Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 8 : § 2.8 St Casimir’s Hymn 6-11

Chapter 8 : Honour – a seventh feature of the gratitude we owe the Mother of God

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)

§ 2. Second sign of honour : singing her praises

St Casimir’s Hymn

[Translator’s note: The following Hymn was translated from St Casimir’s Latin into French verse by Fr Poiré. What follows is my English verse translation which follows the metre, rhyming scheme and imagery of the French. There are seventeen verses. ]

(6)

Who knoweth not thy valiant heart

Hath placed in chains these monsters fell

And if thou didst not take our part

We’d share the miseries of hell?

Who knoweth not the fires infernal

All raging promised pain eternal

In Satan’s dungeons deep and dark?

Or that without thine intercession 

The plan on High was ever stark 

To punish mortal man’s transgression.

(7)

But all of this was just for show, 

Mere images of death and fear; 

This hissing of the hellish foe

Though menacing was but veneer;

They thundered hatred all around

In floods of pestilential sound,

And set within this fiendish frame 

The starry welkin seemed demonic,

All glowing hot with fire and flame

And threat’ning us with doom draconic.

(8)

 

Yet in the end ’twas all in vain,  

Their cunning plans were all frustrated;

Defeat these wretches did sustain,

Their hopes were crushed and terminated;

But worse, their torments did increase

Depriving them of any peace;  

The monstrous engines they designed  

To ruin us and cause our fall 

Against themselves were now assigned

And brought no harm to us at all.

[9]

O Virgin ’tis thy hands did free 

Our souls from this dread knavery;  

Their astral curse was baulked by thee, 

Preserving us ’gainst slavery.

To thee all honour doth redound,

In thee let all our joys resound!

How meet for them to learn at length,

Those wretched, craven imps and fools,

The awesome nature of thy strength:

Thy lightning bolts which crush these ghouls.

(10)

Eve, wanting in fidelity,

The gates of Paradise did close

To all of her posterity

Because the sin of Pride she chose;

Her insolent temerity

Provoked the Lord’s severity:

His sword He drew to mark this crime

But through thine overflowing grace

Thou hast preserved us all in time

From suff’ring sin’s most just disgrace.

(11)

Created by th’Omnipotent,

This gentle Maid of Heav’n and grace,

All pure in heart and innocent, 

Has rival none in all our race.

The Lord Himself yields to her will 

And gladly helps her to fulfil  

His wondrous works as best He can;

These two await thine invocation 

And earth’s wish is none other than

To implement thy supplication.

© Peter Bloor 2025 

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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.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.