The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 13 : § 9.3-4; § 10.1

Chapter 13 : The Twelfth 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

§ 9. She is God's world

 3   The Angel who taught the blessed Saint Bridget[1] spoke in wonderful words on this subject, saying:

After God had made the external world with all the pieces of which it is composed, He realized there was another world He had to build which would be in fact smaller in size than the first but in all other respects incomparably greater in its perfection and more able to offer glory to God, joy to the Angels and great benefit to men. This was the most sacred Virgin in whom He distilled everything that He had included in our physical world. For there he had divided light from darkness, and in the same way in this little world He made a division between the night of sin which covered the generality of men and the new dawn of grace and holiness with which He illuminated her from the very beginning. There, He placed two great lights, one for the day and the other for the night; here, he placed two beautiful stars, one was obedience, giving joy unto God, the angels and the Saints: the other was the law, which would drive out of ignorant souls the darkness of error and lack of faith. There, He placed various stars like so many brilliants[2], which from the beginning always kept to their courses and retained their first brightness; here he infused various types of knowledge which never ceased in their continual progress, nor lost even a single degree of their extraordinary brightness. There, fowls filled the air and all the different types of bird-song created a melodious harmony bringing joy to the heart of the first man, who at that point was the only inhabitant of the earthly Paradise; here, the words of the holy Virgin so wondrously in concert with each other created a harmony that enraptured the world and brought down on earth all the majesty of Paradise. There, animals were fed  and sustained by the fruits which the earth produced without labour; here, men are sustained by the fruit of life brought forth by the holy Virgin who in this respect was the holy land whose blessed earth had not been cultivated. There all the creatures had their own particular qualities and virtues, each according to its own nature; here, one creature received more properties and eminent qualities than may be found amongst all the flowers, trees, fruits, precious stones, metals, elements, stars and all the rest of nature.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. Angelici, c. 5.

[2] brillant (Fr) and brilliant (Eng.): a diamond of the finest cut and brilliancy.

 4    From this it is easy to conclude in the first place that God attached far more importance to this little world that I have just been describing than to the large, physical world that we admire. This large world was destined to perish one day, at least most of the elements that compose it; the small one was to be eternal in all her parts. In the former, He willed nothing that was not material and natural; in the latter, almost nothing that was not spiritual and supernatural. Let us say, in a word, that He regarded the former as the world of animals and the world of man that was to fail one day; but He regarded the latter as his own, particular world. 

In the second place, we can conclude that out of all the simple creatures with which the second nature of God was, so to speak, pregnant since the beginning of the world, the one who moved Him more to bring forth His eternal designs was the Blessed Virgin. Having foreseen the disorder that sin would bring about, the havoc it would wreak amongst His works and the contempt that would be shown for His favours, He might have aborted this first plan at the very outset when it was simply one of His divine ideas, if His Word incarnate and the Blessed Virgin His Mother had not in a certain fashion constrained Him and encouraged Him to continue, bringing forth what he had conceived. 

From this, we can in the third place appreciate the infinite obligation that we have towards the Mother and her Son, in whom and through whom we subsist in the decrees and the decisions effectively willed by God. May the memory of this indebtedness never fade in our hearts, lest we lose completely the hope which we can with good reason base on this twin foundation of our salvation.

§ 10. She is God’s Throne

 1    The lights, thunder and lightning that St John describes in the Apocalypse as coming from the Throne of God[1] would cause me great fear if I did not consider this throne to be the Blessed Virgin and that these lights, thunder and lightning actually represent the light of her charity, the thunder of rejoicing and the lightning flashes of her goodness and kindness. It is indeed the common opinion of the ancient Fathers that the glorious Virgin is the Throne of God.

She is, says Saint Germanus (Patriarch of Constantinople)[2], the Cherubim’s throne, a Throne whose greatness is immense, a Throne of fire, a sublime Throne, a Throne which bears within her the Lord of all ages.

 

She is, says Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus[3], the Royal Throne, the Holy of Holies, alone glorious over the Earth, more holy than all others after God, the Throne on which the Lord Jesus took His repose.

Blessed Chrysippus[4], priest of Jerusalem, later said as much when he added:

She alone was found worthy and able to bear the Holy of Holies. 

She is a Throne which is in no way inferior that of the Cherubim, says Hesychius[5].

She surpasses their throne by far in splendour and majesty, says Saint Epiphanius

[6]; and this is why the Angels, the Archangels, the Principalities, the Powers, the Thrones, the Dominations, the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and all the Blessed Spirits as a whole[7] find themselves and enraptured and confused when they see how the King of earth and Heaven left the throne of the Cherubim in favour of another which He chose within the womb of the Blessed Virgin, His Mother.

Footnotes

[1] And from the throne proceeded lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and there were seven lamps burning before the throne. Apoc. iv. 5.

[2] Orat. de Nativit. B. Virg.

[3] Serm. de Annuntiat.

[4] Orat. de S. Maria Deipara.

[5] Orat. 2 de S. Deipara.

[6] Orat. de S. Deipara.

[7] The Choirs are traditionally nine in number but only eight are named here. The one missing is Virtues. See ST. I. Q108 A5.

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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