Chapter 10 : The Ninth 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).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020) |
Mary is the Queen of virtues
§ 2. It was reasonable for the MOTHER OF GOD to be also the Mother of Virtues
1 Of several reasons that I could bring forward, I will choose only two and I shall present them without detailed comment. I take them from two offices of the Blessed Virgin which are so sublime that it would be impossible for her to be worthy of their words unless she were outstanding in all the virtues. The first is her title MOTHER OF GOD, which is the final end as well as being the starting point for all her great dignities and qualities. St Justin Martyr says of this[1]:
It would be contrary to reason for God to choose for His Son a mother whose virtues were merely common and ordinary; the woman he chose would have to excel in these above all others.
In truth, was it not entirely fitting that the nuptial couch of the heavenly Spouse should be strewn with all the flowers from the garden of virtues and scented with the sweetest fragrances from Paradise? This is the tender thought of the pious Cardinal Peter Damian which appears in a Sermon on the Assumption, when he commented on the following words from chapter three of the Canticles : Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer? Here is what he says:
Astonished by this wonder never before seen, the Angels remark firstly that she goeth up by the desert, which is nothing other than the whole extent of the world, where men frequently live like beasts and where their Prince, who is the Devil, exercises his power over them. This world is truly like a desert for the virtues, forced to withdraw into Heaven by reason of the bad treatment they receive on earth. In the second place, they are astonished to see her progress upwards, whereas the others fall and nearly all of them drift downwards. Only the Mother of God rises from virtue to virtue until she attains plenitude. The main wonder, however, is to see how she rises, for she goeth up... as a pillar of smoke, straight, fine and aromatical : straight upwards, through her elevating conversation; fine through her refined contemplation, and aromatical from the pleasing fragrance of her exceptional virtues, by means of which she draws the whole world after her. The Angels go further, saying this smoke has the aroma of myrrh and frankincense, that is to say, piety and chastity. These are the two virtues which thoroughly penetrated and filled her within and without, for her body was entirely given over to chastity and her soul was preserved by piety; both of them made her a worthy MOTHER OF GOD. Lest it might be supposed she did not have any other virtues, the Angels add immediately that the smoke was of aromatical spices...and of all the powders of the perfumer, inasmuch as there was not a single virtue that she did not possess in the highest degree. They say, moreover, that these spices have been pulverized so that they give off a more pleasing fragrance. In the case of the Holy Virgin, her virtues are not soft and delicate, never having been put to the test; on the contrary, they are strong, having been tried and tested by much tribulation. If you want to know when exactly her holy soul was scented with every kind of beautiful fragrance, they will say it was when the virtues came together, preparing her and adorning her with perfumes so that she might be the nuptial couch of the divine Spouse.
Footnotes
[1] Lib. Quæstionum, responsione ad quæst. 136.
2 If only there were someone capable of describing the sweet fragrance spread by these noble maidens when they came down together from Heaven into Mary’s blessed soul, so that with their perfumed garments and their jars of scent they might prepare the mysterious couch for the King of Glory! For in order to draw Him down to earth from Heaven, earth needed to be transformed into Heaven by means of aromas such as these. Who is there capable of describing the musk and ambergris that the Prince of Heaven brought with Him when He came down in person to take up His abode in the glorious Virgin! Just as there is nothing in the universe that can equal Him, neither is there anything that comes near to these divine odours. This causes me to think that if before this time the virtues of the Virgin were all heroic, from now on they were nothing less than celestial; if formerly they caused Heaven and earth to rejoice, now they send them into rapture; if in the years preceding this happy moment they were angelic by virtue of Mary’s everyday colloquies with the Angels, after the covenant she entered with God they became altogether divine. Now, if we do not wish to be lacking in the respect we owe her, we must be mindful of the following : just as someone who has for a long time been handling musk retains the odour thereof, and just as iron placed in a fire emerges red hot, so it is with Mary. She was united in an extraordinary way with the divinity for so long as she bore in her womb the Saviour of the world, and afterwards her actions were mysteriously redolent of the divine. Similarly, she emerged from this furnace of love with her heart on fire.
3 It must be said, however, that this is not the only reason for calling her the Queen of virtues. For being a model of these very virtues goes hand in hand with her status as MOTHER OF GOD. St Ambrose refers to Wisdom incarnate the words in the eighth chapter of Proverbs which I mentioned earlier (The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways), saying :
The word ways here refers to the virtues, and he adds[1] that the Saviour was with very good reason called the beginning of the ways of God, inasmuch as the prerogative of the great virtues was reserved for Him.
It is on the Church’s own authority and with the support of several learned Doctors that we earlier applied[2] the same passage to the MOTHER OF GOD. Now, her most honoured Son caused her to share in an undivided manner the right of primogeniture He enjoyed over and before all creatures. Accordingly, it follows that she was entitled to the same prerogative with regard to these excellent virtues, but always in the due proportion that must be maintained between the one and the other. This prerogative does not only entail a higher degree of virtue but mastery, serving as a model for others. If this were not so, perhaps someone can explain what St Bernard meant when he addressed the following words to Mary[3]?
May the Lord preserve thee, inventress of the virtues and knowledge of the sacred sciences. These titles I give thee, he adds, for just as the Sun outshineth all other luminaries in the firmament of heaven through the prerogative of His brightness, so too dost thou surpass all creatures, after thy Son, through the splendour of thy knowledge and thy virtue.
The same Saint expresses this in another way when he shows that Mary received directly from God her knowledge and practice of the virtues to a higher degree than others. Here is how he addresses her in the third Homily he wrote on the Angel Gabriel’s message :
O Virgin most prudent and pious, who taught thee that virginity was pleasing to God? Where in the law, in a requirement of justice or in the Old Testament didst thou find commandments or counsel obliging thee to live in the flesh spiritually and to lead the life of an angel on earth? Where didst thou read that Virgins will sing a new canticle, and where didst thou learn it was a sign of courage replete with honour and merit to deny oneself for the kingdom of heaven! For this thou hadst no commandment, nor counsel nor example; it was only an interior unction that inspired these and many other things in thee, forasmuch as the Word of God had been thy Teacher before He was thy Son and He had filled thy mind with His knowledge before vesting Himself in thy flesh.
Could anyone speak more clearly in favour of this paragon of virtues? Now, although St Bernard is speaking only of virginity, reason would require us to say the same about her other outstanding virtues, especially about those which are beyond the ancient law, such as exceptional humility, her voluntary poverty, her unceasing prayer and many, many others we discussed earlier[4].
Footnotes
[1] Lib. I de Fide, c. 7.
[2] Cap. 2. § 3. 2.
[3] Serm. in Salve.
[4] Cap. 3 in figuris B. Virg.
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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.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2024
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