Chapter 12 : Association – eleventh 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).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020) |
§ 2. Various Associations founded in honour of the MOTHER OF GOD
Various other Associations
10 I would have had an unending task had I set out through all the cities in Europe and elsewhere to find and record the various Associations established to honour the name of the MOTHER OF GOD and encourage devotion and service to her. Examples would have included :
• the Confraternity of Gonfalone which St Bonaventure founded in the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome[1] in the year 1273;
• the Company of the Whites of Justice, founded about one hundred years ago to offer help and assistance to those with physical or spiritual needs, especially those who have been condemned to death; from this company emerged the Order of Clerics Regular in 1584, which was later approved by Pope Sixtus V;
• the Confraternity of Our Lady of Loreto and several other places chosen by the Holy Virgin where she is honoured;
• the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Pillar in Spain, and
• countless other places which devotion towards the Holy Virgin has established throughout Christendom.
The Queen of Angels shows how great and admirable she is both in the great diversity and the sheer numbers of her servants in these Associations who all receive a welcome under her royal mantle.
Footnotes
[1] Bzovius.
The Associations founded by St Charles Borromeo
11 I must not pass over in silence the outstanding devotion of St Charles Borromeo who founded several congregations and every one bore the name and the arms of the MOTHER OF GOD.
The Association founded to pray the Litany of Our Lady
12 I must also include the Association of those who, with no other conditions or rules of admission, unite their hearts and minds to recite daily the Litany of the Holy Virgin for one another. The principal intention is to obtain through the intercession of the Mother of love the grace of dying well. Because of the very great benefits offered and the minimal duties, this Association has so many members throughout Christendom that they are as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is by the sea shore.
The Association of the Little Crown of Our Lady
13 The Association of the Little Crown of the Holy Virgin has spread so widely through Christendom that today the number of those who have undertaken to recite it daily is almost infinite. I have already spoken in another context[1] of the fruits which this devotion brings and outlined the way to recite the prayer. All that is left to say here is that no great ceremony is needed to enrol in the Association. All people need to do is to pray at the outset a Pater and an Ave Maria three times for the intention of all those men and women who are trying to promote this devotion, by way of affirming the desire they have to cooperate with them in the service of the Holy Virgin, for the general good and for the good of each member, and to recite the Little Crown each day with three intentions in mind.
The first is to thank the divine goodness for all the graces and favours conferred upon the glorious Virgin and through her mediation to the whole world. The second is to obtain through the same Virgin’s favour the extirpation of heresies and other vices ravaging God’s Church. The third is to pray for a happy life followed by a good death for all those men and women who are associated with this devotion. If there are any who are fearful of making this commitment then they need to be reassured. Those people to whom God first inspired this pious practise never had any intention of placing constraints upon anyone but only of making it clearly understood to all those who decide to join the Association that each day they recite the Little Crown they will have a share in the indulgences which have been granted in favour of this devotion and in the prayers that other members are offering on that same day. If they forget to say the prayers, or willingly abandon the practice, then these benefits will not be available to them. Who would be such an enemy to himself as to refuse a treasure which is so freely available?
Footnotes
[1] Chap. 9, § 7.
§ 3. Congregations of the Holy Virgin established in houses of the Society of Jesus
1 Having undertaken to speak of the greatness of the MOTHER OF GOD with particular reference to those who serve in her Associations, I hope I may be now permitted a short discussion of those who have enrolled in the Congregations of the Virgin established all over the world in the houses of the Society of Jesus. This will serve as a reminder of the beginnings and progress of the holy exercises they practise which have borne such notable fruit and it will also give some information about them to those who are curious.
The origin of the Congregations of the Holy Virgin
2 If Queen Esther was rightly compared to a little fountain[1] – but brighter than the Sun and spreading her rays and waters on all sides – then why should I not say the same of this Association which, having grown from very small beginnings, has nevertheless spread all over the world and has by its brightness attracted the gaze and won over the hearts of an infinite number of people? If the cradle of Moses was worth little despite enclosing such a rich treasure, then that of the Congregation was worth even less since the only thing that was famous about the place where it first saw the light of day was its name as capital of the known world.
Footnotes
[1] The little fountain which grew into a river, and was turned into a light, and into the sun, and abounded into many waters, is Esther, whom the king married, and made queen. Esther x. 6.
3 John Leunis was a young lecturer teaching the final class of Grammar in the Jesuit College of Rome. He first formed the Sodality in 1563[1], looking after it during its infancy for about one year. He had gathered a handful of young students who every day after the others had left gathered together in one of the classrooms where they had carefully prepared an altar. They recited a number of short prayers together and this was followed by readings from a spiritual work. On feast days they allowed a little more time for their morning assembly and then in the afternoon they met again to say Vespers together. This group of students caught the attention of others like little shoots of virtue, so to speak, and stimulated the interest of more advanced students to follow their example. The upshot was that the following year seventy of the best qualified students were chosen to become members at the foundation of a new association under the guidance of the MOTHER OF GOD and named the Sodality of the Annunciation. Next came the adoption of certain rules concerning the Holy Sacraments, the practice of good works, the time and ordering of assemblies, the creation of a number of officers to govern the Sodality under the direction of the Jesuit Fathers, along with similar statutes which are for the most part those which have been retained and preserved.
Footnotes
[1] Historia Societ. Jesu, ad illum annum 1563.
© Peter Bloor 2026
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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.
The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
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.
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