Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 8 : § 3.16-18

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)

§ 3. Third sign of honour : celebrating her feasts religiously 

Saturdays

 16   It would be most remiss of me if I did not include Saturdays among the feasts of the Holy Virgin, for the Church has religiously observed this day almost from the very beginning. The Church, being ruled by her Spouse the Holy Spirit, determined that it would be not be enough to honour the memory of His dear Mother and Teacher only once every year, as she does with other Saints. This is why, as a result of the obligations the Church has towards her, she consecrated one day every week to her. If anyone asks what the reasons were for choosing Saturday rather than some other day, here is what the Doctors have written.  

Firstly, in order to represent how between the Passion and the Resurrection of her Son (which may properly be said to have occurred on the Saturday), she alone retained a distinct and living faith in His Resurrection. This is still represented by the single candle that remains lit on the triangular candlestick[1] during the three days of Tenebræ in Holy Week. I refer to her distinct and living faith because in the estimation of many serious scholars, although the Apostles never lost their faith entirely, it was weakened and reduced. This first reason is one put forward by St Bernard[2], St Bonaventure[3], St Antoninus[4], the Bishop of Ávila[5], Guillaume Durand[6] and several others.

Secondly, in memory of the pain and distress which her sorrowful heart suffered following the death and absence of her Son who was the unique source of all her consolations. Thirdly, just as Saturday is the gate giving entrance to Sunday, which is the day of rest and the day of the Resurrection, in the same way she is the gate of Heaven through which we gain access to all our joy. Fourthly, so that through the feast day of the Mother we may enter immediately into that of her Son, which is the Lord’s Day or Sunday. 

The final reason they put forward is altogether mystical and is based upon the resemblance the Blessed Virgin has to the ancient Sabbath. I do not intend to cover this subject here since our aim is simply to provide a summary of practical ways to honour the MOTHER OF GOD in her feasts. Concerning the particular devotions for Saturdays and especially abstinence and other mortifications which the majority of the Virgins servants practise on this day, I shall be covering these in Chapter 10.

 

Footnotes

[1] The Tenebræ Hearse is the triangular candlestick used in the Tenebræ service. The name is derived, through the French herse, from the Latin herpex, which means a harrow, and is the same as that now used in connection with funeral processions. The funeral hearse was originally a wooden or metal framework provided with numerous prickets to hold burning tapers, and, owing to the resemblance of these prickets to the spikes or teeth of a harrow, it was called a hearse.

[2] Lib. de Passione Domini, c. 2.

[3] In III, dist. 3, art. 2, q. 3.

[4] IV p., tit. XV, c. 24.

[5] Præfatione in Matth.

[6] Præfatione in Matth.In Rationali divinorum Officiorum, lib. IV, c. 1.

 17   It is always with some regret that I interrupt the majesty of our celebrations with the fantastical ideas coming from the profane minds of those who have fallen away from the true worship of God and the purity of the true Religion. It is interesting to note how the schismatic Greeks, once they had cut themselves off from the unity of the Church and allowed themselves to fall into a thousand absurdities, nevertheless retained a very great respect for the feasts of the most sacred Virgin – even though they allowed their devotions to be affected by rabbinic fantasies and the grotesque ideas produced by their disordered minds.

According to their understanding, the heavens are supported by four columns[1]. The whole of nature is so bound up with the Holiness of our feasts that of these four columns, two bow for each of the feasts of the glorious Virgin, whilst the other two bow for the feasts of Our Lord. If it were ever to happen that a feast of the Son should fall on the same day as a feast of the Mother, they hold it as certain that the world would perish because the heavens would have no support while these four columns supporting it bowed at the same time. This explains what happened a few years ago when Easter Sunday fell on the 25th of March, when the Church celebrates the wondrous memory of the Angel Gabriel’s embassy[2] to the Blessed Virgin. They were so convinced in their minds that this would bring an end to everything that none of them had provisions for more than one day, so firm was their belief that they would have no need for any.  

If by these columns or pillars of the heavens are understood the Blessed Intelligences who support the world, according to the Prophet Job[3], I have no doubt at all that while the Church Militant fulfils its duty to honour the mysteries of the life of the Saviour and of His most Holy Mother, they also make acts of exceptional and deep reverence. But since it is not necessary for us to expend great effort in understanding what exactly they have in mind, I am inclined to leave these speculations to one side and to return to the practicalities we are considering.   

Footnotes

[1] See Form and meaning in Orthodox Architecture by Andrew Gould at New World Byzantine.

[2] Here used in the sense of a message sent or delivered by an ambassador. See OED 2.

[3] Job ix. 6, xxvi. 11 & xxxviii. 4-6.

 18   I have always believed that our solemnities should be marked by two different sorts of feelings.  The first are suitable for those who find themselves confined in a foreign land, chased out and banished from their beloved home country. They are like the poor Israelites who are simply represented by the Royal Prophet[1] as people seated by the rivers of Babylon with tears in their eyes, their arms folded, with their cithers and lutes hanging from the branches of the willows by the edge of the waters, talking to each other about the feasts and canticles of Holy Zion. In these words I can almost hear the bitter sighs of deep contrition and see the sorrowful acts of saving penance and mortification which the Church our dear Mother teaches us to practise, especially on the vigils of these feasts. These have from the very beginning occupied in a most holy manner the devoted servants of the Virgin, as I shall show later in our discussion of Mortification. 

Footnotes

[1] Ps. CXXXVI.

© Peter Bloor 2026

  

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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.