The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 13 : § 1.1-2

Chapter 13 : The Eleventh 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)

How she is the honour of earth and of Heaven

Good has seen fit to include in each of His creatures some mark of His own infinite perfection. In a similar way, it has pleased Him to imprint in the majority of things in nature some sign pointing to the splendours and great dignities of the blessed Virgin. Hugh of Saint Victor discerned this when he said of her[1]:

✭ she is the dawn of day in her role as precursor of the true Sun of Justice;  

✭ she is a flower in her comeliness, a honeycomb in her sweetness, a violet in her humility, a rose in her loving nature, a lily in her purity, a vine in the abundance of the fruits she bears, a sweet perfume in the fragrance of her virtues, a fortified city in the protection she offers, a tower of strength, a bastion in her solidity and dependability, and a pillar of uprightness; 
✭ she is a Spouse in her fidelity, a Friend in her love and affection, a Mother in her fruitfulness, a Virgin immaculate in her sinlessness, a Lady in the power she wields, a Queen in her Majesty; 
✭ she is like a sheep in her innocence, a dove in her simplicity, a turtle-dove in her chastity; she is like a sheltering cloud, a star guiding souls to acts of holiness, a Moon helping their progress and a Sun in the perfection of her graces – in short, she is a heavenly paradise blessed with the plenitude of every sort of goodness.

These considerations are what made me call her the honour of earth and of Heaven. They also led me to select a dozen wondrous things in nature which symbolise and point towards her outstanding qualities. We will see that there is nothing so elevated amongst created things that has not served to glorify her. I believe this will be a most fitting way to conclude our discussions on the splendours and great dignities that adorn her Crown of Excellence.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 34.

§ 1. How the Holy Virgin is the flower of creatures

Various flowers with links to the Blessed Virgin

 1   According to an ancient writer[1], flowers represent the smiles and laughter of nature, springing from joyful thoughts. They are like a moment of relaxation and enjoyment for nature’s spirit, an artless tapestry, the pride of all plants, the glory of the Earth, captivating our feelings and emerging in the sweetest season of the year. In short, there is something so indefinably beautiful and appealing about a flower that when we want to say of anything that it is the most suited to enchant spirits and enrapture our feelings, we normally call such a thing “the flower.” It is in this sense that, according to Saint Bridget[2], the Saviour calls his blessed Mother the beautiful flower of the garden[3], which surpasses all others in beauty, in fragrance and in virtue. It is in this sense that the pious writer Hesychius calls her the rich adornment of our nature and the glory of earth, and that St John Damascene declares she is the springtime beauty of creatures[4], the honour of the race of Adam and the first model of our inheritance[5]. It is in this sense that the Patriarch of Alexandria, St Cyril, once addressed those present at the council of Ephesus. He described her as the beauty and the wonder of the universe, and Saint Epiphanius said she had filled the world with the most sought-after flowers of Paradise[6]. It is in the sense that he called her the root and the origin of all the glory that our race possesses[7]. Note this must always be understood as meaning along with and after her most beloved Son. To penetrate the depths of this truth, I would ask you to consider the earth when it is covered in mud or overgrown with thorns, covered with ice or dusty and arid; you should then contrast that with the earth when it is covered with flowers, wearing the beautiful robes that springtime brings every year. We need to realize that there is no less a difference between what human nature was like before the birth of the blessed Virgin and how things changed after this beautiful flower had sprung from the earth, containing within her the fruit awaited and longed for by all nations.

Footnotes

[1] Plin. natural., Hist., lib. XXI, c. 1, et lib. XVI, c. 25.

[2] Lib. II Revel., c. 4 ; Orat. 2 de S. Deipara.

[3] Cf. Cant. ii. 1: I am the flower of the field.

[4] Orat. 1 de Nativit. B. Virg.

[5] Orat. 2.

[6] Orat. de S. Deipara.

[7] Ibid.

THE VIOLET

 2   Perhaps you are curious to find out what this flower is: whether it is a lily or a rose, a carnation or a violet, in a word, what sort of flower is it and what qualities does it have? I find it hard to say anything other than it is the most beautiful of all flowers, the flower of flowers, the Queen and the wonder of flowers. It is difficult to say that the flower, for example, is a tulip, an amaranth or a narcissus, because when it comes to flowers there are nearly as many different preferences as there are varieties of flowers. Some will say with Esdras that  the lily is the best of all the flowers in the world; some will, like Pindar, award the prize to the rose; some will say that the carnation is unrivalled, and everyone will remember that in recent years the recently discovered tulip has become popular and can cost its weight in gold. The best thing we can say (and the most in keeping with our theme) is that the flower is at one and the same time a lily, a rose, a carnation, a violet, a tulip, an anemone, and a hyacinth; and that it contains within itself the beauties, the fragrances and the qualities of all the flowers in the world. This will be the true means of seeing them as one harmonious whole and of getting closer to the truth. 

The violet. c1850. From Vintage Images.

If I say that she is a Violet, then I am following the noble Hugh of Saint Victor who finds in the holy Virgin much that corresponds to the qualities found in a Violet[1]. 

If the Violet is by nature cool and consequently has been used for the treatment of those bodily illnesses afflicting people with high temperatures, then we may say of the Virgin that not only was she herself free from being troubled by the ardent desires arising from concupiscence, but she has within her the power to moderate such feelings and even to extinguish them entirely when people ask for her healing help. If the Violet is a mixture of two colours, green and purple, then the Virgin is remarkable for two graces: the hope she is able to give people and, no less remarkably, the power she has over all sorts of vices. If the Violet has a sweetly innocent scent, the fragrance of the Virgin’s virtues has the property of being able to win over hearts without offending them. If the Violet naturally lowers her head and always lowers her gaze towards the Earth, the Virgin delights Heaven and Heaven’s King by her humility, referring to herself as the handmaid of the Lord when there is talk of making her the spouse and the MOTHER OF GOD – and consequently Queen of the Universe.

 

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 46, qui est de Assumpt. Virgin.

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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 2025