Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 8 : § 2.8 St Casimir’s Hymn 12-17

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. The seventeen verses conclude with this post.]

(12)

To see how thou art full of grace,

Sweet fruit of union pure and chaste, 

Assigning ev’rything in place 

According to thy will and taste;

To see the Author of all good

Ordaining ev’rything He could

To please thee more than any other:

Then can we doubt the blessed fate

Of those who take thee for their Mother

Is truly cause to celebrate??

(13)

Behold the rich diversity 

Of every year and month and day:

And sharing in this quality

The Star of Armies joins the fray;

Behold her gracious interplay

With Him the Primum Mobile[1];

Just so do men forsooth delight, 

Across the world in different lands,

To follow in the daytime and at night 

The movement of Our Lady’s hands.

(14)

Assured my wishes and design

Of pleasing thee in every sense

Do with the plans forsooth align

That flow from thy sweet providence,

I offer thee, dear Maid, my heart

That thou might strength to it impart

So it may vanquish sin and vice;

Wherein I’ll build a citadel,

Whate’er the cost or sacrifice,

A worthy place for thee to dwell.

(15)

With confidence, no more unsure,

I trust that I may find in thee

A haven peaceful and secure

Within thy bosom’s clemency.

I prithee cast not me aside

But be my guardian and my guide;

Do thou my staunch defender be 

So I may ’scape the ghastly doom

The Prince of darkness plans for me:

A gruesome and accursed tomb.

(16)

Let hell spew forth remorselessly 

The poison of its rage and hate,

Contriving over land and sea

To dominate and desecrate;

Let them renew their grisly dreams

And implement their gruesome schemes

Of rendering me immolate:

Their wretched plans will run awry

For Mary can them all frustrate

In but the twinkling of an eye.

(17)

Oh source of joy and exultation,

May thou reign ever glorious,

Enjoying blessed contemplation 

Eternally victorious.

Those tyrants brewed a noxious bane

But all their scheming was in vain;

Thy place on high is justly claimed

For while thy human Son’s divine,

Next Him men truly have proclaimed

The place of honour’s truly thine!

Footnotes

[1] Primum Mobilé (Latin) = Prime Mover : 1)  God regarded as the motive force of the universe; 2) In the medieval version of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy: an outermost sphere (at first reckoned the ninth, later the tenth) supposed to revolve round the earth from east to west in twenty-four hours, carrying with it the (eight or nine) inner spheres.

© 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.