Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 7 : § 3.6-9

Chapter 7 : Acts of thanksgiving – a sixth 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.  The third characteristic of Thankfulness : To give her all the glory for the successes she has overseen

 6   To these valiant Emperors I will join three of our own Kings[1] all bearing the name Philip, all as brave as lions, all three faithful servants of the Virgin, and all extremely grateful for the benefits they received from her powerful intervention. The first of them is Philip Augustus: 

At the Battle of Bouvines in the year 1213, he found ranged against him the Emperor Otto, who was a redoubtable warrior, accompanied by a great number of valiant Dukes, Counts and Knights. Faced with this extreme danger, he consecrated himself to the Holy Virgin and under her protection he won a glorious victory. He wanted the whole of posterity to understand his feelings of gratitude for her help and accordingly he founded a beautiful Abbey near the town of Senlis and called it Our Lady of Victory.

Footnotes

[1] Sebast. Bouillard, Parthenidos, c. 6.

 7   The second is Philip the Handsome : 

He was at war with the Flemings who suddenly launched a surprise attack against him when they learned his forces had stood down because of negotiations for a truce. Faced with this danger, Philip had recourse to Our Lady of Chartres and his prayers were so filled with fervour and devotion that he was granted a great victory. He found that all his own forces rallied to his standard determined to do battle, whilst the enemy forces were in such disarray that at the end of the encounter, apart from the great numbers of prisoners he took, he left more than 36,000 Flemings dead on the field of battle, without losing more than 1500 of his own. This battle took place two days after the Assumption of the glorious Virgin, which made him even more convinced that such a fortunate outcome against all the odds could only have come from Heaven and that it revealed the generous intervention of the Mother of Goodness herself.

This is why as soon as he returned to France he went straight to Our Lady of Chartres to pay his respects. In gratitude for the help that she had given him, he conveyed the domain of Les Barres to the Abbey in perpetuity, he founded an annual service to immortalise the memory of this victory and he made a gift to the Church of of all the armour and equipment he used during the battle. Every year on the anniversary of the victory, it is the custom to display the armour and equipment on the lectern facing the nave : a golden helm with its crown, a cuirass[1], a coat of mail, a surcoat of velvet in crimson-purple with three fleur-de-lis in front and three behind, a military blouse of flesh-coloured satin, gauntlets, a sword with its belt and pendants, vambraces[2] and cuisses[3].

Footnotes

[1] Cuirass: a piece of armour for the body and consisting of a breast-plate and a back-plate. 

[2] Vambrace: defensive armour for the (fore-) arm.

[3] Cuisse: armour for protecting the front part of the thighs.

 

 8   The third is Philippe de Valois:

On the vigil of St Bartholomew in the year 1328, he was surprised by the Flemings near Mont Cassel (just as Philip the Handsome had been near Mons). He offered fervent prayers to the most sacred Virgin, the Protectress of the Kings of France and Tutelary of the French Empire, earnestly entreating her to help him at this moment of extreme danger. The prayer was no sooner offered than it was answered, for his gentle Mother filled the hearts of the King and all those in his army with a secret power so extraordinary that in only a few hours they vanquished 20,000 of the enemy’s soldiers. The King was not one to forget such a signal favour and on the very day of his entry into his dear city of Paris, where he was received with a magnificent victory celebration, he made his way straight to the Church of Notre-Dame. He rode the length of the nave on horseback right up to the main Crucifix, where he presented his horse and his arms to her who is the commander of God’s armies, publicly attributing to her the victory he had won. The figure of this King mounted on his horse may still be seen on one of the pillars in the Church of Notre-Dame to which he assigned, moreover, a rental income of one hundred pounds from his domain at Gâtinais to celebrate in perpetuity the memory of her help in this victory.

 9   Ye great Princes, worthy of conquering whole worlds, may you be followed and imitated in the heartfelt affection of your gratitude by all those for whom the MOTHER OF GOD obtains some favour, for as long as there are men who would seek her assistance. In this way will come true the words of the Angel who brought good tidings about the birth of the Saviour, saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will. In this way the Servants of the Virgin Mother will triumph over the unbridled desire for glory which can undermine our best actions. In this way they will oblige the Queen of Heaven to be ever favourably disposed towards them and to bring about the success of their plans.

[End of Chapter 7]

© Peter Bloor 2025 

👑   👑   👑

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.