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) |
§ 10. The deliverance of prisoners : the fourth fruit of mankind’s restoration by the Blessed Virgin
1 The pious Abbot of Igny[1] (in the region of Champagne) is right to criticise the superstitious hypocrisy of the wicked King Achaz[2] who, having received a commandment from God to ask for a sign from Him and confirmation of the miracle He wished to perform for his afflicted people, stubbornly refused to obey. He covered his disobedience under the false pretext of the fear he pretended to have of tempting God – as if there could be any danger of obeying God with humility and with simplicity of heart; and as if, moreover, his own idolatry and the fear he had that God would not be glorified by some miracle from Heaven, were not known to all.
As for us, continues the eloquent Abbot[3], we have no intention of being so dismissive; we welcome with open arms this sign of peace that it has pleased God to give us; and from the very bottom of our hearts we recognise the Holy Virgin not only as the one who will set us at peace with the most High in heaven, but also as the one who would deliver us from the very depths of hell. There, she has undone the Gordian knot tied by the first woman; there, she has crushed the serpent's head, and made him disgorge the prey he had already swallowed; there, she cast down the gates of Hell and scattered the guards holding man prisoner, restoring him to his first freedom, and making it possible for him to breathe once again the sweet air of his ancient liberty; there, she shackled the tyrant with the same fetters that he had used upon his prisoner's, and made of him a laughing stock for all.If you only had the time and patience, as St John Chrysostom once said[4], I would be able to give you a guided tour and show you the post where death was bound and strangled, the gibbet where sin was hanged, and all the other signs of this famous victory. You would be able to go and see the tyrant laden with shackles followed by a great gang of prisoners; and you would be able to inspect the filthy hovels in his fortress, along with the flesh-devouring warders of this predatory prison. Those of his underlings charged with administering his savage justice are now bound with the very manacles and cords they had been using to strangle and kill their prey.
Great God! How pleasing it is to hear this news, and what hymns of praise and thanksgiving shall we sing to the valiant warrior-woman who hath delivered us from these wretched conditions?
Footnotes
[1] Serm. 3 de Annuntiat.
[2] Isai. vii. 10 et seq.
[3] Serm. 3 de Annuntiat.
[4] Homil. 2 in Matth.
2 It is interesting to read what Chrysippus[2], Priest of Jerusalem, once wrote about how demented the devil became and how he screamed in fury when he found himself bound and shackled.
What can this be? he wondered to himself. What hath brought about this sudden change? What hath happened to her who once served me so faithfully, but who is now attacking me and hath conspired to bring about my downfall? A woman it was who placed the sceptre in my hand and a crown upon my head; but now it is another woman who hath torn the sceptre from my hand, and who doth trample my diadem beneath her feet. What new thing hath come to pass that hath so vanquished me that I now do see myself made prisoner – me, who was accustomed to keeping others under lock and key? What am I to believe of this woman who doth so ravage my empire? By means of her Son she hath healed those whom I had infected with various maladies, she hath delivered them that were in my possession, she hath brought back to life my dead, she hath set free my captives, she hath emptied my prisons: in short, what harm or damage is there that she hath not inflicted upon me? Yes, I say “she,” for I am speaking of her whom I know very well hath been the cause of all this. Were I never to have gone for that foolish woman in the garden who allowed herself to be deceived by my words, I would not have found myself thus confounded and cast down into this abyss; I would not be seeing my slaves set free, not only recovering their ancient liberty but receiving new honours and favours more excellent than the ones they possessed before.
These are the words given to the Prince of the wicked spirits by this learned and eloquent Doctor[2].
Footnotes
[1] Orat. de Laudib. Mariæ.
[2] Serm. 2 de Nativit. Domini.
3 Peter of Blois, Archdeacon of London, wrote a commentary on the words of Ezechiel[1] where it is written that: And he brought me to the gate that looked towards the east. The Prophet was speaking here in the person of Adam and his children who were in the prison of their captivity, no more nor less than were he to have said:
For so many long years I have been exiled from my home country, cast out into this place of misery and locked in this prison; I have looked all around so many times to find some way out, but always in vain. For neither Heaven nor earth have been able to offer me help, and how could men help me since they were included just as much as I was in the sentence of banishment? Even the Angels were not able to deliver me; in short, it seemed nothing in the world could help until finally I turned my gaze to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which is none other than the MOTHER OF GOD. For the gate of the inner sanctuary and of the Son’s Divinity being the Father, from whom He proceeds by eternal generation, it follows that the gate of the outer sanctuary must be the Mother of the Word Incarnate, from whom He proceeded by temporal generation, so that He might come to rescue man from the abyss into which he had fallen. She is the true gate of the East, inasmuch as it was through her that the Sun of Justice entered the prison of the world, to enlighten them that were confined in darkness and buried in the shadow of death.
Footnotes
[1] Ezech. xliii & xliv.
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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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