Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 5 : § 4.1

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).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 4. The contract of marriage between Jesus Christ the King of glory and the Blessed Virgin His Spouse 

Courtship

 1   Four things go to make up a marriage: courtship, solemn promises, offering of one’s body and agreement to the terms proposed. Regarding the first of these, the custom of every nation has always been that the courtship is conducted by the future spouse rather than the bride-to-be. The divine Word did not wish to show Himself wanting in this respect and accordingly He attested to His love by making prevenient gifts to the most sacred Virgin out of His infinite goodness, sending word to her of the union that Heaven wished to contract with her. St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, confirms this in explicit language[1] when he calls Mary the Virgin who was sought out. Following him, the Abbot Rupert[2] made the same comment at two different places in his commentaries on the Canticle of Canticles, when he said that[3]:

The Spouse is always the first to offer praise to his Spouse, and to tell her that he finds her beautiful and her beauty is pleasing beyond all other beauty.

Here are the words that the divine Spouse addresses to the Virgin, as written by the pen of Hugh of Saint Victor[4]:

O my Beloved, please show me thy face that I have for so long desired to see. For if others properly speak of my beauty, I am also aware that thou art all fair. If I am such by nature, thou art so through grace; if I am perfectly beautiful forasmuch as all imaginable beauty is in me, thou art fair and beyond reproach, for there is not a spot in thee. Thy virginal purity doth render thee most beautiful in thy body and thy humility most profound doth make thee even more beautiful in thy soul. In short, thou art all fair because there is nothing in thee which is not suffused with what is beautiful, virtuous and becoming.

The pious emperor Matthew of Kantakouzenos says of her[5]:

That she is beautiful as the goodness of grace itself:

This Prince chooses these words to represent those found in chapter 6 of the Canticles where we have: Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem[6]. The humble Contemplative[7] says of her:  

There are no less beauties in her than there are virtues and gifts that come from Heaven.

King Solomon, one of her ancestors, had this to say:

He tells her to arise, make haste and come, for winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. Already the trees have begun to blossom the flowers have appeared and the birds can be heard singing. With a holy impatience he calls upon her again to show him her comely face, and to let him hear her sweet and pleasing voice. In short, he adds that he has been waiting patiently for her to open her gate and to give him her consent. He can see that her beautiful hair looks dark because it has received the morning dew.  

In this way, He shows himself to be God, not only desiring the good of His creatures far more than they themselves do, and procuring for them more than they might ever have dared to hope, but also seeking their advantage and gain by sending them prevenient graces. The Virgin had a good heart and, having ears to hear, she immediately acknowledged the invitation being made to her by the King of Heaven

I hear him, she says, and recognise him by his speech. There is no doubt this is the voice of my beloved who is knocking at the door and seeking entry. It is in truth too much of an honour for me that he should deign to think of such a lowly creature; the time has now passed for putting things off; it is done, I am his.

I shall not try to describe here the holy ardour that set the Blessed Virgin’s chaste heart on fire with love, for I have referred to this in an earlier chapter[8].

Footnotes

[1] Orat. de Nativit. B. Virg.

[2] Lib. I et lib. V.

[3] Lib. I.

[4] Serm. de Assumpt.

[5] Cant. vi.

[6] Cant. vi. 3.

[7] Idiota, Contemplat. de B. Virg., c. 2 : Tot enim habuisti pulchritudines, quot virtutes. Idiota (here meaning private) is the nom de plume of a pious and learned writer, generally believed to be Raymundus Jordanus.

[8] Chapter 3.

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >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