Our Lady of the Rosary: Salve, Mater Salvatoris!

The Theotokos as Eleusa (Virgin of Tenderness).

Yesterday, while studying a commentary by St Thomas Aquinas on the Angelic Salutation, I came across a quotation he used which I tracked down to a magnificent twelfth century hymn by Adam de Saint-Victor. 

I am posting this hymn today as another tribute to the Glorious and Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Victories: Salve, Mater Salvatoris!

Adam of St. Victor who was a prominent and prolific writer of Latin Hymns, born in the latter part of the twelfth century, probably at Paris. He was described as "the foremost among the sacred Latin poets of the Middle Ages". See the entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Salve, Mater Salvatoris!

Vas electum! Vas honoris!

Vas coelestis Gratiae!

Ab aeterno Vas provisum!

Vas insigne! Vas excisum

Manu sapientiae!

Salve, Mater pietatis,

Et totius Trinitatis

Nobile Triclinium!

Verbi tamen incarnati

Speciale majestati

Praeparans hospitium!

O Maria! Stella maris!

Dignitate singularis,

Super omnes ordinaris

Ordines coelestium!

In supremo sita poli

Nos commenda tuae proli,

Ne terrores sive doli

Nos supplantent hostium!

Here is an English verse translation (by Joseph B. Collins, New York, 1939):

Mother of our Saviour, hail!

Chosen vessel! Sacred Grail!

Font of celestial grace!

From eternity forethought!

By the hand of Wisdom wrought!

Precious, faultless Vase!

Hail, Mother of Divinity!

Hail, Temple of the Trinity!

Home of the Triune God!

In whom the Incarnate Word had birth,

The King! to whom you gave on earth

Imperial abode.

Oh, Maria! Constellation!

Inspiration! Elevation!

Rule and Law and Ordination

Of the angels' host!

Highest height of God's Creation,

Pray your Son's commiseration,

Lest, by fear or fraud, salvation

For our souls be lost!

"Et totius Trinitatis / Nobile Triclinium!"

The English translation above ("Hail, Temple of the Trinity! Home of the Triune God!") misses the Latin’s play on the words “Trinitatis” and “Triclinium,” for if by Trinitas we mean of the “Three in One God” then “Triclinium” may be taken to mean “Three couches” in one cenacle. See, for example, the entry for Triclinium in the DMLBS (Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources):

triclinium [CL] 1 an arrangement of three couches, (transf.) room or hall containing (three) couches, (esp.) dining room;

The upper-room or Cenacle, scene of the Last Supper and of the Apostles’ first Holy Communion, later became a place of refuge for Our Lady and the disciples. Our Lady’s womb is likened to a “triclinium,” being a room equipped with three couches for the three Persons of the Trinity.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

The Assumption of our Lady : Completion of Novena

Ad Jesum per Mariam. J-J Tissot.

This is the ninth and final day of a Novena in preparation for the great Marian Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, on October 7th.

The Novena is offered as a gift to Our Lady praying that, through her maternal intercession, she will mediate graces so as to guide and protect the author, his family* and all the members of the Church Militant, in these disturbing times. [*E, E, K, P, T, E ,E; E, A.] 

We have been posting each day an example of Marian poetry written by St Robert Southwell who himself lived in a terrible time of trial for Catholics. Much of his poetry was written whilst he was in solitary confinement prior to his execution at Tyburn on the 21st of February, 1595.

The original spelling and punctuation has been retained; the notes which follow each poem are my own.

The Assumption of our Ladie

If sinne be captive grace must finde release
From curse of sinne the innocent is free
Tombe prison is for sinners that decease
No tombe but throne to guiltless doth agree
Though thralles of sinne lye lingring in their grave [5] 
Yet faultles cors with soule rewarde must have.

The daseled eye doth dymmed light require
And dying sightes repose in shadowinge shades
But Eagles eyes to brightest light aspire
And living lookes delite in loftye glades [10]
Faynte winged foule by grounde doth fayntly flye
Our Princely Eagle mountes unto the skye.

Gemm to her worth spouse to her love ascendes
Prince to her throne Queene to her heavenly kinge
Whose court with solemn pompe on her attends [15]
And Quires of Saintes with greeting notes do singe
Earth rendreth upp her undeserved praye
Heaven claymes the right and beares the prize awaye.

Notes

Background: According to the general rule, God does not will to grant to the just the full effect of the victory over death until the end of time has come. And so it is that the bodies of even the just are corrupted after death, and only on the last day will they be joined, each to its own glorious soul.

Now God has willed that the Blessed Virgin Mary should be exempted from this general rule. She, by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body.

St. John Damascene (c675-c749) spoke out with powerful eloquence when he compared the bodily Assumption of the loving Mother of God with her other prerogatives and privileges. 

“It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in the act of giving birth to him, should look upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting that God’s Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God.”

For more, see: Munificentissimus Deus (1950).

[l 5] thralles:  thrall - One who is in bondage to a lord or master; a villein, serf, bondman, slave; also, in vaguer use, a servant, subject; transf. one whose liberty is forfeit; a captive, prisoner of war. fig. One who is in bondage to some power or influence; a slave (to something).

[l 6] cors: bodies.

[l 7] daseled: dazzled.

[l 11] Faynte:  Sluggish, timid, feeble.Wanting in courage, spiritless, cowardly. Obsolete or arch. Wanting in strength or vigour. foule: fowl, birds.

[l 14] Prince: Mary. Applied to a female sovereign. Obsolete.

1594   Willobie his Auisa iv. f. 7   'Cleopatra, prince of Nile.'

[l 17] praye: prey.

Further reading 

“No tombe but throne”: Robert Southwell and the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, Lilla Grindlay. Here are some excerpts:

“The Assumption of Our Lady” is the final poem of a sequence of fourteen on the intertwined lives of the Virgin Mary and Christ. There are, as Louis Martz has observed, echoes of the rosary in this sequence . These echoes intensify when one considers that the end of the sixteenth century saw increasing interest in the rosary amongst recusant worshippers. 

The first two stanzas of this poem are a series of antitheses which juxtapose the Virgin’s sinless body, rising to heaven, with the heavy, sluggish body of concupiscent man. In the poem’s opening lines, Southwell’s antitheses force the reader to dart back and forth, from “sinne” to “grace”, “tombe” to “throne”, ‘sinners” to “guiltless” in a manner which recalls stichomythia.[1] The stichomythic effect continues in the second stanza. Here,concupiscent man is represented in the first two lines using the synecdoche[2] of the “daseled eye” and imagery of light and darkness — “dymmed light”, and ‘shrowdinge shades”. The eyes of sinful man are here shown to be as frail and feeble as his body, and too weak for the dazzling light of God’s love. This is a Southwellian commonplace:images of mists and shadows in his poetry reveal that the eyes of the fallen man are unable to encounter external representations of God’s brightness. In “The prodigall chylds soule wracke”, for example, Southwell’s sinful speaker bewails the inadequacy of his “dazeled eyes” (Davidson and Sweeney 38:45).

In Southwell’s “Assumption of Our Lady”, man’s feeble eyes and the darkness of his existence are juxtaposed in the second stanza to eyes of the Virgin who is metaphorically represented as an eagle: “But Eagles eyes to brightest light aspire”. Southwell’s use of the eagle metaphor condenses a number of associations. It both anticipates Mary’s regality as Queen of Heaven, seen in the image of “Our princely Eagle”, and foregrounds her sinless state: compared with sinful man, her vision is strong, pure and clear. It was believed that the eagle could look at the sun without blinking; Nancy Pollard Brown and James H. McDonald gloss the phrase “loftye glades” as “beams of the clear light of heaven”, commenting that the word “glades” had, at the time, associations with flashes of lightning and tails from comets. The Virgin’s eyes are, thus, set in direct contrast to the dazzled eyes of sinful man. The use of the eagle is also an allusion to another Biblical text traditionally associated with the Assumption — that of the vision of the Woman Clothed with the Sun of the Book of Revelation who, in escaping from a dragon, is transformed: And there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the desert. (Revelation xii.14)

[1] In classical Greek Drama, dialogue in alternate lines, employed in sharp disputation, and characterized by antithesis and rhetorical repetition or taking up of the opponent's words. Also applied to modern imitations of this. 

[2] A figure of speech in which a more inclusive term is used for a less inclusive one or vice versa, as a whole for a part or a part for a whole.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

The Flight into Egypt

Ad Jesum per Mariam. J-J Tissot.

This is the eighth day of a Novena in preparation for the great Marian Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, on October 7th.

The Novena is offered as a gift to Our Lady praying that, through her maternal intercession, she will mediate graces so as to guide and protect the author, his family* and all the members of the Church Militant, in these disturbing times. [*E, E, K, P, T, E ,E; E, A.] 

We are posting each day an example of Marian poetry written by St Robert Southwell who himself lived in a terrible time of trial for Catholics. Much of his poetry was written whilst he was in solitary confinement prior to his execution at Tyburn on the 21st of February, 1595. 

The original spelling and punctuation has been retained; the notes which follow each poem are my own.

The flight into Egipt

Alas our day is forc'd to flye by nyghte
Light without light, and sunne by silent shade
O nature blushe that suffrest such a wighte
That in thy Sunne this darke Eclipse hath made
Day to his eyes, light to his steppes denye [5]
That hates the light which graceth every eye.

Sunne being fledd the starres do leese their light
And Shyninge beames in bloody streames they drenche
A Cruell storme of Herods mortall spite
Their lives and lightes with bloody showres doth quench [10]
The Tiran to be sure of murdringe one
For feare of sparinge him doth pardon none.

O blessed babes, first flowers of Christian springe
Who though untimely cropt fayre garlands frame
With open throates and silent mouthes you singe [15]
His praise whome age permitts you not to name
Your tunes are teares your instruments are swords
Your ditye death and bloode in liew of wordes.

Notes

And having received an answer in sleep that they [the wise men] should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country. And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him. Who arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod: That it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. [Matthew ii. 12-16] 

[First verse] day/light/sunne v nyghte/shade/dark Eclipse:  The imagery represents Christ (day/light/sunne)  contrasted with His enemies and their deeds (nyghte/shade/dark Eclipse), good and evil, love and hatred. Sacred scripture abounds with such imagery:

Woe to you that are deep of heart, to hide your counsel from the Lord: and their works are in the dark, and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? [Isaiah xxix. 15]

And this is the judgment: because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil. For every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved. [John iii. 19, 20]

And this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.[1 John i. 5-7]

[l 3] wighte: A living being in general; a creature. Obsolete. A human being, man or woman, person. Now arch. or dialect (often implying some contempt or commiseration). The wighte here is presumably Herod the Great (78-1 BC), tetrarch of Galilee and father of Herod Antipas (who beheaded John the Baptist and had a role in the Passion of Christ).

[ll 5-6]: Herod (and all who hate Christ) is here contrasted with Christ. He sends his soldiers in the daylight to do their dark deeds of hunting down and killing all the baby boys under two years of age. The poet calls for the daylight to be withdrawn so that they are denied the capacity to give effect to their murderous plan.

[Second & third verses]: These verses refer to the massacre of the Holy Innocents.

Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. [Matt. ii. 16-18]

[l7] leese: lose. 

See eg, 1605   Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Aa2   'Water..doth scatter and leese it selfe in the ground, except it be collected into some receptacle.' OED.

In the absence of the sun, the stars have no light. With the flight of the Son of God, baby Jesus, into Egypt, the boy babies are fated to lose the light of their lives.

[l 11] Tiran: the tyrant, Herod.

[l 13] first flowers: first martyrs of Christianity, their lives being taken for Christ's sake. Compare with the use in: 'The flower of English manhood perished in the mud of Flanders.'

[l 18] ditye: The words of a song, as distinguished from the music or tune; also, the leading theme or phrase; hence, Subject, matter, theme, ‘burden’. liew: lieu, place. 

Coda

It is salutary when studying his poetry to recall that RS was writing in 'Christian', 'God-fearing' England at a time when belief in Christ and the one, true Church He founded risked grisly martyrdom under the Virgin Queen, 'Bloody Bess'.

The slaughter of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem finds its parallel in the butchery of men and women who were innocent of any crime, condemned to die for staying faithful to the faith of their fathers.

For a passionately written account of these times written by a protestant, see: Cobbett's History of the Protestant Reformation (edited by FA Gasquet). 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

 

The Epiphanye

Ad Jesum per Mariam. J-J Tissot.

This is the seventh day of a Novena in preparation for the great Marian Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, on October 7th.

The Novena is offered as a gift to Our Lady praying that, through her maternal intercession, she will mediate graces so as to guide and protect the author, his family* and all the members of the Church Militant, in these disturbing times. [*E, E, K, P, T, E ,E; E, A.] 

We shall be posting each day examples of Marian poetry written by St Robert Southwell who himself lived in a terrible time of trial for Catholics. Much of his poetry was written whilst he was in solitary confinement prior to his execution at Tyburn on the 21st of February, 1595. 

The original spelling and punctuation has been retained; the notes which follow each poem are my own.

The Epiphanye

 

To blase the rising of this glorious sunne
A glittringe starre appeareth in the Easte
Whose sight to Pilgrimm toyles three sages wunne
To seeke the light they long had in requeste
And by this starre to nobler starr they pace [5]
Whose armes did their desired sunne embrace.

Stall was the skye wherein these planetts shynde
And want the cloude that did eclipse their rayes
Yet through this cloude their light did passage finde
And perc'd these sages harts by secret waies [10]
Which made them knowe the ruler of the skyes
By infant tongue and lookes of babish eyes.

Heaven at her light, earth blusheth at her pride
And of their pompe these peeres ashamed bee
Their crownes, their robes their trayne they sett aside [15]
When gods poor Cotage clouts and crewe they see
All glorious thinges their glory now dispise
Sith god contempt doth more than glory prize.

Three giftes they bringe three giftes they beare awaye
For incense myrrhe and gould, faith hope and love [20]
And with their gifts the givers hartes do staye
Their mynde from Christ no parting can remove
His humble state, his stall his poore retynewe
They phancie more, then all their ritch revenewe.

Notes

[Title] Epiphanye: late Latin epiphania, neuter plural (but often used as feminine singular), < late Greek ἐπιϕάνια (neuter plural of adjective *ἐπιϕάνιος), < ἐπιϕαίνειν to manifest, < ἐπί to + ϕαίνειν to show.

[l 1] blase: blaze - To proclaim (as with a trumpet), to publish, divulge, make known.

1592   R. Greene Pandosto (new ed.) sig. Biij   This Proclamation being once blazed through the countrey. OED.

[ll 3-4]:  The sense would seem to be: Three sages, through their determined effort and toil, were favoured with sight of the glittering star in the East. They had spent a long time in the quest for the light of this star.

[ll 5-6]: They follow the star, making their way to Mary, a nobler star (Stella Maris), whose arms enfold the sought for Sun of Justice.

[ll 7-8]: One possible explanation of these lines is as follows. The created sun and stars shine in the physical firmament. Down on earth, Christ the Sun of Justice and Mary, Star of the Sea, have a stall (or primitive home) for their sky in which they ('these planets') shine. The poverty of the setting and of the Holy Family might have masked, like a cloud, their light; this might have been a particular problem for the richly vested sages, with all their fine accoutrements. See the next verse.

[ll 10-12]: But the cloud of poverty did not prevent the light from piercing the sages' hearts in secret ways, enabling them to recognise God, the ruler of the skies, through His baby talk and looks.

[l 13] her: 'their'. The genitive case of the third person plural personal pronoun : of them; of themselves. Heaven and earth blush at their pride, the pride of these richly clad sages.

[l 16] clouts: 'clout' - A small piece or shred produced by tearing or rending; in later use chiefly a shred of cloth, a rag. Applied contemptuously to any article of clothing; in plural, clothes.

[l 16] crewe: A number of persons classed together (by the speaker) from actual connection or common characteristics; often with derogatory qualification or connotation; lot, set, gang, mob, herd.

[l 18] contempt: God looks favourably upon those who are poor and lowly in the eyes of the world and viewed with 'contempt.' Consider the words in Mary's Magnificat:

He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.

Fecit potentiam in brachio suo : dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.

He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.

Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles.

He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

Esurientes implevit bonis : et divites dimisit inanes. [Luke i. 51-53]

And the words of Christ Himself:

Then Jesus said to his disciples: Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. [24] And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew xix. 23]

[l 23] retynewe: retinue. A group of people (or animals) in the service of or accompanying a person, esp. a sovereign, noble, or person in authority; a train, a suite. The little baby is Christ the King, the Prince of Peace, of the royal house of David; His mother is a Queen;  but his 'retinue' is 'poore'.

[l24] revenewe: revenue, with stress on penultimate syllable, following retynewe above.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

 

The Circumcision

 

Ad Jesum per Mariam. J-J Tissot.

This is the sixth day of a Novena in preparation for the great Marian Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, on October 7th.

The Novena is offered as a gift to Our Lady praying that, through her maternal intercession, she will mediate graces so as to guide and protect the author, his family* and all the members of the Church Militant, in these disturbing times. [*E, E, K, P, T, E ,E; E, A.] 

We shall be posting each day examples of Marian poetry written by St Robert Southwell who himself lived in a terrible time of trial for Catholics. Much of his poetry was written whilst he was in solitary confinement prior to his execution at Tyburn on the 21st of February, 1595. 

The original spelling and punctuation has been retained; the notes which follow each poem are my own.

The Circumcision

 

The head is launc't to work the bodies cure
With angring salve it smartes to heale our wounde
To faltlesse son from all offences pure
The falty vassalls scourges do redounde
The judge is cast the guilty to acquite [5]
The sonne defac'd to lend the starre his light

The veyne of life distilleth droppes of grace
Our rock gives yssue to an heavenly springe
Teares from his eyes blood runes from wounded place
Which showers to heaven of joy a harvest bringe [10]
This sacred deaw lett Angells gather upp
Such daynty droppes best fitt their nectared cupp.

With weeping eyes his mother reu'd his smart
If bloode from him, teares rann from her as fast
The knife that cutt his fleshe did perce her hart [15] 
The payne that Jesus felt did Marye tast
His life and hers hunge by one fatall twiste
Noe blow that hitt the sonne the mother mist.

Notes

[l 1] the head...the bodies cure: Christ is the head and we are the body.

And he is before all, and by him all things consist. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church [Colossians i. 17]

His blood will be our redemption, the cure of the body. Perhaps it is worth recalling another's head, a reference to Satan and his horde of demons and minions:

[15] I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. [Genesis 3]

[l 1] launc't: lanced. To lance: To pierce with or as with a lance or a lancet; to cut, gash, slit. Also, to slit open; to open. Obsolete exc. poet. The word derives from the Latin lancea which is found in the Chapter 19 of St John's Gospel. Christ is cut at the beginning of the Gospels and also at the very end, after His death on the cross:

 sed unus militum lancea latus ejus aperuit, et continuo exivit sanguis et aqua.
 But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water.[Joan. xix. 34]

RS refers to this image of 'blood and water' throughout this poem. We are called to meditate upon the blood and watery tears of Christ during his circumcision; the water and wine of the first miracle at Cana; the water and wine at the first Mass during the Last Supper; the bloody sweat of His agony in the garden; the blood and finally water shed by our Redeemer during His passion and crucifixion; the wine and water of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

[l 2] angring: angry -  inflamed, smarting, as a sore. salve: a healing ointment for application to wounds or sores. 'salve' derives originally from roots meaning butter, oil or balm. It also calls to mind 'salvatoris' or  'Saviour'.

it smartes to heale our wounde : The pain of circumcision, apparently, is such that it fades on the third day. 'our wounde' here is the sin of our first parents which affects all of from conception, with the exception of Mary Immaculate. Even the just man sins seven times a day, but Christ's salvific balm can heal such sinners who must however be repentant, ie, they must feel the pain of contrition, here represented in the word 'smartes'.

[l 3] sonne: Mary's son, without fault, free from stain of sin.

[l 4] vassals: 'vassal' - a base or abject person; a slave in common Elizabethan use. Fallen man became a slave to the evil one through sin. 'faulty' here means 'at fault', guilty of sins.

redounde: flow back. The Saviour will suffer in His flesh the scourges man deserves in order to redeem him. The circumcision anticipates the scourging at the pillar 33 years later.

[l 5] cast: condemned. 

See eg, 1567   J. Jewel Def. Apol. Churche Eng. (1611) 107   'Thinke you, he would determine matters, before he knew them: So might he cast Christ, and quit Barabbas.' OED.

[l 5] acquite: To pay the debt of and free (a debtor who has been held in prison); to ransom (a person); (also occasionally) to redeem (a thing). Obsolete.

The sense of the line then becomes: Christ, who will come again to judge the living and the dead, is condemned in order through His passion and death to acquit guilty mankind.

[l6] The sonne: the sun, as in the Sun of Justice (see, eg, Malach iv. 2). God Almighty, the supreme being, permits Himself to have His glory seem to be diminished in order that His light may lead poor creatures unto salvation from sin and show them the way to Heaven.

[l 8] rock: Perhaps a reference to the rock struck by Moses to save his people from death and enable them to make their way to the promised land [Numbers xx]. This rock was a figure of Christ, and the water that issued out from the rock, of his precious blood, the source of all our good.

Cristo de la Sangre. Cerezo. 1664-5. Burgos. Public Dom.

[l 9]: The syntax here permits more than one sense. Perhaps the primary sense is: the showers of tears and blood (l8) bring to Heaven a harvest of joy. The water and blood flowing from Christ during His passion cause new life to spring from the earth like plants watered by showers of rain. The new life is the life of grace in souls no longer in thrall to sin. The waters of baptism mean that a man is born again to a new life:

Jesus ... said to him: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.[John iii. 3]

Many artists have represented angels collecting the 'sacred dew', the precious blood from the crucified Christ, as  described in lines11-12. Cerezo's Cristo de la Sangre (left) is one example.

[l 12] dainty: Precious; hence, rare, scarce. 

1578   H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball vi. xi. 671   The blacke [whorts] are very common..but the red are dayntie, and founde but in fewe places.

nectared:  deliciously sweet or fragrant.

[l 13] reu'd: rued.

[l 15] did perce her hart: When Jesus was presented in the Temple at Jerusalem, Simeon prophesied to Mary that she would experience great sorrow:

Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed. [Luke ii. 34, 35]

[l 17] twiste: The continuation or course of life figured as a thread.  Obsolete.

1568   T. Howell Arbor of Amitie f. 4   For thin is twist or fatall threed, on mortall wheele so spoon.

A further sense signified here: an intimate union or connection.

[l 18] miste: missed. RS's English syntax reflects his expertise in Latin. Here is but one of many examples of a verb ('missed') where 'the mother' could be either the subject or the direct object.

Coda: Circumcision and Baptism

St. Thomas holds that circumcision was a figure of baptism. He gives three reasons why the organ of generation rather than any other was to be circumcised:

• Abraham was to be blessed in his seed;
• The rite was to take away original sin, which comes by generation;
• It was to restrain concupiscence, which is found especially in the generative organs (III, Q. lxx, a. 3).

According to his teaching, as baptism remits original sin (and actual sins committed before its reception), so circumcision remitted both, but ex opere operantis, ie, by the faith of the recipient, or, in the case of infants, by the faith of the parents.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Today is the Feast of my Confirmation saint: Francis of Assisi. In this month of October, dedicated to Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary, it seems fitting to include this painting by Rubens. It shows Our Lord ready to punish the earth with the thunderbolts of His justice on account of the widespread evil present almost everywhere. The Prince of this world is coiled like a serpent around the globe. Our Lady seeks to restrain her Son; she exposes her virginal breast as if to recall the tender babyhood of her Son, imploring mercy for us all. St Francis too, shielding the earth, seeks to protect us by praying that Our Lord in His mercy should stay His hand. The rainbow appears over Mary's figure, sign of the Covenant between God and mankind:

"And the bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, and shall remember the everlasting covenant, that was made between God and every living soul of all flesh which is upon the earth." [Genesis 9:16]

Below is a prayer to Our Lady which is attributed to St Francis : Ave Domina.

The Virgin Mary and Saint Francis Saving the World from Christ's Anger. 1614. Peter Paul Rubens. Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique. CC BY. 

St. Francis' Prayer to Our Lady

Hail Lady, Holy Queen, Holy Mary Theotokos,
who art the Virgin made church
and the one chosen by the Most Holy Father of Heaven,
whom He consecrated with His Most Holy Beloved Son
and with the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete;
in whom there was and is all fullness of grace and every good.

Hail His Palace; Hail His Tabernacle; Hail His Home.
Hail His Vestment; Hail His Handmaid; Hail His Mother
and hail all you holy virtues,
which through the grace and illumination of the Holy Spirit
are infused into the hearts of the faithful,
so that from those unfaithful you make them faithful to God.

Salutatio Beatae Mariae Virginis

Ave Domina, sancta Regina, sancta Dei genetrix Maria,
Quae es virgo ecclesia facta et electa a sanctissimo Patre de caelo,
quam consecravit cum sanctissimo dilecto Filio suo
et Spiritu sancto Paraclito, in qua fuit et est omnis plenitudo gratiae et omne bonum.

Ave palatium eius,
Ave Tabernaculum eius;
Ave domus eius.
Ave vestimentum eius;
Ave ancilla eius;
Ave mater eius;

et vos omnes sanctae virtutes,
quae per gratiam et illuminationem Spiritus Sancti
infundimini in corda fidelium,
ut de infidelibus fideles Deo faciatis.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

To my Guardian Angel: Ste Thérèse of the Child Jesus

Ste Thérèse in death. By Céline (1897)

Yesterday was the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels and I was wondering what to post in honour of the feast of Ste Thérèse of Lisieux today. I have an illustrated edition of her complete works in French dated, I believe, to 1909 (Thérèse died on 30th September 1897).  Whilst casting my eyes over her Poésies, I noted one she had written to her Guardian Angel, dated February 1895. Without more ado, I sat down last night to translate her rhyming, iambic  tétramètres into an English equivalent, following the original French as far as possible. 

Here is the result which I post in honour of a remarkable saint who never ceases to amaze and overwhelm me by her interventions in the lives of men.

Laudetur Jesus Christus et Maria Immaculata.

Here is my translation and the French version follows.

To my Guardian Angel

J.M.J.T.(Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Teresa)

Oh Guardian of my soul, the same

Who burnest brightly in the sky

Just like a pure and gentle flame

Against the throne of God most high;

For me thou camest here below

A guide - with thine illumination;

A brother dear - I fain would know,

A friend - to be my consolation.

Thou knowest well how I am weak

And by the hand all tenderly

Thou leadest me, so quiet and meek,

From risks and traps protecting me.

Thy gentle voice doth ever call

Me Heavenwards to fix my gaze;

The humbler that I am, and small,

The brighter so thy face doth blaze.

O thou who travellest through space

More quickly than the speed of light,

I see thee flying, in my place,

To help my friends with thy best might;

To dry their tears with thy caressing,

To sing of Jesus’ healing fame,

How suffering can be a blessing,

While softly murmuring my name.

My little life has this one prayer:

That I can many sinners save;

Dear Angel show me how to share

Thy ardent holiness so brave.

I nothing have but sacrifice,

Austerity and poverty;

Thy gifts conjoin’d, these may suffice

For offering to the Trinity.

To thee, the glorious, royal Heaven,

The riches of the King of Kings;

To me, Communion’s bread unleaven’d,

The treasure that the Cross doth bring.

Armed with the Cross and sacred Host,

Together with thy help supernal,

One peaceful thought is uppermost:

To live a life of joys eternal!

January 1897.

Here is the French:

À mon Ange Gardien

1. 

Glorieux Gardien de mon âme,

Toi qui brilles dans le beau Ciel

Comme une douce et pure flamme

Près du trône de l'Eternel

Tu descends pour moi sur la terre

Et m'éclairant de ta splendeur

Bel Ange, tu deviens mon Frère,

Mon Ami, mon Consolateur !...

2. 

Connaissant ma grande faiblesse

Tu me diriges par la main

Et je te vois avec tendresse

Oter la pierre du chemin

Toujours ta douce voix m'invite

A ne regarder que les Cieux

Plus tu me vois humble et petite

Et plus ton front est radieux.

3. 

O toi ! qui traverses l'espace

Plus promptement que les éclairs

Je t'en supplie, vole à ma place

Auprès de ceux qui me sont chers

De ton aile sèche leurs larmes

Chante combien Jésus est bon.

Chante que souffrir a des charmes

Et tout bas, murmure mon nom....

4.

Je veux pendant ma courte vie

Sauver mes frères les pécheurs

O Bel Ange de la Patrie

Donne-moi tes saintes ardeurs

Je n'ai rien que mes sacrifices

Et mon austère pauvreté

Avec tes célestes délices

Offre-les à la Trinité.

5. 

A toi le Royaume et la Gloire,

Les Richesses du Roi des rois.

A moi l'humble Hostie du ciboire,

A moi le trésor de la Croix.

Avec la Croix, avec l'Hostie

Avec ton céleste secours

J'attends en paix de l'autre vie

Les joies qui dureront toujours.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.