Part III : The Crown of Goodness : Chapter 13 : §3.4-6

Chapter 13 : The Twelfth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Goodness of the MOTHER OF GOD

She safeguards her children at the hour of death and provides them with their passport to Heaven

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. How the Holy Virgin prepares her children for the surprise and uncertainty of death 

Musa

 4   St Gregory recounts in his Dialogues[1] that there was once an unmarried girl called Musa, 

to whom the MOTHER OF GOD appeared, accompanied by a retinue of maidens robed in white who seemed to be of the same age as Musa. She asked Musa whether she would like to join their company and to enter into her service along with them. Musa replied that since she was being honoured with this offer, she would be delighted to accept it.

“And I would be delighted to receive thee,” said the Holy Mother, “but on condition that thy way of life becometh more serious than it hath been hitherto and that thou biddest farewell to all frivolities and vanities. I am giving thee thirty days as an opportunity to demonstrate this and I promise thee that – if thou dost what I have asked thee – I shall receive thee into my retinue at the end of this time.”

Musa told her parents all about this and from that moment onwards she impressed them so much by the propriety of her actions and the new seriousness with which she was living her life that they could not but wonder at such a remarkable change in her. On the twenty-fifth day, she was suddenly taken by a slight fever which lasted until the thirtieth day. The thoughts and feelings that she expressed at this time seemed far beyond her tender years, leaving everyone astonished. On  the last day of the trial, the Virgin appeared to her once more with the same maidens as before and invited her to join their number. After a short while, Musa lowered her gaze as a sign of respect and said  

“Dear Lady, I am coming . . . dear Lady, I am coming.”

 With those words she surrendered her soul in order to follow the Virgin as one of her companions 

Footnotes

[1] Lib. IV, c. 17.

St Opportuna

 5   The death of St Opportuna was similar in many ways to what I have just described. She was born in Normandy and became a religious sister in the Benedictine Order, eventually becoming Abbess of the Monastery at Almenêches, some two leagues from Sées. Her feast is celebrated on the 22nd of April. 

Whilst she was lying ill in bed, she was visited by St Cecilia and St Lucia whom she greeted tenderly, saying: 

“My dearest Ladies and sisters, what instructions do you bring from the glorious Virgin to her most humble servant?”

“Dear Bride of the Saviour,” they replied to her, “the Queen of Heaven is waiting to accompany thee with thy lighted lamp to the chamber of her beloved Son, our glorious Spouse, where thou wilt receive the crown of glory and enter into the joyful possession of eternal delight.” 

Shortly afterwards it seemed as though she was approaching her end and the clergy chanted hymns on one side of her bed and the nuns on the other. Suddenly, Opportuna sat up in bed and, looking towards the door, she said: 

“There she is – the Immaculate MOTHER OF GOD. I will commend all of you to her, since I shall not be seeing you again in this life.”

When she had spoken these words, she stretched out her arms and, folded in the gentle embrace of her dear Mother, she passed away. 

Philippa of Guelders

 6   Her most Serene Highness Philippa of Guelders was at one time Queen of Jerusalem and of Sicily, Duchess of Lorraine, of Bar and of Guelders, and later in life joined the Order of Poor Clares. She certainly deserves to be considered amongst those souls whom the MOTHER OF GOD cherished and cared for most dearly at the moment of their death.  

This remarkable Princess spent seventy-eight years in this world, of which her last twenty-seven years were spent in the cloister, as in the Court of her Spouse Jesus Christ. Eventually she came to face the common lot of all mortals as a result of various illnesses which, whilst they caused great affliction to her body, never affected the resilience of her soul. Throughout her life she had pursued two devotions in a most signal manner : one was for the Passion of the Saviour and the other was for the glorious Virgin. When all her strength left her at the beginning of Good Friday, no one was any doubt that this must have been the result of an agreement with her heavenly Spouse, who wanted to take her unto Himself on the very day that He had given up His life for us. In fact her dear sisters were already coming in haste to rejoice with her about such a great favour from Heaven when she made it clear to them that they were in fact mistaken by one day – because the Son had yielded to His Mother’s request in this regard as she then proceeded to explain in a gentle voice: 

“I know well that today is the day I have always loved and honoured ; but in fact I have to tell you that I shall not be dying today. All the moments of great joy in my life have come on a Saturday. It was on a Saturday that I was taken in marriage by the late King René, my good Lord and my husband; it was on a Saturday that I made my entry into Lorraine, welcomed and applauded by all my subjects; it was on another Saturday that I renounced the world and made my solemn profession in the Poor Clares; and tomorrow, which is a Saturday, I shall finally take my leave of the earth to enter the embrace of my dear Spouse Jesus in Paradise.”   

She had spoken the truth and it was just as though God had preserved her soul in the body only so that she could surrender it in peace into the hands of the glorious Virgin.  Accordingly, she was able to hang on until the following day when her soul was released from its mortal prison so that it could soar heavenwards to join in the company of those on high who sing for ever the praises of the Son and the Mother.

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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