Chapter 5 : The Fourth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD
She was the Spouse and the Companion of the Saviour
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) |
§ 3. The second reason which obliged the Saviour to take the glorious Virgin as His Spouse
The Saviour is to be the Father of the world to come
1 The second reason which prompted (and in fact required) the Saviour to choose a Spouse comes from the title which the prophet Isaiah gives Him, calling him the Father of the world to come[1]. All the Epistles of St Paul point towards the idea of two men who were the fathers and founders of two states, or if you wish, of two worlds: one is Adam and the other Jesus Christ. The former is often differentiated by being called the old Adam, and the latter the new Adam. It is said of the former that he begat children of the flesh by nature and of the latter that He regenerated these spiritually through grace; the former made them to populate the earth, the latter to fill Heaven; the former gave them being but without being able to protect them from death, the latter communicated well-being to them, making them immortal; the former brought them forth for a time, the latter for eternity. This is why the words quoted from Isaiah which read the Father of the world to come, have been read by some as meaning the Father of eternity. St Gregory the Great remarks most appositely that
at the time of the Saviour's nativity there was a census of all the inhabitants in the world, and this was indeed part of God's plan so as as to make known that He who was born with our flesh was the one who would ensure all His elect would be enrolled in eternity.
The former was the father of death, the latter the father of life; the former is the father of the present age of weariness, captivity and misfortune, the latter is the father of the world to come, the age of rest, freedom and happiness; the former brought into the world children who were to partake of his misfortune, the latter regenerated them so as to make them partake of His glory; the former in order to multiply descendants had need of a companion whom he would make mother of the dying, the latter to renew the world had to choose a Spouse who would have the honour of being the Mother of the living.
Footnotes
[1] Isaiah ix. 6.
The first link between the marriages of the Virgin and Eve
2 At this point I would like to spend some time, along with the pious Abbot Rupert, St Bonaventure and several other doctors, considering certain features found in the creation and marriage of the first woman which will be shown to apply in a quite remarkable manner to the Spouse who is the subject of this work. Their contract of marriage was described by the first writer in the world who noted that before anything else God, who is the author and minister of the marriage, stated[1] that it was not good for Adam to be alone, otherwise the world would be as though stifled and extinguished in its cradle. For this reason, He gave him a help like unto himself, namely a woman who would serve as his companion, who would help him to increase the human race and to raise the children that they would bring into the world – in short, someone with whom He could share the work of caring for his family. We can say, with the permission and authority of the second Adam, that it was not good for Him to be alone either. Even though, strictly speaking, He could without any outside help have populated the New World of which He was to become the Father, reason nevertheless required that He should have a faithful companion who would be Mother, Nurse and Teacher of all His spiritual children, who would supply them with the tenderness and love which is uniquely natural to mothers, and who would have a particular role in caring for the great family home of the Church, whose unique Father is Jesus Christ.
Footnotes
[1] Gen. ii. 18.
Second link
3 Secondly, in order to ensure that Adam would love and cherish his companion and his spouse in every way, God willed that she should also be in a certain way his daughter, forming her from one of Adam’s ribs. There is a wonderful link here with the MOTHER OF GOD – whom we considered earlier, along with the Holy Fathers, as being the first-born daughter of the Redeemer and whom we contemplate now with the title and rights of His Spouse for the good of all their posterity.
Third link
4 Thirdly, Eve was drawn from the side of Adam whilst his body was overcome with the power of sleep. His soul was transported into the sweetest imaginable ecstasy, an ecstasy which caused him to see in the spirit the great mysteries which were hidden under what was taking place within him and which he could not see with his bodily eyes. The Holy Doctors bear witness that this sleep of the first man was a figure for the mysterious sleep of love into which the Saviour was transported on the wood of the Cross, when He forgot Himself and His torments whilst remembering all of us, placing thereby a seal upon His merits. The Holy Virgin was then drawn first among all from His precious side, and at the same time she was united to Him as Spouse in one flesh and in one spirit –as I have described earlier – in order to bring forth with Him all the children of adoption.
Fourth link
5 In the fourth place, we are told that God formed a woman from this rib. This supports and confirms what I set out at the beginning of this Part (and elsewhere) that Our Lady was not an old design reworked and modified but rather she was the holy and noble abode of the divine Word, planned and built from the foundations up to the roof for this one reason: to serve for Him as Mother, Spouse, Companion and everything resulting therefrom, as I shall demonstrate later.
Fifth link
6 In the fifth place, Scriptural commentators observe that whilst God might afterwards have made use of a plurality of women in order to propagate human nature, He nevertheless did not wish to do this with Adam – so that there might be one man and one woman only who would be the heads of our race, and that to them alone would the whole of human posterity trace their origin. In the same way, God willed that all of us should, as children of adoption, have our eternal happiness from one Father and one Mother alone, who are Father and Mother of the world to come, and whose spiritual seed would surpass in number the stars of heaven and the sand that is by the sea shore[1].
Footnotes
[1] Gen. xxii. 17.
Sixth link
7 Finally, when Adam awoke from his sleep he saw his wife before him and, knowing God’s plan, he called her Eve, meaning the mother of all the living. The Abbot Rupert[1] finds it difficult to accept that it was Adam who gave her this name for this happened after she had sinned and had been condemned to bring into the world only those who were born to die. St Athanasius[2], however, qualifies in a certain manner the intention of this first man when he says that:
He gave this name to his wife denoting a figure rather than a truth, pointing to her whom Eve represented rather than to Eve herself who through sin had helped bring about man's ruin.
It belongs in fact to the Holy Virgin alone to be the Mother of all the living by virtue of her position as Mother and Spouse of Him who is the Father of life and the King of the world to come. Denys the Carthusian has written on this as follows:
This word Eve in its strict interpretation signifies life, showing that the second Eve is not so much living as she is life itself. All those who have the spiritual life of grace draw their breaths through her; and it is through her that they await eternal glory. Without her, they can no more hope for anything good than they can live without life.
Footnotes
[1] In illa verba Gen. iii..
[2] Serm. de S. Deipara.
8 Most worthy Mother of life, and thy most worthy Spouse : ye honour the nuptial couch with a countless number of children, populating Heaven with a holy posterity who will sing forever in praise of the greatness of both of you. May the stars of the morning bless you unceasingly, and may the countless hosts of Angels sing in their choirs : Blessed be the celestial Spouses; and may Heaven respond a million times over : Amen!
👑 👑 👑
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 Virgin of Tenderness. >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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