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).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020) |
How she is the honour of earth and of Heaven
§ 3. She is the true Mirror of divine perfections
1 Just as precious stones are the mirrors of nature, so too mirrors may be considered as the precious stones of art. This discovery is so exalted and mystical that several Hebrew doctors taught that before God produced this visible world He made mirrors. I do not know whether in saying this they were engaging in their customary speculations, or whether in these few words they had stumbled upon a profound mystery. Did they not mean to say that throughout all eternity God produced his Word, the mirror of mirrors, meaning the mirror of His inner perfections and the mirror for all creatures? Did they have in mind a plan that God formed to go out of Himself at that point through His works, which is equivalent to making mirrors of His goodness, His wisdom, His power and all His divine attributes? Were that to be so, I would have just reason to say that among so many mirrors God prepared two which would be inimitable in beauty, in greatness and in purity. The first is the Word Incarnate, whom Saint Lawrence Justinian calls the mirror of perfection[1], and Solomon before him, the unspotted mirror of God‘s Majesty, and the image of his goodness[2]. The second is the Blessed MOTHER OF GOD, for whom I have undertaken this work. She spoke one day in the following terms to the blessed Saint Bridget[3], saying:
My daughter, thou shouldst know that my body and my spirit are purer than the Sun and more spotless than any mirror. He who chooseth to look upon me seeth therein the three Persons of the most Holy Trinity who dwell within me in an ineffable manner. All their excellent qualities may be found in me as though in an epitome or summary. The purity, moreover, with which God hath honoured me is so great that the rays of His divine perfections are reflected as fully as is possible for a mere creature.
Footnotes
[1] In fasciculo amoris in Coena Domini, c. 2.
[2] Wisdom. vii. 26.
[3] Revelat., lib. I, c. 42.
2 This is without doubt the beautiful thought that Saint Andrew of Jerusalem had in mind[1] when he called the Holy Virgin:
the first created nature, and the one closer than all the others to the Creator of all things.
I think that Saint Bonaventure had the same idea in mind when he said[2] :
She had ascended so high and she came so close to God on the summit of all sorts of privileges that, excepting only the case of personal union, it would be impossible to find a creature more perfect or more capable of participating in the Creator’s attributes.
Saint Augustine took flight, so to speak, and soared so high with this idea as almost to disappear from view[3]. Please weigh carefully the words he addresses to the Holy Virgin:
If I call thee the form[4] of God, he says to her, I am not saying anything which goes beyond what thou dost merit.
Now how are we to understand the mystery hidden under these words and the meaning of this beautiful title the form of God? Does it not mean, perhaps, that she was like a second thought which God considered in his mind when He wanted to show in souls the beautiful traits of His most excellent virtues? Or rather was it not His plan to say that, just as in a mirror may be seen the image of the face which is presented, and just as soft wax receives the form and characteristics of the seal which is pressed into it, in the same way, the Holy Virgin has been marked by the seal of divine perfection and represents them within her in the most wondrous manner?
Consider how we may see in bronze and in wax the same figure, even though the bronze is firm and solid whereas the image in wax has been pressed into soft and delicate material; how the bronze was the original and the wax image was copied from it; how the bronze is not subject to wear and tear, unlike the image in the wax; in the same way we note in the soul of the Virgin something that draws from the essential perfections of God, even though they cannot be separated from the essence where they are found, as is the case with all creatures; the Virgin Mother does not possess, except by virtue of God’s willing participation, that which is proper to His Majesty in essence and independently of any will. I feared I might be getting out of my depth in this discussion until I found help in the words of the holy Abbott Rupert who said[5]:
that everything we might say of the Mother will redound to the honour and glory of her Son.
This thought reassures me and has given me the courage to delve into the relationship between the excellent qualities of the peerless Mother and the divine attributes. I have no intention of suggesting there is equality in any way whatsoever between the creature and the Creator, but I also feel a desire to demonstrate that never did any mere creature come so close as she to the first ideas of all imaginable perfections.
Footnotes
[1] Serm. de Assumpt.
[2] Serm. 2 de Virg. Maria.
[3] Serm. de Assumpt., t. X.
[4] The French text has la forme de Dieu, translating St Augustine’s Latin words forma Dei. St Louis de Montfort in his work True Devotion to Mary includes these Latin words but he translates them as moule de Dieu, which means mould of God. In Lewis & Short, translations of Latin forma include model, pattern, stamp and mould. This is reflected in the OED entry for form which includes: II.18.a. 1655– Mechanics, etc. A mould or ‘shape’; an implement on which anything is shaped or fashioned.
[5] Lib. VI in Cant.
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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 2025
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