Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 4 : § 3.4-5

Chapter 4 : The Third Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is a source of Favour for her children

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)

§ 3. The influence enjoyed by the Favourites of the Holy Virgin : the second effect of her Favour

 4  My main aim in what I have written above is to show how all the Saints respond to the impulse they receive from their Queen and how they are devoted to those upon whom she casts a favourable eye. When earthly courtiers act to honour the Queen’s Favour, they normally do so out of courtesy and for reasons of earthly respect or their own self interest; heavenly courtiers, however, do so because they are moved by the principles of heartfelt and celestial charity to offer service and support to those whom they see are especially pleasing to their Princess and their Queen. I would go so far as to say that, unless I am mistaken, after the Favourites of Jesus Himself there will be none who have more partisans in heaven, (if we can call them this) than the Favourites of the Virgin. I say this because all the members of the heavenly Court respond to the Queen’s feelings and their only focus, after giving glory to God, is to honour His holy Mother and to serve her in the persons of those whom she cherishes.  When we read accounts of the apparitions of the Virgin, she is nearly always found accompanied by a retinue of Blessed Spirits and a certain number of Saints whom she has chosen according to her good will. I feel quite safe in saying that on such occasions there is a sort of holy rivalry in heaven about who will have the honour of forming her escort and of demonstrating goodwill towards those whom she had chosen to favour. We would be much less astonished about this if we could have any conception of the ardent desire felt by the Saints to serve, to honour and to love the MOTHER OF GOD and if we were able to appreciate the lesson given us by the great St Denis in the fourth chapter of his work on the Divine Names, when he says: 

When it comes to favour, the situation is different in heaven to that on earth; for here on earth men’s hearts are so small that love is limited to one person. A person will be continually troubled by a fear that others will go after the one he loves and successfully outbid him, so to speak. In heaven, however, it is God alone who possesses and fills hearts, giving them a capacity proportionate to the love which he has preveniently[1] granted them. The more love there is in a heart, the more it grows and expands in charity; the more ardently it focuses on an object, the more it yearns to see that object loved by others, and the more it uses its power to achieve this end.

 

Footnotes

[1] prevene: Of God, or the grace of God: to go before (a person) with spiritual guidance and help.  OED 1.c.

 5   The influence of the Virgin’s favourites is also apparent in the way that, out of consideration for them, she grants countless favours to other persons. St Lutgardis, who was about to change monastery, was told by the MOTHER OF GOD that for her sake she would always take especial care of her first religious house.

In the next example, it is consoling to read how the Virgin grants graces to several people on account of her love for St Bridget. 

For love of her, she arms and equips her son Charles like a true Christian knight[1]; she takes him under her protection and defends him[2] against all. For the love of her, she helped her brother Israel against the infidels[3]; she provides him with help on hundreds of occasions and especially when it comes to the most important of all, the hour of his death. For love of her, she reveals a thousand beautiful secrets to Matthias her confessor[4], and she fills his mind with heavenly illumination not only in terms of knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures but also spiritual insight concerning the interior life. For the love of her, she delivers Ulpho[5] (her husband) from terrible attacks by invisible enemies at the time of his passing from this life to the next. For the love of her, she puts to flight the demons from hell[6] who were tormenting one of her ladies at the time of her death. In short, for the love of her, she performs hundreds of favours for her servants[7] and for others whom she knew were recommended by Bridget.  

From this I conclude that there is no happiness in the world comparable to that which comes as a result of being Favoured by the MOTHER OF GOD. This is not only because, once she has cast her benevolent eyes upon someone, she can draw down the favour of the whole of heaven; but also because she alone has more power than the whole assembly of the Blessed, and this means that those whom her heart has favoured cannot fail to become great through her graces and blessings. The valiant Themistocles said one day that his god-like[8] son was the most powerful lord on earth. His reasoning was that through their nobility the Greeks ruled the world; that amongst the Greeks, the Athenians issued laws to the whole of Greece; that he, Themistocles, commanded the Athenians, and that he himself was governed by his wife – from which he concluded that his son had the power to do whatever he wanted. If the Favourites of the MOTHER OF GOD wanted to apply this reasoning to themselves, they would in the end find themselves all powerful : for since all conceivable happiness is in the hands of the Eternal Father, and since this great Father of the universe has given all power over this happiness to His Son ; and since the Son, as I have shown elsewhere, has granted His Mother absolute power, and this Mother is incapable of refusing anything to those whom she loves so tenderly – what other the conclusion is there except that everything God possesses is at their disposal, and that their influence reaches as far as that of the Queen of Heaven herself? 

A thousand times happy are they whose blessed lot this is : May they enjoy in good time all the fruits of such a wondrous blessing, and may we ourselves, through their intercession, find access to her from whom they obtained such Favour.   

 

Footnotes

[1] Lib. IV Revel., c. 74.

[2] Lib. VIII, c. 13.

[3] Lib. VI, c. 95.

[4] Lib. VI, c. 89 et 90.

[5] Revel. Extravag., c. 66.

[6] Lib. VI, c. 102.

[7] Lib. VI.

[8] god-like : translating Diophane in the French text. From Dĭophắnēs: said to derive from Διός (Diós, genitive of Ζεύς (Zeús)) +‎ -φανής (-phanḗs, “seeming, appearing”).

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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