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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 ackowledge that this text is in the Public Domain worldwide, attributing it to the text of a Dublin edition (author unknown) published in 1849.
Chapter 11 : Mary for her own sake and for ours is most fittingly compared to the light of dawn
Part 4
Next, we have to consider how this Virgin most radiantly lightsome is compared to the dawn not just in herself, but also most fittingly because of us; for as in Scripture she is signified by the dawn, she is our Mediatrix with God, with the Angels a Peace-maker, against the devils a Defender, and for us an Illuminatrix.
First, note that Mary our dawn, is for us a Mediatrix with God, as is signified in the Psalm[1]:
“Thine is the day and thine is the night, thou hast made the morning light and the sun.”
Thus St. Gregory rightly says[2]:
“The day is the life of the just, but the night is taken to mean the life of the sinner.”
Remember how the Lord went before the children of Israel by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire[3], because like a cloud He protects the pious from the fire of His wrath but He burns the wicked like fire. Therefore the sun is fittingly understood to mean Christ, the Sun of justice, who enlightens the elect and burns the reprobate. He sometimes burns them severely in this world, but more severely at the last judgment, and most severely of all in hell. Of this threefold burning can be understood that word in Ecclesiasticus[4]: “The sun three times as much, burneth the mountains,” that is, proud sinners. On account of this we are in need of a Mediatrix between us and the just Sun. For this reason, the Psalmist in the aforesaid verse[5] fittingly places the dawn midway between the night and the sun, because it certainly holds this place in the natural order. The dawn, therefore, is the most Blessed Virgin Mary who is the most excellent Mediatrix between the night and the sun – between man and God, between unjust man and just God; she is the one best equipped to cool the wrath of God. St. Bernard bears witness, saying[6]:
“Man now has secure access to God, for he has the Son as Mediator of his cause before the Father, and the Mother before the Son. The Son shows His naked body, with the wounds in His hands, feet and side to His Father; Mary shows her maternal breasts to her Son. There can be no question of rejection where such monuments of clemency and signs of charity come together and pray together with eloquence in every language.”
Footnotes
[1] Psalm lxxiii. 16.
[2] Homil. 21. in Evang. n. 3.
[3] Exod. xiii. 21.
[4] Ecclesus. xliii. 4.
[5] Psalm lxxiii. 16.
[6] Potius Arnald., de Laudib. B. M. V. (Migne, Patr. Lat. t. 189. col. 1726).
Secondly, note that Mary our dawn is for us peace-maker with the Angels, as it is signified in Genesis[1], where we read that the Angel who wrestled with Jacob blessed him at dawn; for when the Angel said, “Let me go, for it is break of day,” Jacob would not let him go till he had blessed him. It was at dawn when the struggle took place between the Angel and Jacob, and the discord between Angels and men. For man by sinning had offended his Creator, and the Creator being offended, every creature was offended; this being so, how much more was she who is more closely bound to the Creator! This struggle, therefore, was perhaps a figure of that discord. When dawn arrived with the coming of Mary, men and Angels were pacified because in that dawn, in the Virgin Mary herself, man received the angelic benediction; for the Angel said to the Virgin: “Blessed art thou among women,” and by this blessing of the Virgin man obtains the blessing of peace and salvation in the Virgin’s Son, that blessing of which the Apostle says[2]:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,”
which blessing the Son Himself will confirm when He will say[3]:
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
As Jacob gave thanks at the rising of dawn, let us therefore thank Mary for that blessing by which peace came to us through the Angel. As through the dawn, so deservedly through Mary men made peace with the Angels, from the time when through Mary the choirs depleted by the fallen Angels were filled up by men, as St. Anselm signifies, saying[4]:
“O wonderfully singular and singularly wonderful Woman, by whom the elements are renewed, the injuries of hell repaired, men are saved, and Angels are made whole again!”
Footnotes
[1] Gen. xxxii. 26.
[2] Ephes. i. 3.
[3] Matt. xxv. 34.
[4] Orat. 52. (alias 51.) circa medium.
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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. 30-31.30-31.
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