suited to the task is in my opinion like wanting to say that she could fly without wings, or could see without eyes and hear without ears.

Footnotes

[1] i.e., after our discussion of Mary’s sublime contemplations and her role of keeping company with her Son, vide supra.

[2] Lib. II de Excellentia Virg., c. 7.

[3] Epist. 1.

[4] Lib. II de Gloria et honore Filii hominis.

[5] My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed … a fountain sealed up. Cant. iv. 12. 

She needed a fine mind for her acts of heroic virtue

 5   Finally, mention must be made of the extraordinary acts of heroic virtue that she was to practise. Such acts derive considerable benefit from the intelligence and understanding which enlighten the operation of a person's will, making their performance easier. This is the view of the greatest Doctors and the most outstanding minds in the Church, who joined to their high intelligence and sublime teaching their personal virtue which was itself no less extraordinary and was elevated far above the norm.

This discussion could be extended further, but I shall finish now by saying that if the Holy Virgin showed her appreciation of these natural qualities she enjoyed, it was only as a way of paying homage to Him whom she honoured as the originating stock[1] of all nobility, the model for perfect beauty and the Lord of all knowledge. In the end, reason requires us to accept that since everything is made for Him, to Him alone be the honour and glory. 

Footnotes

[1] Cf. From the stock of Jesse a scion shall burgeon yet; out of his roots a flower shall spring. Isai. xi. 1, Knox translation.

 

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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