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
§ 4. She is the Moon in the Church
1 Just as the visible world has its many sources of light, so too has the Church. Its stars are the Saints who are no less different in their light, greatness and beauty than the ones we see in the firmament. They are no less infinite in number and are just as remarkable for their different effects, influences and characteristics. Some never appear over the horizon – they are those who shun being known to men so that they may be better known to God. There are others who never leave our hemisphere – they are those who perform works of charity unceasingly for their neighbour. Some appear at the beginning of the night, like the ancient Patriarchs; others come in the middle of the night, like the Prophets of old; the last ones come at daybreak, like the Blessed Precursor and the Apostles, whom we could with good reason compare to the twelve signs of the Zodiac[1] [2]. There are those who weep, like the Hyades[3]; and there are those who laugh like the planet Jupiter whom the Astrologers have nicknamed the Jovial one or the bringer of jollity. Some remain in their cells, like the stars in the firmament; and others wander like the planets, spreading the fruits of their holiness everywhere. You will find some who live in solitude away from the world, and others who lead a social life and live in common. There are the stars of winter, like the martyrs; and the stars of summer, like the confessors who bore the heat and the burden of the hottest time of the year. I might also mention the stars that see[4] and those that listen, were these not simply the imaginings of judicial astrologers[5].
Footnotes
[1] S. Anastas. Sinaïta, lib. IV in Hexameron.
[2] Zodiac: from the Greek meaning “circle of little animals.” In Old English the zodiac was twelf tacna "the twelve signs," and in Middle English also Our Ladye’s Waye and the Girdle of the Sky. See Online Etymology Dictionary.
[3] The Hyades were the nymphs that brought rain in Greek mythology. They were daughters of the Titan Atlas and either Pleione or the Oceanid Aethra, and had one brother, Hyas. According to the myth, their brother Hyas was killed while hunting, so they started crying from grief, which is how they brought rain on the earth. They were later transformed into a constellation of the same name.
[4] Alex. de Angelis, in Astrologos, lib. IV, c. 18.
[5] judicial astrologers were practitioners of astrologia judiciaria, so-called because they applied subjective judgement to astrological phenomena in order to make predictions.
The Saviour is the Sun and the Holy Virgin is the Moon
2 Holy Scripture says that amongst all these lights God made two that are incomparable in their light and inimitable in their effects. I am referring to the Sun and the Moon: by the first, I mean the Saviour of the world and by the second, His Blessed Mother. The Egyptians of old worshipped the Sun and in their excess they called it the visible son of the invisible God; Christians adore the Saviour, recognising Him as being the only-begotten Son of God, believing that neither the Sun nor any other created thing may bear comparison with Him. The Orientals in our day worship the Moon, as being a heavenly body that with its various phases organises their lives and procures all manner of good things for them: the true children of the East revere the MOTHER OF GOD as a favourable heavenly influence upon them. Even if her aspect may vary, she never ceases to be constant and unchanging in the sweet influence she has upon them.
Before proceeding onto the particular properties of the Moon, there is something to be said that applies to both of these exceptional lights: it was not without reason that God created them both on the fourth day, for this was a foreshadowing[1] of what would come to pass in the fourth age or fourth Millennium of the world’s history, to which by an unparalleled privilege was reserved the joy of beholding the birth of Jesus and Mary, who are the two great lights of the universe. For my part, I find that Saint Anastasius the Sinaite, Patriarch of Antioch, was inspired by grace when he said[2] that the Sun and the Moon were made on Earth and that from there they were transported into the heavens. In fact, Sacred Scripture speaks of the Sun and the Moon differently from the way it does of the other stars. It is said that God made the stars in the firmament but with regard to the Sun and the Moon, it is said explicitly that God made them and then set them in the firmament of Heaven[3]. This is a wondrous mystery through which we learn that Jesus and Mary are to be considered no less the honour of the Earth than of Heaven and that as they were destined to serve as an ornament for the dwelling of the Blessed, so it was fitting that our own earth might be glorified for having given them to Heaven. We can see from the opening of Genesis that the Sun and the Moon were created firstly to give light upon the Earth and later to provide an eternal source of joy to the inhabitants of Heaven; in the same way, Jesus and Mary were to illuminate the Church Militant through their exceptional example before becoming sources of brilliant light and joy for the Church Triumphant. The Sun and the Moon are the universal causes of all generations here below, one by virtue of its heat and the other through its refreshing coolness; in Jesus and Mary all the effects of grace have their origin, in the former through His most efficacious merits and in the latter through the sweetness of her incredible goodness.
The Sun, says the Sinaite, was made of elementary matter and of subsisting light, and it was created from the very beginning of the world to be a source of light, both on earth and in Heaven; Jesus was composed of a material and passible body like unto our own, and of the uncreated and subsisting light of the divinity, to be the point of origin for grace, life, glory and light through all eternity. The Moon was indeed formed of the same elementary matter as the Sun, but it borrowed all its light from the Sun; similarly, the Holy Virgin has a body with the same nature as that of her Son, from whom however she holds everything that she is, either through grace or through glory.
Footnotes
[1] Anastasius, loc. cit.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Gen. i. 14-19.
Various links between the Moon and the Blessed Virgin
3 Let us now focus upon the Moon for the remainder of this discussion. The learned Abbot Rupert makes the apposite observation that:
Even though the Moon owes all its light to the Sun, it does not keep this light for itself but communicates all of it immediately to the Earth[1]; in the same way, even though the holy Virgin is indebted to her Son for all the grace that she possesses, never she does not want to keep it just for herself but, recognising the love that He has for men, she continually shares amongst them the light that she has received from Him.
A learned, modern writer[2] develops this beautiful thought of the pious Abbot, saying that:
The Moon is in a certain sense the Spouse of the Sun, and having been impregnated, conceives and brings forth those sweet fruits born of their union. Although the Moon can do nothing unaided, once she has been made fruitful by the favourable conjuncture with the Father of light, she makes her favours available for the benefit of those on earth, rendering herself indispensable. From this derives the power she has over our bodies which can tell when she is close and when she is not, which can sense her plenitude, her waxing and waning and all her changes. She has power over illnesses, she gives good or bad omens, she increases or diminishes the effects of medications: on her depend favourable times to plant, to sow, to harvest, to go on a journey by sea or on land, and all the government of our natural life. In short, all the graces of the Sun – if they are to be propitious for us – must pass through the hands of the Moon, where they are moderated and tailored to our personal requirements.
This is an excellent image of the MOTHER OF GOD who by reason of her status as Spouse receives from the Saviour all those favours and graces that are necessary for our spiritual life. Within her, they receive new vigour and she tailors them carefully to our personal needs in such a way that not only does she have a great influence on all our actions but we for our part need to look to her and to have recourse to her in all that we undertake, lest we start things at the wrong time or make decisions that could prove dangerous.
Footnotes
[1] Lib. VI in Cant.
[2] Georgius Venetus, Harmoniæ mumdi, cant. I, t. I, c. 38.
4 When speaking of the Moon[1], the learned Historian of nature attributes two Qualities to her and these find a marvellous correspondence in the MOTHER OF GOD: firstly, the Moon is a powerful friend of our earth; and secondly, the Moon oversees all the prognostics and conjectures that we take from Heaven. What thing could there be in the whole world that is more certain than the following indisputable truth, that out of all the Saints of God, there is none to whom we can have recourse in the way that we do with the Holy Virgin, who has such a love for men and never ceases to seek and procure their good? Is it not from her that we receive the most certain signs of the friendship that God has towards us, of our reconciliation with His Sovereign Majesty, of our eternal salvation and everything that is made available for our good?
The Holy spirit, however, provides me with thoughts more lofty when He says in the book of Ecclesiasticus[2], that the Moon is for a declaration of times, dividing the seasons and separating ages; she is sign of the festival days and solemnities of the year; from her derive the Neomenia[3], the Pasch, the feast of Tabernacles and so on with the other feasts: in short, she is one of the principal pieces of God’s powerful armament that He uses to join his creatures to His laws and make them amenable to His commandments. What could be said more truly and at the same time more advantageously concerning the MOTHER OF GOD? For is it not she who rules our days, our years and our lives, and upon whom depend in a singular fashion after God Himself all the joy and happiness that we expect? Is it not she who measures out our joys and our pleasures, and without whom we could bid farewell to the delights and wonders that we look for in Heaven? Is she not a general instrument of the goodness and mercy of God for the conversion of sinners, for the advancement of the just for the sanctification of the perfect?
Footnotes
[1] Plin., lib. II, c. 9.
[2] Chap. xliii.
[3] In ancient Greek and Jewish history: the time of the new moon, the beginning of the lunar month. Also: the festival held at that time.
5 The author of the Debate between the Church and the Synagogue, who features in the work of Saint Augustine[1], called out:
Oh Mary, Mother of Mothers, Virgin of Virgins, Star of Stars and Sweet delight of faithful souls, in what way are we not indebted to thy goodness? What sweet blessings do we not receive through thy mediation? With what wondrous graces dost thou not bless those who have the joy of knowing thee and loving thee? Who could put a number on thy favours? Who could describe the effects of thy loving and tender-hearted interventions? Who could find a way of speaking worthily of the loving care that thou dost deign to take of us?
Plunge deeply, my soul, into these beautiful thoughts; lose myself in these sweet reflections; prepare thyself to see miracles one day – for mortal eye hath not seen, nor hath corruptible ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the like[2].
Footnotes
[1] T. VI operum ipsius.
[2] I Cor. ii. 9.
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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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