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The Annunciation, early 1460s; by Willem Vrelant.The Getty Museum, L.A. |
It is referred to in the French work by Fr François Poiré called The Triple Crown of the Holy Mother of God (1630) which I translated on this blog starting on the 1st of May 2024.
I offer this annotated edition of St Bonaventure’s work as a small gift to our gentle Queen and Mother in gratitude for all her graces and favours, requesting her continued help and protection for the author and his family.
The Latin text and references are based upon Speculum Beatae Mariae Virginis (1904). The English text is based upon that attributed to Sr Mary Emmanuel O.S.B. (published by Herder in 1932). Amazon's various editions acknowledge that this text is in the Public Domain worldwide, attributing it to the text of a Dublin edition (author unknown) published in 1849.
Chapter 16 : Blessed is the fruit of thy womb
Who and what was the fruit of the womb of blessed Mary
Part 1
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. It has been shown above how Mary, because of the innocence of her most purelife , is rightly saluted by the Ave; how because of the super-abundance of her grace, she is worthily said to be full of grace; how because of the most intimate presence of God with her, it is said that the Lord is with her; how because of the most worthy reverence of her person, it is rightly said of her: Blessed art thou among women. It is now to be shown how, because of the most beneficent excellence of her Child, it is proclaimed to her: Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Blessed, therefore, is the Fruit of thy womb, O Blessed Mother of the Son of God ! This is that Fruit of which the Prophet saith[1]:
“The Lord will give benignity, and our earth shall yield her fruit.”
Commenting on this passage, Bede says[2]:
“The Lord gave benignity because, by the entrance of His Only Begotten Son, He consecrated the temple of the virginal womb by the grace of the Holy Ghost; and our earth shall yield her fruit, because the same Virgin, who had her body from the earth, brought forth a Son, co-equal indeed in divinity with God the Father, but consubstantial with her in the reality of His Flesh.”
We have to consider how this Fruit is a most highborn Fruit, a most delightful Fruit, a most virtuous Fruit and a most abundant Fruit. A Fruit, I say, most sublime in being high-born, most desirable in delight, most beneficent in virtue, most universal in its abundance.
Footnotes
[1] Psalm. lxxxiv. 13.
[2] Homil. in solemnit. Deiparae, quando salutavit Elisabetb, ante medium.
First, consider how the Fruit of the virginal womb is most highborn. Highborn, because from a regal womb; more high-born because from a virginal womb; but without doubt most high-born because from a paternal womb which is the womb of the Eternal Father. I am saying this Fruit is high-born because it proceeds from a regal womb, namely from the womb of King David, as the Lord had promised him, saying in the Psalm[1]:
“Of the fruit of thy womb I will place upon the throne.”
The Apostle bears witness this promise has been fulfilled in his letter to the Roman when he refers to Him[2]:
“who was made to him of the seed of David, according to the flesh.”
Without doubt this Fruit is highborn and noble not only because of King David but because of all those noble kings, His progenitors, listed in the genealogy described by Matthew[3], by whom He came into this world, according to those words in Wisdom[4]: He leapt down from heaven “from thy royal throne.”
Footnotes
[1] Psalm. cxxxi. 11.
[2] Rom. i. 3.
[3] Matt. i. 1. seqq.
[4] Wisdom xviii. 15.
This Fruit, although it is highborn because of the regal womb, it is even more highborn because of the virginal womb as shown in the words: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb;” of that womb which, following on from what is said of Aaron’s rod[1], retained the flower of virginity together with the fruit of fecundity. Therefore, St. Bernard fittingly says[2]:
“Christ is born of a woman, but one to whom the fruit of fecundity came in such a manner that the flower of virginity did not fall.”
This nobility of the virginal fruit, is not only more wonderful than the first but also excels it as far as the heavens are above the earth. O truly wonderful and unheard of nobility! O truly noble birth from the Virgin!
“The nobility of the one born was in the virginity of the one who gave birth,” says St Augustine[3], “and the nobility of the one who gave birth was in the divinity of the one born.”
Footnotes
[1] Num. xvii. 8.
[2] Serm. 1. in Circumc. Dom. n. 2.
[3] Serm. 200. (alias 30. de Temp.) n. 2.
Again, this Fruit is highborn because of the regal womb which bore it; more highborn because the womb was virginal; but most highborn, because of the paternal womb. We can understand of this Fruit those words in Osee[1]: “From me is thy fruit found.”[2] Let God the Father, therefore, say to Mary; let Him say to the faithful soul, and let Him say to the Church:
“From me is thy fruit found.” Thy fruit, O Mary, chosen to produce this fruit; thy fruit, O soul, who art drawn to love this Fruit; and thy fruit, O Church, where souls are gathered together to partake of this Fruit. Thy fruit, I am saying, and this is true corporeally by the nature He assumed; thy fruit spiritually by grace; thy fruit sacramentally by the Eucharist; and thy fruit eternally by glory. But it is of me that He is thine, because He was begotten from my womb, as it is written in the Psalm[3]: “From the womb before the day star I begot thee.”
O nobility truly wonderful and venerable beyond measure! For the fruit of the maternal womb is the Son of the Eternal womb, and the Wisdom of the paternal Heart, as St. Bernard says of this Fruit when he writes[4]:
“O Mary, thou wilt be the Mother of Him whose Father is God; the Son of the paternal love will be the crown of thy chastity; the Wisdom of the paternal heart will be the fruit of the virginal womb.”
The nobility of this most high-born fruit precedes in dignity the first and the second in an infinite degree, and exceeds by its sublimity every intellect, both human and angelic. Well, therefore, is it said of this fruit by Isaias[5]:
“In that day the bud of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be high;”;
In magnificence, because of the regal dignity; in glory, because of the virginal dignity; and the fruit shall be high because of His eternal or paternal highborn origin.