Part IV : How to give thanks to the Mother of God : Chapter 8 : § 1.1-5

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)

You should not imagine that Honour has its origins on earth and that from here it was transferred to Heaven in the way we did with our earthly ideas of palaces, feasts and other matters falling under the King’s Menu-Plaisirs[1]. Honour was in fact born in Heaven and from there it came down to earth. Those whom God favoured with a glimpse of the great things within His holy House, such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Saint John and certain others, always saw it filled with honour and majesty. This is why I shall be dealing with the honour due to the Holy Virgin as nothing less than something entirely Heavenly. I will try to take the model for it from what is practised in Heaven even though I can speak of it using only earthly words and ideas.

 

Footnotes

[1] “Menu-Plaisirs”: The name of a department in the French royal household in charge of all the preparations for ceremonies, events and festivities.

§ 1. First sign of honour : adoring her with hyperdulia

 1   In order to ensure we do not go astray in this discussion, the first thing to note is that adoration, according to what was said Bishop Anastasius at the Seventh Synod[1], is nothing other than a supereminence and excellence of honour, meaning, according to Saint John Damascene[2]: 

a submission and an exhibition of honour rendered to others in consideration of some excellence or pre-eminence of their own. 

This means we must consider four things in order to understand the nature of adoration. The first is the person who is rendering adoration, acknowledging his inferior status and lowering himself before the other. The second is the person or thing to which adoration is given. The third is the reason for the adoration, which is the excellence of the person (or the thing) adored and his ascendancy by nature or through some rare quality over the person rendering adoration. The fourth is the honour and worship he renders, and the willing testimony he shows of the interior esteem he has for such a person or such a thing. It must not be thought that adoration consists only in the conception we have of another person, however lofty or elevated this may be; what is also required is for the will to humble itself before the person adored, along with manifestations of honour whether these are purely interior or accompanied by some sign of external and sensible reverence. 

Footnotes

[1] Act. 1.

[2] Orat. 3 de Imaginibus.

 2   The second thing to note is that there are three main sorts of adoration, not only by reason of the different persons to whom it is rendered, but also because of the religious worship by which they are honoured. The first one is commonly known as Latria, and this is the supreme honour without any limitations that we render to God alone by reason of His divine and infinite excellence. The second is called Dulia, which we call the service[1] of honour and it is the veneration offered to Saints as a result of their holiness and the rare perfections of glory they possess. This is a form of worship as far above any political or worldly honour as grace is above nature, but remaining infinitely lower than that of Latria. The third is between the first two and has been given the name of Hyperdulia, meaning a higher service or veneration. It is incomparably lower than the divine Latria but also greatly higher than the Dulia which is offered to the Saints. It is the fitting homage we would render to the humanity of the Saviour considered distinct from the divine substance, and that which we actually offer to the glorious Virgin in consideration of the supreme privileges and great pre-eminence she enjoys over all other creatures.

Footnotes

[1] service: Worship; the action of expressing reverence or veneration (now rare in English except in Divine service) [OED 1,2]. From Latin servitus, translating Greek δουλεία (servitude).

 3   Thirdly, it must be remembered that adoration (understood in the three degrees mentioned above) can be either absolute or relative. We call adoration absolute when it is rendered to some person or to some intellectual nature, taking account of their perfections and excellent qualities. I am referring here to a person or intellectual nature for these alone are adorable by this sort of worship. They alone are capable of the honour and of excellence worthy of being reverenced in itself, such as virtue, holiness, grace, glory, and such like. This is because man as an intellectual creature cannot reasonably submit his dignity through this sort of respect other than to a nature which is similar or which has greater nobility than his own. Accordingly, it is with this sort of honour that we adore God, the Holy Virgin, the Angels and men. Adoration which is relative is that which we render to something, not for any quality which may properly be said to belong to it or to be in it, but for the connection it has to some person or some intellectual nature worthy of such honour or such adoration. This is the way, for example, in which we adore the Cross, images and other things which have touched the Saints and which may be said to partake in a certain manner of their holiness.

 4   This doctrine being once admitted, there is no doubt that the Catholic Church has always rendered to the most sacred Virgin the honour of adoration which we have been discussing. This may easily be learned from the Roman liturgy, from that of St James, of St Basil and others, from the acts of the Fifth Synod[1], from the Council of Trent[2] and from the writings of the Holy Doctors throughout the ages and in every part of Christendom. St John Damascene will act as spokesman for them all and here are his own words[3]: 

It is entirely reasonable that the MOTHER OF GOD should possess that which belongs to her Son and that she should be adored by all. 

Some may claim that we find St Epiphanius[4], Jonas (Bishop of Orléans[5]) and several  other Doctors maintain we do not adore her and that she must not be adored. By this, however, we must understand them as referring to the sovereign adoration of Latria which the Church has never rendered to her. Their remarks were occasioned by certain heretics known as Collyridians[6] who adored her like a goddess and offered sacrifices to her. 

Footnotes

[1] Act. 4, 6-7.

[2] Sess. XXV de Reliquiis, et veneratione Sanctorum.

[3] Orat. de Nativ. B. Virg., et 2 de Assumpt.

[4] Hæresi 78.

[5] Orat. 2 de Cultu imaginum.

[6] S. Epiphan., loc. Cit. For origin of name, see Lev. vii. 12 with its reference to collyridas (cakes) offered in sacrifice.

 5   There may well be someone who wants to go beyond what we have said above and asks by what reason this adoration is due to her which I have called Hyperdulia and which I said is higher than all the worship which we render to the other Saints. My answer to that in a few words is that it is because of her status as MOTHER OF GOD which raises her in an indescribable manner higher than all the Saints whom we honour with the worship of Dulia. However we consider them in terms of their merit, their holiness and their excellence, they remain forever servants but the Mother is always Mother. This means that she remains their Queen and their sovereign Lady throughout the whole of her Son’s domain, as is explained by St Athanasius[1], Saint Augustine[2], Saint John Damascene[3], Saint Anselm[4], the Abbot Rupert[5] and many others.

In short, says Blessed Peter Damian[6], what is greater than the Virgin Mother who has compassed in her womb the greatness of the sovereign Divinity?

She must be considered unique, says St Ildephonsus[7], since what she has received and what she has done do not bear comparison in any way with the others ; she is utterly peerless.

What honour could ever be found, asks the devout Archbishop of Nicomedia[8], capable of equalling the merit of her who captured the love of God Himself, in whom He made His abode, and in whom the will of the Eternal Father was perfectly fulfilled?

There we have sufficient reasons and motives to adore her with hyperdulia. Let us proceed now to the practice of this adoration.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. de S. Deipara.

[2] Serm. 35 de Sanctis.

[3] Lib. IV de Fide, c. 15.

[4] De Excellentia Virg., c. 8.

[5] Lib. III in Cantic.

[6] Serm. 1 de Nativit.

[7] Serm. 2 de Assumpt.

[8] Georgius Nicomed., Orat. de Oblat. Deipara.

© 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.