The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 8 : § 1. 52

Chapter 8 : The Seventh Star or Splendour in 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)

Mary’s soul was unique in being totally free of any sin

§ 1. The MOTHER OF GOD was exempt from original sin

The sixth proof, based on the doctrine that the Mother of God was not only free from original sin but was not under any obligation to contract it

 52   I should say here that I cannot allow you to use what I have just written as a basis for coming to an unfavourable judgement on this opinion, claiming that it is novel and unknown to holy and venerable antiquity. If you will only have the patience to hear the words of several ancient Fathers, true pillars of right belief, then you will find that either they have proposed the opinion in a formal manner or they have at least laid the foundations of a structure which others have developed further.

St Eucherius, Archbishop of Lyon, lived just after St Augustine and he taught that Our Lady alone was blessed among all women who for their part groaned under the weight of the first curse. He explains this as follows[1]:

It is especially true that the Virgin is not subject to this law in any way, since she conceives and is delivered of a baby whilst remaining a virgin, without sorrow or labour. As a consequence, it is with very good reason that she is blessed among women for she is the one who bears the blessing and delivers the world from the common curse.

Six centuries later, Blessed Peter Damian said[2]: 

the general corruption could not affect the flesh of Mary even though it was drawn from that of Adam; by her extraordinary purity it was transformed into a beauty of eternal light.

Four years after this, St Lawrence Justinian[3] stated that:

she was not subject to the yoke of servitude which all the other children of Adam had to bear.

Going back to the first centuries, the ancient Origen[4] declared that:

the poisonous hissing of the serpent’s attempts at persuasion never affected her in any way whatsoever.

A few years later, the Blessed Saint Cyprian went further, saying[5]:

it was in no way reasonable for this vessel of election to be subject to the harms and injuries of our race; this was especially true since, although she shared a common nature with others, she was not entangled with their fault in any way.

For what is the point, asks St Ildephonsus[6], of citing the law of a shared nature since all that was in her was possessed by the Holy Ghost and granted that Adam came nowhere near her in this regard?

As soon as St Augustine begins to speak, his words immediately demand to be listened to, for his speech is so penetrating and wise. Here is what he said to the Manichaeans[7]:

Poor people, why do you go looking for dirt inside a house that has always been locked and where no-one has ever resided? The master-builder who made it is the only person who entered it to find a garment for Himself and on leaving He left it closed under lock and key as before.  

 

Footnotes

[1] Ad Evang. feriæ dom. IV Adventus.

[2] Serm. 3 de Nativit. B. Mariæ.

[3] In Fasciculo amoris, c. 7.

[4] Citatur in Breviario Quignonii approbato a Clemente VII, lect. III de Concept.

[5] Orat. de Christi Nativit.

[6] Lib. de Virg. Deipara.

[7] Tract. de quinque hæresibus, c. 5.

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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