Chapter 6 : The Fifth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD
She is the Mother of the world to come and Redeemer of our race
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) |
§ 4. The second reason that the Holy Virgin has the right to be considered as the Co-Redemptrix of men and the Mother of the world to come
10 In the second place, some may ask why God stayed the hand of Abraham, not allowing him to complete the sacrifice that He had requested from him. Amongst the various reasons which several learned minds have put forward, St Ambrose mentions[1] (if only in passing) one which is worthy of consideration, namely:
The desire to sacrifice a son for a reason intimately connected to piety and religion is so far above the ordinary capacity of any creature that He wanted to reserve the glory thereof exclusively to Himself.
But here as elsewhere an exception must always be made for the most Holy Virgin, for she is quite exceptional in all her privileges. If God had so favoured her as to have one and the same Son with her, why would He find it difficult to join the consent of His Mother with His own, so that the gift He was making to the world might be fulfilled in the agreement of the two wills upon whom this unique gift depended? Far be it from me to have any doubts about this for, on the contrary, I am convinced along with several learned writers that it would have needed only one sign of God’s will and she would have gone further than than Abraham. She would have been ready to obey the commandment of God concerning her Son, notwithstanding that this would fill her with dread and cause a sword to pierce her heart. She would have persisted until the dying breath in all the duties and all the services that God might have asked of her, so dearly did she value our salvation and the accomplishment of the divine will. I will leave others to try and imagine anything greater and more noble than that; I am personally quite overwhelmed when I consider the capacity of her heart for love and sacrifice and it seems to me that no other mere creature could go further than this. I am aware that St Ambrose[2] raises elsewhere the question as to why God stayed the arm of his servant Abraham but did not do so in the case of Jephthe[3], but I shall pass over this in silence for now since it is not relevant to our discussion.
Footnotes
[1] Lib. de Abraham, c. 8.
[2] Lib. III de Virginibus.
[3] Judges xi. 30-40.
11 In the third place, people may ask why Abraham’s mere willingness to offer his son so impressed God that, to hear Him speak, you would think that He was unable to find an adequate way of rewarding him which would show how much He valued the sincerity and the power of his love. He promised him victory over his enemies, that his seed would be multiplied as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore, and that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed[1], by Him who was to raise it up in in an infinite way – the longed for Messiah. He conferred a blessing accompanied by every imaginable happiness, not only for himself but for his descendants and it seems He was still not satisfied, so greatly was He pleased by Abraham’s faith, his obedience and his love.
Now if that is the case with Abraham, who will be able to tell us what the Virgin Mary’s sacrifice merited in God’s eyes, taking into account how it was ennobled in all the ways we have been considering? God never would allow himself to be surpassed in generosity and faithfulness, so what could He do to show His gratitude? Would you say that they perchance go too far who say that she rendered herself so pleasing to God that, not counting what what was granted to her, she merited for us through congruity[2] what the Saviour won through justice and through condignity[3]? This question will be addressed in the pages that follow.
Footnotes
[1] Gen. xxii. 16-18.
[2] congruity: congruous merit (meritum de congruo) which claims a reward only on the ground of equity. For more on condign and congruous merit, see: See The Nature of Merit (Catholic Encyclopedia).
[3] condignity: condign merit (meritum de condigno) which supposes an equality between service and return; it is measured by commutative justice (justitia commutativa), and thus gives a real claim to a reward.
§ 5. The third reason that the Holy Virgin has the right to be considered as the Co-Redemptrix of men and the Mother of the world to come
The third reason: She suffered along with her Son
1 Several writers[1] have noted that King Solomon of old once commissioned a golden crown adorned with lilies, interlaced with a circlet of thorns coming from India which bore this motto : The Victory of Love. Makeda, the Queen of Saba (for thus was she called by the Rabbis[2]), had a long list of questions which she presented to Solomon and she asked for his interpretation of this crown and its motto. The wise Prince replied by explaining that the lily symbolised a heavenly Virgin who was to emerge from his progeny, that she would conceive and bring forth the King of Kings, who would so love his people that he would risk his life for them. Instead of a golden crown, he would be crowned with thorns but he would reign triumphant over death. As for himself, Solomon said that thenceforth he would with this crown honour the victory of the Messiah, which would be a victory of love, since it was through love that He was to offer Himself unto death for His own.
It is true that no one ever deserved more than He did to wear the crown of love, being the Prince and the God of love, but since His holy Mother and His most chaste spouse is so like unto Him in the way that she is the Princess of love and of suffering, playing such a full part in the victorious conquests of her Son and her Spouse, I hope no one will take it amiss when I make her a crown out of her extreme sorrows and her incomparable merit. The sacrifice that the King and High Priest Jesus offered on the altar of the cross was a sacrifice that He willed and which involved in its outcome His soul, body, spirit and blood all together. This was also true of the Holy Virgin, for she did not stop at offering her dear Isaac unto death (as we have seen above), but she wished to suffer with Him for our salvation, uniting not only her will to that of her Son and her Spouse, but also her own sufferings and her cross to the cross and sufferings of her Son. It is for this third reason that she acquired for herself the glorious name of Redemptrix. This is a title that I shall try to explain by imitating the mathematicians who, being unable to give people an immediate conception of the heavenly empyrean’s immensity, use various methods to convey an idea of its greatness. Similarly, having no quick and easy way of explaining in a few words what the Holy Virgin endured, I will make use of various methods to help me convey the measure of her grief.
Footnotes
[1] Andreas Faventinus, lib. XVI Hist. Navarræ ex Cedreno.
[2] Josephus, lib. VIII Antiq., c. 8.
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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 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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