The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 13 : § 5.1-2

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

§ 5. She is the Sun of the World

 1    The devout Emperor of Constantinople, Matthew Cantacuzenus[1], wrote as follows:

We have compared her to the Moon, but this does not mean that she cannot also be called a Sun – because we give her these different names for various reasons. We say that she is a Sun forasmuch as the divine Word made His abode in her tabernacle, and for this reason she has within her the fullness of light, no more or less than the Sun. We also give her the name of Moon, because the light within her does not come from herself but is all borrowed from her Son, who is the unique Sun of Justice.

Before this writer we have just quoted, the great Saint Jerome had the same thought with reference to the following words from Psalm XVIII: He hath set his tabernacle in the Sun. He argued that they must be understood as meaning the womb of the glorious Virgin and he adds:

So that she who previously was only a Star might become a radiant Sun, God communicated such a great abundance of light to her that the even Angels could not withstand its radiance.

After him, the blessed Cardinal Peter Damien gave free rein to his thoughts[2] and went looking for the reasons why the Church, following the Spouse of the Canticles, calls her bright as the Sun[3].

The Holy Spirit, he says, has never encountered amongst material creatures anything more noble. The brightness of the Sun is very different from that of the Moon for, even if the great light of the Moon in a certain way outshines that of the stars, it does not eclipse them. The Sun, however, blocks out of sight all the other stars by the power of its radiance so that from our point of view it is as though they cease to be visible. Similarly, the MOTHER OF GOD outshines the merits of all the other Saints that in her presence, their brightness and lustre seem to fade away.

The words of Saint Basil, Bishop of Seleucia, lend their support to this idea when he writes[4]:

The Holy Virgin certainly has the same ascendancy over the martyrs (and why not over all the other Saints?) that the Sun has over all the other lights in the Heavens. 

Footnotes

[1] Cant. 6.

[2] Serm. de Assumpt.

[3] Cant. vi. 9. The French text has choisie comme le Soleil, a translation of the Vulgate’s electa ut sol, meaning select, choice, excellent as the Sun, which becomes bright as the Sun in the Douay-Rheims translation.

[4] Serm. de Annuntiat.

The Holy Virgin is a rising Sun in her Conception

 2    Saint Bonaventure, along with the aforementioned Doctors, made an astute observation:

If there is one time which would enable us to compare her to the Sun, it would be the Incarnation of the divine Word[1]; for in that instant, she burst forth in a way which would dazzle men and Angels, filling them with astonishment.

After studying other writers, however, I find the words of Saint Bernardine of Siena very satisfying. He holds it as being beyond question that the MOTHER OF GOD is a Sun, and he then goes on to say she may be considered such in three different states. The first is at the time of her immaculate Conception, when she may deservedly be compared with the rising Sun, casting her first gleaming rays upon the peaks of the highest mountains.

At this point, says the Saint, meaning at daybreak, she sent out four rays. The first was of holiness, but holiness that was such as to befit the future MOTHER OF GOD. The second ray was of knowledge, by which her mind, anticipating the normal age of reason, was illuminated with an understanding unrivalled by any other created spirits. The third ray was of charity, for this beautiful soul, feeling herself so lovingly and preveniently graced with gentle blessings, exploded in a love so extraordinary that even the Seraphim were left confounded. The fourth ray was tranquillity, resulting from the universal peace that God established between all the faculties of her body and soul, so that not a single one could disturb or rise up against reason. 

Footnotes

[1] Speculi B. Virgin., c. 6.

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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