Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 6 : § 11.3-4

Chapter 6 :  The Fifth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the Mother of the world to come and Redeemer of our race

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 11. The hope of recourse : the fifth fruit of mankind’s restoration by the Blessed Virgin

 3   Now try to picture that great tree which the Prophet Daniel saw in a vision[1]. Can you see it, this fruit tree with its massive spread and height, breathtakingly beautiful, covered in leaves and laden with fruit? Can you see all the birds of the air perched amongst its branches and all the beasts of the earth sheltering in its shade? Do you hear the voice from Heaven which cries out: Cut down the tree, right to its roots![2] Do you notice how suddenly the tree loses its branches? Can you hear the sounds of the axe below? Do you wonder at this coppiced forest of shoots growing from its branches? Focus especially your gaze and your thoughts upon this trunk which is going to be felled to the ground, and with its weight will crush everything that was living under its branches and in the shade of its leaves.

 

Then, what would you say if after a certain time you were to see it standing tall once again, but more beautiful, more green and more pleasing than before, with just as many and more creatures not only of the air but also of the earth, than there were before? I am very grateful to a modern Doctor[3] who argues that according to the mystical sense this tree represents none other than the first man when he was happily thriving in the earthly paradise, gifted with all sorts of extraordinary qualities, having under the branches of his protection, so to speak, not only the whole of his posterity but also the animals and other creatures that were subject to him; from this state he was soon cast out and brought down to earth by sin, where he would be left to wither away like a useless tree trunk, which can expect nothing more than the axe and then the fire. Divine Providence, however, did not wish to leave him without any recourse, and ordered that the root, namely the most sacred Virgin (according to the prophecy of Isaiah[4]), should be preserved in the ground, bud forth a new trunk incomparably more beautiful than the first, namely our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom a new life and new vitality would be communicated to men, who are His mystical branches, to restore life to them and make them bear fruit a thousand times more beautiful than before.

Footnotes

[1] Daniel iv. 7 et seq.

[2] Cut down the tree, and chop off the branches thereof ... Nevertheless leave the stump of its roots in the earth. Daniel iv.11-12.

[3] Benedictus Pererius, in locum Danielis cit.

[4] And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. Isai. xi. 1.

 4   Great God of Heaven! What a tremendous consolation it was for the Blessed Spirits when they saw that our earth had found courage and that a noble root, with heavenly help, was producing a new tree whose crown reached up into the clouds, with its branches reaching out to the east, the west, the north and the south; and when they saw, as in a nursery, little buds shooting forth all around the trunk so as to repopulate Paradise! 

This is the moment I consider to be the birth of the world, far more so even than the moment when Heaven and earth were created; this moment was the starting point for our happiness and the realisation of our hopes; a moment when the Blessed Virgin took unto herself all the children of Adam as into her eternal fiefdom which no one can contest. How unhappy the man who will not allow himself to be raised by her unto eternity; but no matter what such a man might wish for, he will remain forever indebted to her for all the blessings that he enjoys only because of her. As for those who will have the honour of being transplanted into the Paradise of pleasure, we may say that for as long as they keep their verdant, springtime beauty, they will bless this trunk and this root from which they took their origin; and if they might ever wish to become still more beautiful and pleasing to the eye, then it will only make better known the greatness of her from whom they sprang.

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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.

© Peter Bloor 2025

Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 6 : § 11.1-2

Chapter 6 :  The Fifth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the Mother of the world to come and Redeemer of our race

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 11. The hope of recourse : the fifth fruit of mankind’s restoration by the Blessed Virgin

 1   Try to imagine, if you can, a poor man worn out with old age, crushed by the labours of a lifetime, suffering continual aches and pains, lying ill in bed. Just look at the state he is in : abandoned by doctors, with sunken cheeks and a pinched nose, the extremities of his body turned to ice, his heart grown weak, all his senses numbed, his entire body bathed in sweat, having no pulse and showing no signs of life. If suddenly we were to see him recover, regain his strength, get up from his bed hail and hearty, and return to the vigour he enjoyed as a thirty year old, could there be any doubt that an Angel had come from the earthly Paradise and secretly brought him fruit from the tree of life, along with health, strength and youth? Now picture the world after four thousand years, bent double with the passage of time, broken by toil and suffering, overwhelmed with misery and on the point of breathing its last. If we were to see this world suddenly changed so as to have a new face and new vigour, recovering in an instant the health and strength of its youth, could we have any doubt that it had received some unexpected help from Heaven and some quite extraordinary healing which had such a rapid effect in such a short period of time? If you ask me who brought the world this cure, I will reply that it is the Blessed Virgin; and if you find that difficult to believe, just listen to St Andrew of Jerusalem[1]:

To day, he says, speaking of the feast of the Annunciation, He who created all things brings to completion what He had planned through the ages; for today, man is made anew and the world which was already hoary with age, weary and growing weak, is renewed by a spiritual youthfulness which casts out the old age of sin.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. de Annuntiat.

 2   Picture, if you prefer, a royal parterre[1] laid waste by a heatwave, suffering in a seemingly endless and terrible drought. Cast a compassionate glance upon the exquisite plants that you see wilting and falling everywhere to the ground; look at these flowers of the rarest blasted continually by the sun’s rays, these delicate plots and flower-beds losing their beauty and their greenery, these masterpieces of horticulture carefully maintained that have lost all their charm, and these beautiful borders where the plants are now fit only for the bonfire. Do not forget the poor gardener who contemplates the scene with a broken heart and is filled with despair at seeing the work of several years brought to nothing in just a few days. Then one morning, arriving with a plan to uproot and dispose of everything, he finds his plants recovered, the flowers restored to life and their natural beauty, his plots and flower beds more enchanting than ever, all his pieces of handiwork repaired, and his borders green once more – could he be in any doubt either that some Angel from heaven had applied an invisible hand to work this wonder or that a gentle rain had poured its life-giving waters into the soil, restoring and reviving the roots that were dying or half dead, causing them to bring forth new beauty and to recover what they had lost? 

If you have studied with attention this parterre deprived of life and beauty during this period of drought and barrenness, then you would have an accurate idea of the world as it was before God came to its rescue; and if you have understood the benefit it received from a gentle shower of life restoring rain, then you will have no difficulty in appreciating how obliged we all are to the MOTHER OF GOD who was sent from heaven to bring refreshment to our race, made more wretched and miserable in its sin than this garden you saw was by the scorching rays of the sun. This is the sweet thought of two great servants of the Virgin: firstly, the pious St Bonaventure[2] who says:

The arrival of Mary was just like a longed for shower of rain bringing joy to all creatures and restoring to them the ancient greenery and life they had lost;

and secondly, the learned and eloquent bishop of Ostia[3], who declares

She was the spring feeding a river which, dividing into four branches, watered not only the Paradise of pleasure, but also the whole earth[4].

Footnotes

[1] parterre (the same word in French and English): a level space in a garden occupied by an ornamental arrangement of flower beds. 

[2] Speculi B. Virg., c. 7.

[3] Petr. Dam., Serm. de Annuntiat.

[4] Gen. ii. 10.

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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.

© Peter Bloor 2025

Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 6 : § 10.4-5

Chapter 6 :  The Fifth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the Mother of the world to come and Redeemer of our race

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 10. The deliverance of prisoners : the fourth fruit of mankind’s restoration by the Blessed Virgin

 4   It was in this way that the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled: The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen[1], which came to bring joy to them, all thanks to the blessed Virgin,

through whom, says Saint Bernard[2], we have been able to lift up our heads and to enjoy the pleasant light streaming upon us from Heaven, of which we had been deprived for such a long time.

Cardinal Peter Damien observes[3] that, although the first man had been created under the beautiful light of the midday sun in the image and likeness of his Creator, once he consented to sin he found himself enveloped in darkness and from that moment onwards a cloud of mourning covered the face of the Earth and, until the Holy Virgin was conceived, no one could be found who was able to escape the shadows, much less to lead others out of their plight. This was in fact far from being the case because the longer the world went on, the worse our confusion and the deeper the darkness of the shadow of death became. The children of Adam remained plunged in this darkness until finally the Holy Virgin rose over the horizon like a beautiful dawn, bringing with her the promise of the coming sunrise, which would enable the first man to see once again the beautiful noonday light in which he had been created but which he had enjoyed so little.

This was the time, says St Gregory Thaumaturgus[4], when we saw the first rays of the light of reason appearing; a time when we discovered the fount of wisdom and immortality. 

This was the time, says St Germanus of Constantinople[5], when the Virgin appeared just like a beautiful star in the night sky, causing the darkness to melt away and man’s prison to be filled with light.

This was a time when we saw that beautiful dawn which St Gregory calls the hope of the Sun[6], rising over our hemisphere; or perhaps this is better described by the words of St Epiphanius[7] as a source from whose bottomless depths light poured forth, flooding everywhere so as to banishing darkness from the world.

This was the time, said St Andrew of Jerusalem[8], when the ancient Fathers who were confined in the dark cave of their silent grief, saw in the birth of the Blessed Virgin (just as if they were using the alidade[9] of an astrolabe) the Sun emerging in glory from the clouds, vanquishing the night, and sending His rays into the remotest corners of their sad dwelling place.

Footnotes

[1] Isai. ix. 2.

[2] Epist. ad Lugdun. canonic.

[3] Serm. de Assumpt.

[4] Orat. 2 de Annuntiat.

[5] Orat. de Nativit. Virg.

[6] Lib. IV Moral., c. 14.

[7] Serm. de S. Deipara.

[8] Serm. de Annuntiat.

[9] alidade : a pivoted sighting device or pointer which can be aligned against a circular scale of degrees and typically forms part of an astrolabe.

 5   The light was immediately followed by a sense of joy – just as the darkness had been followed by sadness and grief. This is why the same St Andrew of Jerusalem calls the most sacred Virgin the instrument and the mother of joy[1]; the priest Hesychius[2] calls her the principle and point of origin for rejoicing. She herself confirmed to St Bridget[3] that her nativity brought with it general happiness throughout the world, an idea which is echoed by the Church. 

Reason requires this to be so, says St Gregory of Nyssa[4]; for just as the first woman after sinning had been condemned to a life of tears and sorrow, in the same way the second woman was destined to restore us in grace and bring happiness back into our hearts; the former brought upon herself the pains of labour before and during her deliveries, the latter was to recognise through the abundance of her joy that in truth she had within her the fountain of all joy; the former allowed sin its first entry into the world, opening a great gate, as it were, to weeping and lamentation; by conceiving and bringing forth the fruit of life, the latter became accordingly the mother of our happiness.

The majority of the Fathers have perceived this truth hidden in the first words spoken by the celestial Paranymph[5], and it is right and proper for all of us to rejoice at the good news since the first words pronounced for our restoration brought reasons for rejoicing.

Joy be to thee, most Holy Virgin! are the words addressed to her by St Gregory of Neocaesarea[6], because all that cometh from thee bringeth what is joyful, proper and good. Joy be to thee, since thou art the abode of supercelestial joy. Joy be to thee, since through thee, men recover the joy they had lost and are restored to the place of honour they once occupied.

Joy be to thee, are the words addressed to her by the pious Chrysippus[7], since thou hast within thee the treasure of all the world’s joy, namely the very King of joy and grace.

The blessed Martyr Methodius made use of a particularly evocative expression, calling her[8] the beginning, the middle and the end of all our rejoicing. Each one of us can gather from this how reasonable it is for her to have such a significant part in our rejoicings and how it is in her that our feasts have their beginning, their realization and their fulfilment; in short, how fitting it is for her to feature in the majority of them since she was in truth the origin of all of them.

Footnotes

[1] Serm. de Annuntiat.

[2] Orat. de S. Deipara.

[3] Lib. VI Revel., c. 56.

[4] Homil. 13 in Cant.

[5] Paranymph = Gabriel;  in ancient Greece and in the Middle Ages, paranymph was a name given to the lord or young man charged with escorting the bride to the dwelling of her spouse. (OED and Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, 9e édition).

[6] Serm. 2 de Annuntiat.

[7] Orat. de S. Deipara.

[8] Serm. in Hypapante.

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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.

© Peter Bloor 2025

Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 6 : § 10.1-3

Chapter 6 :  The Fifth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the Mother of the world to come and Redeemer of our race

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 10. The deliverance of prisoners : the fourth fruit of mankind’s restoration by the Blessed Virgin

 1   The pious Abbot of Igny[1] (in the region of Champagne) is right to criticise the superstitious hypocrisy of the wicked King Achaz[2] who, having received a commandment from God to ask for a sign from Him and confirmation of the miracle He wished to perform for his afflicted people,  stubbornly refused to obey. He covered his disobedience under the false pretext of the fear he pretended to have of tempting God – as if there could be any danger of obeying God with humility and with simplicity of heart; and as if, moreover, his own idolatry and the fear he had that God would not be glorified by some miracle from Heaven, were not known to all.

As for us, continues the eloquent Abbot[3], we have no intention of being so dismissive; we welcome with open arms this sign of peace that it has pleased God to give us; and from the very bottom of our hearts we recognise the Holy Virgin not only as the one who will set us at peace with the most High in heaven, but also as the one who would deliver us from the very depths of hell. There, she has undone the Gordian knot tied by the first woman; there, she has crushed the serpent's head, and made him disgorge the prey he had already swallowed; there, she cast down the gates of Hell and scattered the guards holding man prisoner, restoring him to his first freedom, and making it possible for him to breathe once again the sweet air of his ancient liberty; there, she shackled the tyrant with the same fetters that he had used upon his prisoner's, and made of him a laughing stock for all.

If you only had the time and patience, as St John Chrysostom once said[4], I would be able to give you a guided tour and show you the post where death was bound and strangled, the gibbet where sin was hanged, and all the other signs of this famous victory. You would be able to go and see the tyrant laden with shackles followed by a great gang of prisoners; and you would be able to inspect the filthy hovels in his fortress, along with the flesh-devouring warders of this predatory prison. Those of his underlings charged with administering his savage justice are now bound with the very manacles and cords they had been using to strangle and kill their prey.

Great God! How pleasing it is to hear this news, and what hymns of praise and thanksgiving shall we sing to the valiant warrior-woman who hath delivered us from these wretched conditions?

Footnotes

[1] Serm. 3 de Annuntiat.

[2] Isai. vii. 10 et seq.

[3] Serm. 3 de Annuntiat.

[4] Homil. 2 in Matth.

 2   It is interesting to read what Chrysippus[2], Priest of Jerusalem, once wrote about how demented the devil became and how he screamed in fury when he found himself bound and shackled.

What can this be? he wondered to himself. What hath brought about this sudden change? What hath happened to her who once served me so faithfully, but who is now attacking me and hath conspired to bring about my downfall? A woman it was who placed the sceptre in my hand and a crown upon my head; but now it is another woman who hath torn the sceptre from my hand, and who doth trample my diadem beneath her feet. What new thing hath come to pass that hath so vanquished me that I now do see myself made prisoner – me, who was accustomed to keeping others under lock and key? What am I to believe of this woman who doth so ravage my empire? By means of her Son she hath healed those whom I had infected with various maladies, she hath delivered them that were in my possession, she hath brought back to life my dead, she hath set free my captives, she hath emptied my prisons: in short, what harm or damage is there that she hath not inflicted upon me? Yes, I say “she,” for I am speaking of her whom I know very well hath been the cause of all this. Were I never to have gone for that foolish woman in the garden who allowed herself to be deceived by my words, I would not have found myself thus confounded and cast down into this abyss; I would not be seeing my slaves set free, not only recovering their ancient liberty but receiving new honours and favours more excellent than the ones they possessed before.

These are the words given to the Prince of the wicked spirits by this learned and eloquent Doctor[2].

Footnotes

[1] Orat. de Laudib. Mariæ.

[2] Serm. 2 de Nativit. Domini.

 3   Peter of Blois, Archdeacon of London, wrote a commentary on the words of Ezechiel[1] where it is written that: And he brought me to the gate that looked towards the east. The Prophet was speaking here in the person of Adam and his children who were in the prison of their captivity, no more nor less than were he to have said: 

For so many long years I have been exiled from my home country, cast out into this place of misery and locked in this prison; I have looked all around so many times to find some way out, but always in vain. For neither Heaven nor earth have been able to offer me help, and how could men help me since they were included just as much as I was in the sentence of banishment? Even the Angels were not able to deliver me; in short, it seemed nothing in the world could help until finally I turned my gaze to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which is none other than the MOTHER OF GOD. For the gate of the inner sanctuary and of the Son’s Divinity being the Father, from whom He proceeds by eternal generation, it follows that the gate of the outer sanctuary must be the Mother of the Word Incarnate, from whom He proceeded by temporal generation, so that He might come to rescue man from the abyss into which he had fallen. She is the true gate of the East, inasmuch as it was through her that the Sun of Justice entered the prison of the world, to enlighten them that were confined in darkness and buried in the shadow of death.

Footnotes

[1] Ezech. xliii & xliv.

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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.

© Peter Bloor 2025

Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 6 : § 9.5-7

Chapter 6 :  The Fifth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the Mother of the world to come and Redeemer of our race

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 9. Adam’s recall from exile and his renewal : third fruit of the restoration of men by the Blessed Virgin

 5   At the conclusion of her speech, Mercy knelt and kissed the foot of God’s throne; Justice did the same and then they both withdrew so that deliberation on the issue could duly proceed. The matter having been opened up for consultation, sundry opinions were expressed and various ways forward were proposed, but all of these inclined towards clemency, because Mercy’s moving address had produced a powerful impression on those who heard it. 

When this stage was over and all had submitted their thoughts and opinions, the matter was remitted to the judgement of uncreated Wisdom. As He spoke, it was clear how highly He esteemed the reasoning in Mercy’s speech, and there was no one present who was not astonished, as well as moved by a sense of relief. The conclusion of His judgement was that it was necessary to save man, at whatever price; that both mercy and justice must be satisfied; that achieving this would require infinite power; this matter pertained to Him in person, for it was fitting and proper that His creatures should be saved and restored through Him, since they had been made by Him; He accepted that He would be the idea and the exemplar for their restoration just as He had been when they were first brought into being; in order to achieve this, He would offer Himself up to His Eternal Father, being ready to obey His will in any way required. He saw clearly that He would have to unite Himself to this human nature in order to give it a new being, and He was entirely willing to take on this role. 

Amongst the daughters of Eve, however, there was not one without stain of sin and not one who had the necessary qualities to be the Mother and the Spouse that He would want – and who would be able to help Him bring this undertaking to its conclusion, which was to be the redemption of men. Accordingly, with the assent of His Father, He conceived the idea of a woman who would be pleasing to Him in every regard, capable of being employed on such a sublime yet demanding project, and in whom the enemy of mankind would find nothing to exploit: in a word, someone who possessed all the perfections proper to her who was to be the Mother and Spouse of God, as well as the Queen and Reparatrix of the world. 

No sooner had this speech concluded, than the Father of all goodness ordered Mercy and Justice to be recalled. Having briefly explained to them what had been decided, He ordered them to exchange the kiss of peace and from that moment onwards to work together to the best of their abilities for the restoration and rehabilitation of fallen man. At this same moment, all the Blessed Spirits prostrated themselves on the ground, crying aloud: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts! Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of His glory[1].

Here then is how the blessed Virgin played her part in God’s designs and in His revocation of the first sentence banishing Adam and depriving him of all his estates.

Footnotes

[1] Isaiah vi 3.

 6   It is possible that some will pull me up and say that this is simply a poetic invention or no more than a simple meditation. To these I would reply, firstly, that the invention is based upon what we discover in the words of the Holy Spirit, who said through the pen of the prophet David[1] that Mercy and Truth have met each other: and that Justice and Peace have kissed. Secondly, I would say that the effects we see are unmistakable signs of the will of God and His plans; from the way that everything came to pass, it is easy to conclude how it was planned and implemented. Thirdly, I would make clear how I have said nothing that does not follow the Holy Fathers who have supplied me with a good and solid basis for what I have written. It is now fourteen hundred years since St Gregory of Neocaesarea spoke to the MOTHER OF GOD in the following terms[2]:

Thou wast the starting point for our rehabilitation; through thee we have regained hope of returning into Paradise; through thee our tears have been wiped away and peace hath replaced the tribulation of our grief.

After him St Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, called her[3]:

The one who raised us up after the fall of our first parents, and the one who conveyed their poor lost children safely back to a state of peace and tranquillity.

The Angel who spoke to St Briget[4] gave her to understand that:

it was with good reason that the Blessed Virgin could be called the tree of life, forasmuch as she was given to the world as an antidote to heal the poison of the forbidden fruit, and as a sign confirming the return of poor Adam to the place from which he had been banished.

He goes on to say that:

Adam is not found disobeying God after his first transgression but from that point onwards He began to offer contrition and reparation in a way befitting his sin. After the fratricide committed by Cain, his elder son, he determined to cease cohabiting with his wife unless he received a command from God to do so for the propagation of men. In order to provide some consolation, God revealed to him how His Word would become flesh as a man and that He would be born from Adam’s descendants. Adam concluded that this would never be achieved in the ordinary and common manner but that God would choose a Virgin worthy of counteracting the first woman and of undoing the effects of the crime she had committed.

 

Accordingly, just as it made him infinitely unhappy to think of the evil brought into the world by Eve’s secret conversation with the serpent, in the same way there was no limit to the joy he felt when contemplating the agreement between the Virgin and the Angel. Just as it caused affliction in his heart that a woman drawn from his side should have opened the door to death, so he rejoiced at the thought of another woman who would come from his race and make life come once again into the world. Just as he felt such sadness at the first woman’s presumption, so he found great consolation in the humility of the second. Just as he was angered by the haughtiness of the former, so did he rejoice in the modesty of the latter. Just as he regretted that the word of one would have led to perdition for him and his children, so he adored God in his goodness for accepted the word of the other which would lead to redemption being made possible for all. In the end, it was for these reasons that he yearned unceasingly for the coming of Mary and that he prayed continuously that Heaven would soon send her so that all things might be restored.

For this same reason, St John Damascene[5] attributes to Adam and his wife words which show their acknowledgement and gratitude, making them say to the MOTHER OF GOD:

Blessed art thou, most Holy daughter, given to us from Heaven so that by means of thee the punishments that we have all endured have been removed. Thou hast received a mortal body like ours in order to clothe us once more with immortality. We caused paradise to be closed off but thou hast opened it up again, along with the path leading to the tree of life. We exchanged happiness for tears, but thou hast brought joy to replace mourning. In short, all I can say to thee is that if we have been accepted into Heaven through a new grace, then thou art the ladder enabling us to make our way up to the Celestial destination.

Footnotes

[1] Ps. LXXXIV. 11.

[2] Serm. de Annuntiat.

[3] Orat. de Nativit. B. Virg.

[4] Serm. Angelici, c. 21.

[5] Orat. 2 de Assumpt.

 7   It would now be natural to follow an explanation of how, by means of the Virgin, man was delivered from the domination and tyranny of Satan in order to be restored to his first liberty, this being the fourth fruit of his restoration. We shall, however be discussing this at the end of Part Two where I aim to show how completely she overthrew the kingdom of the devil and cast down his altars.

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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.

© Peter Bloor 2025

Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 6 : § 9.3-4

Chapter 6 :  The Fifth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the Mother of the world to come and Redeemer of our race

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 9. Adam’s recall from exile and his renewal : third fruit of the restoration of men by the Blessed Virgin

 3   Consider the extreme wretchedness to which they have been reduced and the penance they have suffered already for such a long time: are these not enough to touch the heart and soften the feelings of Justice? How many times has the sun risen and how many centuries have elapsed since that moment when they were cast into a harsh exile and banished from Thy presence? Even the most barbarian peoples would feel pity to see them in their present condition, after enduring for such a long time attacks from all creatures in revolt against them. 

Consider their heads turned towards the ground, their wan and haggard faces, their backs scorched by the heat of the sun, their frenetic thoughts running wild, their debauched appetites, their disordered minds, their wills inclined to every depravity: are these punishments not sufficiently severe, and are these not compelling reasons which call for a compassionate response? Consider the worst scenario for them: when you have cut them all off and thrown them down into the deepest pit of Hell: what will be left for Thy greatness and how could such a result be of any service to Thee?

 4   I have an idea of the response that will be made to me and it seems I will be told that if my reasoning is sound then it should also be applied to the apostate Angels, provoking jealousy in Heaven if some are forgiven and others are treated harshly. I can see that if this stumbling block is not removed then those whom I am representing cannot allow themselves to have any sort of hope whatsoever; but either I am mistaken or there can be no doubt of the great difference between Angels and men – this goes without saying. Thou knowest the truth of what I am going to say, most Excellent Majesty, for nothing is hidden from Thee. The Angel found himself cast into misfortune solely through his own malice, he was determined in his own will and had a perfect knowledge of what he was doing; man, however, sinned through his weakness, through lack of prudence and in haste. The Angel was not ensnared by any other, but man did not have the knowledge or skill to avoid the traps that the evil one had laid for him. The Angel persisted stubbornly in his pride but man hath prayed thousands of times for his sin to be forgiven. The Angel separated himself and set himself against Thee, he built his own altar in opposition to Thine, he wanted to make himself adored everywhere, he opposed himself to Thy glory in every possible way; man was like a poor dove caught in a snare and he allowed himself to be deceived but was content to stay within the limits of his own confusion without mounting an attack on Thy honours and without seeking to overthrow Thy throne. The Angel fell through his own fault; man was lost by another’s. 

If the fall of the Angel was a truly lamentable event, we are nevertheless left with this consolation : namely, that not all Angelic nature perished, for more Angels remained true than fell. Thy majesty knoweth this well enough and the signal services that His Majesty receives every day, plus the honours that He deriveth from them, are more than sufficient proofs of this. If, however, poor Adam is allowed to remain in his present state, it is over not only for him but for all human nature from top to bottom, without a single soul remaining who is not held captive in this misfortune. Even though Thy court and Thy happiness subsist within Thyself, and Thy courtiers wish for nothing so long as they possess Thee, nevertheless if we are able to detect any sorrow in heaven then we find it in those vast areas which are empty and deserted, and those seats groaning at never being filled by those for whom they were prepared. In truth, will the Angelic nature be able to hold back its tears on seeing fellow creatures lost forever and deprived of all hope of being able to escape from their condition? 

Furthermore, most Adorable Majesty, dost Thou have any sense of the significance of this loss and of the great breach, so to speak, that it maketh in thy Crown? I accept that it is within thy power to cast them all into everlasting perdition and, if this were Thy will, then no one could have reason to complain; in this, as in everything else, everyone adores Thine incomprehensible judgments. If, however, Thou art minded to show mercy, then the solution is within Thy hands. The extreme wretchedness of these unfortunates is such as to make their voices heard on high and the whole of Thy court is asking Thee for this mercy through my mouth; Thine own goodness calls upon Thee, urging Thee not to cast off those whom Thou couldst so easily save, and whose rehabilitation would in future bring Thee more honour and glory than Thou wouldst receive from their ruin.

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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.

© Peter Bloor 2025

Part II : The Crown of Power : Chapter 6 : § 8.5 > § 9.1-2

Chapter 6 :  The Fifth Star or Splendour of the Crown of Power of the MOTHER OF GOD

She is the Mother of the world to come and Redeemer of our race

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 8. A curse transformed into a blessing : the second fruit of mankind’s restoration by the Blessed Virgin

 5   In short, this is why the Holy Fathers refer Adam and Eve, and all their children generally who experience the fruits of the first curse, to this holy Mother who enables them to see things anew and is for them a source of rejoicing and renewal.

I have already caught wind of the good news, says St Bernard[1], to be heard and taken in by Eve and all her daughters who give birth and are born with the pains of labour. They need only to pay heed and listen attentively to the words of the Angel. Take courage, poor Adam; and thou poor Eve especially – take courage and thou wilt find consolation in the daughter that God has granted thee: the time hath now come when the opprobrium thou hast endured will be lifted from thee and it will no longer be permissible for Adam to say that the woman he received from God led him into the snares of Satan; but rather he will be forced to confess that it was by means of a woman that he was rescued from those snares. Make haste, therefore, Eve and go to Mary; let the daughter answer for the mother; let her bring to an end the excuses and imputations of her father; forasmuch as the man who was brought down by a woman hath been restored not only by a woman, but by a woman who is wise, succeeding the one who acted unwisely; by a humble woman, who hath been given to him in place of a proud woman; and by a woman who giveth him life, replacing her who caused death to swallow him up. 

St Augustine[2] issues a special invitation to all women, in whatever condition they find themselves:

to come and offer veneration to her who hath restored them in honour: 

• the virgins – to offer their duties of state to the Princess of virgins; 
• those who are married – to her who is the very idea of someone with a good and holy marriage; 
• those who are mothers – to the model for mothers; and
• those who nurse babes and sucklings – to the most chaste nursing mother in the world. 

As for me, I feel the need to summon people of all ages, conditions and professions, and not leave out anyone amongst the children of men; inviting them to come and offer their veneration and their service unto her because, as is observed by St John of Neocaesarea[3], she has brought blessings for both sexes, for people of every age and every condition in the world.

Footnotes

[1] Homil. 2 in Assumpt.

[2] Serm. 15 de Tempore.

[3] Serm. 1 de Annuntiat.

§ 9. Adam’s recall from exile and his renewal : third fruit of the restoration of men by the Blessed Virgin

 1   Never did the world know a day more serene and more filled with joy than when God made the decision to show mercy to poor Adam, who had been condemned and exiled from Paradise, stripped of his nobility and all his honours. This was also the day chosen by Providence to give hope to the criminal that there would be a happy outcome to his case. In the end, God had given in to the requests and arguments of friends and agreed that the parties should have their day in court so that their cases might be examined. Once He was seated upon His throne and the Princes, Lords and Officers of the Crown had taken their places, Justice and Mercy were summoned by a herald and led into the middle of the assembly where they were to present their addresses to the court. 

Justice was clad in a crimson mantle embroidered with the scales of justice and, after making a profound bow to the King whose face shone that day with extraordinary majesty, she was the first to speak, her face on fire with zeal. She opened her speech by declaring that she found it hard to believe the court would have any purpose other than to issue a judgement increasing the penalties of this public enemy (as she called poor Adam). Insofar as it had been his first offence, it was clear that he had been treated with excessive leniency, and that his crime deserved further punishments, not only by reason of the person whose commandment he had scornfully rejected, but also for the lack of any reason he had for his crime and for the intolerable contempt that he had shown in this matter of a wretched mouthful of apple. He continued by saying that if we were to proceed further and consider the way in which Adam and his descendants behaved subsequently, we would find that instead of amending their ways through penitence they had piled up sin upon sin, and seemed to have no other aim than to stir up their Creator’s anger still further, drawing down new punishments upon their heads. Further, His Majesty knew better than any other the enormity of the endless crimes which had been committed in the world, and that the only way of bringing the insolent behaviour to an end was to apply vengeance at the earliest possible opportunity and to eliminate them all. Further, if it were decided to rehabilitate them, then it would be necessary to pardon at the same time the fallen Angels, or to provide a good reason for those Blessed Spirits to repent who saw men rehabilitated and their companions lost without hope of a reprieve. Furthermore, she added, what fitting satisfaction could be expected from them which could match the enormity of their iniquities? No, even were they to tear themselves into a little pieces, or to weep rivers of tears by way of reparation, this would be as nothing compared to the price demanded by their iniquity. Accordingly, she concluded, they should receive a heavy weight of new penalties by a way of reprimand for their temerity; in the alternative, they should be cleansed from the world and made companions in the misfortune of those whose advice they had followed and whose transgressions they had imitated.

 2   During the whole of this speech, the effect of which was to embitter people’s spirits and to make them abandon any thoughts of gentleness and forgiveness which they might have had for men, the eyes of those present came for the most part to be fixed upon Mercy, who finally was constrained to lower her veil, so as not to suffer from the distress caused by the words of Justice, and even more so the great tears which trickled down her cheeks, and the sobs which she found difficult to control. Justice had scarcely concluded her speech when all eyes turned towards Mercy to see what she was going to say in response. The hearts of all those who saw her were touched by her gentleness, her constancy, her weeping and her white apparel, modest and well cared for; but they felt anxious for her and for the party that she was representing, fearing that this would not turn out in a way befitting her honour. Then, after pausing to wipe away her tears and to compose herself, she bowed low, with her face towards the ground and her eyes lowered. 

She then spoke in the following manner: Most Sovereign Majesty, if those before whom I am speaking had the least suspicion in the world that I should want to undertake the defence of a wretched man to the prejudice of Thy honour and your glory, then this would stop my speech in its tracks, and I would avoid adding a single word. I appreciate what I owe to Thy greatness, and the obligations upon me to honour it. I think, however, that everyone believes that the duty in which I am bound to Thy service is capable of loosening my tongue and gives me the courage and determination to continue in order to point out in all humility the glory that would be Thine in recalling and rehabilitating a poor man who is in extreme distress. In this, I ask Thee to remember that the greatness of Thy majesty shows itself incomparably more in actions of gentleness and kindness rather than than in loud threats and the dread of torture. Fittingly, it is through love and the effects of generosity that Thou art known by Thyr creatures; this is what wins their hearts and their love; this is what Thou hast in Thyself and which emanates from Thy essence; whereas when it comes to severity and punishment, you Thou art reacting to their offences and are constrained to behave in a way contrary to Thy natural inclinations. 

As far as I am concerned, I confess that, far from wanting the exoneration of Adam and his children, on the contrary in this I am on the side of Justice, my venerable sister, who in this regard has been too sparing. I accept that men’s crimes are great and their iniquities multiply every day; but what else can be expected from them, since they have been cut off from the help of Heaven, being left prey to their evil inclinations and the movements of their corrupt nature? What can be expected, except that they will pile misfortune upon misfortune and they will fall down the rocks until they are completely crushed and find themselves at the bottom of the precipice? On the other hand, if Heaven shows itself but once favourable to their wretched condition and if Thy infinite goodness, which alone can renew them, holds out a hand to them, I have a firm hope that they will get back on their feet, which will enable them to offer service and honour to Thee. Finally, they do not have hearts of stone, nor are they steelyin their indifference; humility is in their nature and may be drawn out through gentleness; love alone is capable of achieving anything you would want in this respect.

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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.

© Peter Bloor 2025