The Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary : Chapter 18 : The twelve effects and benefits of the fruit of Mary’s womb (Pt 6)

The Annunciation, early 1460s; by

Willem Vrelant.The Getty Museum, L.A.

The following posts contain the text of a work by St Bonaventure (1221-1274) known as Speculum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis : The Mirror of the Blessed Virgin. 

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 18 : The twelve effects and benefits of the fruit of Mary’s womb

Part 6

Eleventhly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the restoration of the empyreal ruin[1], a ruin brought about in the highest Heaven. On this we may note what the Lord, wishing to plant of the marrow of a high cedar, said[2]: 

“On the high mountain of Israel I will plant it, and it shall shoot forth into branches, and shall bear fruit.”

 The high mountain is that sublime mansion, that sublime company of Angels, which is well called the high mountain of Israel, because Israel may be interpreted as meaning “the vision of God;”[3] and indeed the Angels always see God, as we find in the Gospel of St. Matthew[4]: 

“Their angels always see the face of My Father, who is in heaven.” 

On this high mountain, in this sublime company of Angels, God planted that which He had chosen from the lump[5] of perdition; He planted, I am saying, the marrow of the cedar[6], the marrow of the human race, that is, all the elect of God who are already planted on the angelic mountain, some in reality and some in hope. 

O fruit, truly to be loved above all things, on whose account every elect soul is planted on so sublime a height! We are able joyfully to bear this fruit, Our Lord Jesus Christ, for whose sake we are already planted in hope among the Angels. Let us always give thanks to this fruit by whose grace we fill up the number of the Angels. Therefore Mary, the Mother of this fruit, may well glory, and utter those words which St. Bernard, speaking as it were by her lips, says[7]: 

“The number of the Angels’ generations is filled up by my Child and the race of men, cursed in Adam, is regenerated by the blessed fruit of my womb unto eternal blessedness.”

Footnotes

[1] empyreal: belonging to the empyrean or highest place. For the ruin, see Apoc. xii. 3-4: Behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and on his heads seven diadems: and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.

[2] Ezech. xvii. 23.

[3] Hieron., de Nom. Hebr. (Exod.): « Israel vir aut mens videns Deum » / Israel, the man or mind seeing God.

[4] Matt. xviii. 10.

[5] lump: Douay-Rheims translation of Vulg. massa: vid. Rom. xi. 16. 

[6] Ezech. xvii. 22.

[7] Loc. pag. 274. nota 1. cit.

Twelfthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the perpetuation of eternal glory, which would not be eternal unless preserved by this fruit; whence it is said in Proverbs[1]: 

“The fruit of the just is a tree of life.” 

This fruit is most excellently said to be a tree of life because just as the tree of life was to preserve the natural life in the earthly Paradise, so Christ is to preserve eternal life in the heavenly Paradise. St. Anselm notes all the good things which we obtain through the blessed fruit of Mary, and rightly says[2]: 

“All these good things came from the blessed fruit of the blessed womb of the Blessed Mary.” 

In this Chapter we have seen how the blessed fruit of Mary is absolutely necessary: first, to expiate mortal sin; secondly, to placate and remove the extreme enmity between God and man; thirdly, to heal the wound of original sin; fourthly, to relieve spiritual deficiency; fifthly, to appease the anger of the Judge; sixthly, to escape the pains of hell; seventhly, to obtain the grace to despise earthly things; eighthly, to enrich the rational soul; ninthly, to consummate the spiritual life; tenthly, to increase and multiply members of the universal Church; eleventhly, to repair the empyreal ruin; and twelfthly, to perpetuate eternal glory. Note how the twelve effects or benefits of this fruit may be signified by the twelve fruits of the tree of life, all of which we have in the fruit of Mary’s womb. Of these twelve fruits we read in the Apocalypse[3] that the Angel showed John the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits.

Come unto our aid, therefore, O blessed among women, so that by the fruit of thy womb we may obtain the blessing of these twelve fruits! Help us, O fruitful Virgin, that by thy fruit we may be made fruitful in these fruits; that by these fruits we may merit to enjoy thy fruit forever! Help us, O sweetest one, that Jesus, the most generous communicator of Himself, may grant us to enjoy His sweetness without end, the blessed fruit of thy womb, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen.

 

Footnotes

[1] Prov. xi. 30.

[2] Orat. 52. (alias 51.) ante medium.

[3] Apoc. xxii. 2.

The End

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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. 30-31.30-31.