Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 5 : § 4.3

Chapter 5 : The Fourth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

The Wondrous Care she takes of 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)

§ 4. The care taken by the Holy Virgin to provide a home for her children and to help them lead a life conducive to their salvation

 3   I have already written elsewhere[1] about the founders of a number of Religious Orders; I have also made reference in this chapter[2] and in the previous one[3] to Albert the Great, jewel in the crown of the Order of Friars Preachers ; to St Andrew of Fiesole[4], a sparkling gem in the Carmelite Order; to St Catherine of Siena of the Dominican Order and to several others besides. I shall now introduce the young Dositheus and the beautiful story of his calling to the religious life which deserves to be remembered in perpetuity. The foundations for his vocation were laid by a disciple of Blessed St Dorotheus, Master of this same Dositheus, who lived around eleven hundred years ago.      

This young man was the son of a senior army officer who had given him a sheltered upbringing based upon worldly principles which precluded any mention of God or an afterlife. Despite this, he grew up good-natured and inclined to virtue.This showed once when someone happened to mention to him the devotion people had for certain holy sites in Jerusalem. Dositheus was so curious that he did not give his father a moment’s peace until he was given permission to go and visit them. God knew well what he had in mind for this young man and provided him with a wonderful opportunity. His father had a close friend who was on the point of making the journey to the Holy Land and Dositheus was entrusted to the care of this man who he acquitted himself as a true friend.

Once they had arrived in Jerusalem, a sense of holy curiosity impelled them to visit diligently all the most famous sites where the Saviour was said to have left some sign of our redemption. Outside the city in Gethsemane they came across a painting which depicted the punishments of Hell. The poor young man had never heard anything about this in all his life. He simply could not stop looking at the picture and musing upon its scenes, so much so that his companions could not persuade him to move on. This proved to be a turning point in his salvation for, whilst he was contemplating the painting, the Holy Virgin appeared at his side wearing a large crimson mantle. Her countenance was radiant with sweetness and majesty as she explained in detail the various sorts of punishments that were allotted to the different sins. He was so astonished by all this that he was almost left gasping for breath. Finally, having regained his composure somewhat, he found the courage to ask her what he would have to do to avoid this dreadful fate.

“My dear son, replied the Virgin, do thou give thyself over to fasting, to abstaining from meat and to a life of prayer; if thou dost these things, then I give thee my word that thou shalt have no fear of these punishments.”

With that, she disappeared and Dositheus saw her no more. But she had struck a chord so deep within his heart that he could not stop thinking about what he had learned from her. In fact, from that moment onwards it was impossible to get him to eat meat and everyone noticed such a great change in him that one of His father’s companions eventually said to him:  

“Sir, you cannot hope to live this sort of life in the world; but if this is what you are determined to do, then the simplest and best thing for you would be to join an order of religious brothers in a monastery.”  

Hearing this, he was even more astonished than before because he had no idea that there were such things as religious brothers or monasteries in the world. He continued to insist, however, that he had resolved to save his soul and that they should have compassion on him, taking him wherever in their judgement they thought would be best for his salvation. They discussed amongst themselves what they should do and it turned out that one of them was on friendly terms with the Abbot Seridus. St Dorotheus had his residence in whose monastery, charged with the care of the sick and infirm. They resolved then and there to take Dositheus to this monastery and he followed them like a little lamb. The Abbot was at first minded not to receive him, finding him too delicate; but after handing him over to St Dorotheus for examination, he learned that God was guiding this innocent soul and had preserved him in the midst of all the delights of this world from any knowledge of sin and vice. As he had been received on the word of St Dorotheus, he was given into his charge. Dositheus had a sweet and innocent manner, which showed in his every action, from which it soon became known that it was the Mother of love who had led him to this vocation. There was no one more amenable and obliging than this young man whose face was always cheerful and contented, even when he was occasionally found at fault in some way. 

Moving quickly to the end of this story : after five years illness struck and he began to cough up blood. St Dorotheus took great care of him during his illness and from time to time asked him if he could still pray to God. When he answered that he seemed to be losing all strength and energy from his body and soul, the Abbot (who was present) said to him: 

“Now hath the propitious moment come for thee to go before the most holy Trinity ; please remember us here.”    

Several of the monks were taken aback by these words which they found quite offensive, being unable to understand how the Abbot could have formed such a view of a young man in whom they had never seen anything out of the ordinary. A number of the monks were given over to fasting for three days at a time and practised this sort of abstinence regularly; others would spend whole nights in prayer and days engaged in penitential exercises. In the case of Dositheus, however, not only did he practise none of these, but he also had to be dispensed from some of the religious exercises because of his delicate constitution. There was, however, amongst their number a holy monk who assuaged their doubts and enlightened their understanding. This monk had often asked God to show him the brothers who had left the monastery and gone as saints to heaven. God answered his prayer by showing them all, and in their midst was Dositheus, radiant with dazzling brightness. This persuaded all the monks to come to their senses and accept there is nothing more precious nor more capable of advancing a soul in a short period of time than a heartfelt love of God with no trace of self love, unquestioning obedience, simplicity without pretence and gentleness without weakness. Dositheus had possessed these virtues to a remarkable degree and they were true signs and tokens of someone who is a child beloved of the MOTHER OF GOD.

  

Footnotes

[1] Part I, ch. 12.

[2] § 2.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Known more generally as St Andrew Corsini.

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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