Chapter Xvii,
CHAPTER XVII,
The Worship of Mary— Writings of St. Bonaventure in Honour of Mary.
" Matrem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi indicibili complectebatur amore, eo quod Dominum majestatis fratrem nobis effecerit, et per eam simus misericordiam consecuti.
In ipsa post Christum przecipue fidens, eam sui ac suorum advocatum constituit.""—Lrc. SANCTI FRANCISCI.
WHILE the zeal of St. Bonaventure embraced the most distant heathen nations, and provided for their needs, it watched with equal care over the Catholic people of Europe, and over his brethren in the Order of St. Francis, to promote those virtues which raise our souls above this earth and make them to be acceptable sanctuaries of God.
We have spoken of the sermons of the Saint, his writings on the religious life, his efforts to encourage piety at the Court of France, and to guide the daughters of St. Clare to the full perfection of their sublime institution ; but
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in the wide field of the life of our illustrious Saint, there still remain many sweet flowers for us to gather, and many delicious fruits to taste.
We have said nothing hitherto of his works in honour of Mary, and yet he has written magnificent pages on the Blessed Virgin, in which he leads his children to bless her name, and to invoke her powerful aid; he declares her greatness to the world, and teaches all to seek in her protection, a safe refuge against the dangers of the present and the fears of the future.
We have also still to consider the mystic writings of St.
Bonaventure, his poems and expositions of the Sacred Books.
In his noble life there was time for everything, in spite of his numberless occupations, and divine love was the unchanging motive of all that he did.
Devotion to Mary, which was born in the cradle of Christianity, and is inseparably connected with the worship rendered to the Saviour of men, has grown from age to age, more keen and fervent, among all Christian people.
Like an ineffable fragrance, her sweetness has penetrated wherever there were sorrows to calm, bitter griefs to console, hopes to raise, great
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designs to establish, successes to ensure.
All the great men of the Christian world have looked with confiding trust to Mary, and with her blessing they have fearlessly undertaken the gigantic enterprises to which they were inspired by their zeal.
But it was especially in the Middle Ages that this sweet devotion reached its height.
The nations then seemed to rest on Mary as on an immovable foundation, the chiefs of the Religious Orders submitted their pious families to her patronage, Doctors offered her the homage of their learning, Saints contemplated her as an infallible guide in the way of Christ, the defenders of the Truth looked to her to obtain their triumphs, kings consecrated their crowns to her service, cities all over the world raised in her honour huge basilicas and temples, where piety displayed itself in the magnificence of art, and all the earth seemed full of the praise of Mary.
St. Francis and St. Dominic, the two most famous 'personages of the thirteenth century, had vowed a special love to Mary.
St. Dominic, in all his laborious missions, looked for the conversion of heretics by means of her tender love
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for sinners, and the fruits of his confidence are well known.
Of St. Francis we are told by St.
Bonaventure that he "had for the Mother of Jesus Christ an unspeakable affection, because the Lord of All Majesty has, by her, become our brother, and because we have, by her interposition, obtained mercy.
Therefore after our Lord and Saviour, he put his confidence in her, and chose her to be his advocate and that of his children."
Thus we see that devotion toMary was a tradition in the Franciscan Order, and St. Bonaventure ardently tried to increase its fervour.
At the Chapters of Narbonne, of Pisa, and of Assisi, he made several regulations with regard to it.
The most important of these is that which obliges the brothers to recite every evening, at the sound of the bell, three times the Angelic Salutation, in memory of the blessing of the Incarnation, in which Mary took so admirable a part; and the religious in their sermons were urged to lead their people to adopt this pious use.
Already many holy persons had been in the habit of practising such an act of devotion, even at the beginning
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of the century, but St. Bonaventure was the most ardent promoter of it. It afterwards, as we know, extended throughout the whole Church ; and soon everywhere, three times a day, the sound of the bell invited the faithful to honour the most glorious of the privileges of Mary, the privilege of her Divine Maternity, united, as it was, to that of her Virginity.
St. Bonaventure also revived an ordinance previously given by St. Francis to his children, that of singing a solemn Mass every Saturday in honour of the Blessed Virgin; and since his time, this practice, like that of the ' Angelus," has become a recognised custom in the Church.
On one occasion the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Bonaventure, and fixing her eyes earnestly on him, she said to him:
"O my dear son, write," and then the vision passed away.
This was enough for the Saint.
He understood at once what was the will of God, and set himself to write out a Rule for those who wished to show her special honour, giving to this pious association, as a distinctive mark, a red and white cross, which each member was to wear on his shoulder.
This was at the time of the
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Crusades, and it was well understood that in spiritual, as well as in terrestrial, warfare, all soldiers should be enrolled under the standard of Christ.
This association took the name of the " Confraternity of the Holy Standard": the cross worn by its members, by its whiteness, was to recall the purity of Our Lady, and by its red colour, the love which burned in the Soul of Jesus, when He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the salvation of the world.
This society, being regarded as the mother of all other associations formed since then, in honour of Mary, has since been created an Arch-confraternity.
How often in his sermons did St. Bonaventure, while praising the Divine Son, the Saviour of the world, speak in thrilling accents the praises of His holy mother Mary, and when he spoke of her, his language became so tender and so sweet that it won the hearts of his hearers to greater confidence and love.
To these discourses the Saint added many writings, intended to promote devotion to his
Sovereign Lady.
He became a poet in singing of her, and paraphrased the Psalter of David.
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185, He also composed the Office of Compassion, and a work called the Mirror of the Blessed Virgin ; and in many of his writings we find her treated of in a truly celestial spirit.
It is only possible to give a few extracts from these works, which convey but a feeble idea of their beauty and their merit.
"As I desire, for the glory and honour of Jesus Christ our Lord, to write something for the glory and praise of His glorious mother, I have thought it well to take for my subject the 'Salutation' which we address to her.
But I do not hesitate to confess my total insufficiency for such a work, whether because of the immense difficulties which surround so great a subject, or because of the extreme feebleness of my knowledge, the dryness of my language, the utter unworthiness of my life, or, lastly, because of the boundless praise which she is worthy to receive, whose honour I undertake to celebrate.
"Praise is not beautiful when it comes from the lips of a sinner ; how, then, shall a miserable man like me dare to raise his voice in honour of Mary?
. Assuredly my holiness and my eloquence are too feeble to enable me to praise the blessed
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and glorious Virgin in a suitable manner.
What, then, is the good of adding a drop of water to the ocean? Mary has been exalted by the words of God and of His angels, what more, then, can my weak efforts contribute to her glory? ..
"Yet, O Mary, my kind Sovereign, be pleased to accept the present which thy poor friend offers thee.
It is with this little work on thy 'Salutation' that I salute thee; that, prostrate on the earth, I salute thee with heart and lips, and, bowing my head, I cry: ' Hail Mary'."
The Doctor then proceeds to dilate on the privileges, the graces, and the virtues which all men admire in Mary.
He regards her as the Virgin exempt from the curse of original sin, from the curse of actual sin, and from the curse of hell; the Virgin who is justly called the "Star of the Sea" and the ''Sovereign Queen".
She is the Virgin who is blessed because of the greatness of her Son, and because of the plenitude of grace bestowed on her.
She is blessed because of the Fruit of her Womb—that Fruit in which the world finds a remedy for all its evils, and the source of all happiness in time and in eternity.
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In another of his works, he initiates us into the most sublime mysteries of the Passion of our Lord, and on the way to Calvary he meets the Mother of Jesus, and waits to offer her his compassion, and to ask that he may share her woe.
"Close to the Cross of Jesus stands His Mother.
O my Sovereign Lady, where were you?
Not only near the Cross, but extended on it, with your Son.
There were you crucified in heart; His wounds afflicted all your body, and were all united in your heart.
There, O my *_ Queen, that heart was pierced by the lance, crowned with thorns; there was it wounded by cruel mockings, opprobrium, and injuries, and fed with vinegar and gall.
O my Queen, why didst you thus sacrifice yourself? ..
. O my Sovereign Lady, I desire to contemplate your heart, but there is nothing left of it but myrrh, absinthe, and gall...
"Bither take away my life, or wound my heart, for I am covered with shame and confusion when I see Jesus, my Lord, thus murdered, and you, my Queen, wounded by His pains, while I, the most unworthy of your
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servants, am free from the least suffering.
Ah!
I know what I will do: prostrate at your feet, I will pray unceasingly, with tears and groans; I will lift up my voice, and my importunity at last shall make you grant my request.
. ."
But sometimes the Saint writes in a different tone, for tears and sadness are not the only possessions of the Saviour's friends, nor is their love always tinged with bitterness.
We have from his. pen a paraphrase of the Angelic Salutation, and another of the "Salve Regina," in which are expressed all the feelings which fill the souls of Saints—confidence, joy, hope, love, sorrow, and humility: in them are to be found expressed all the pious emotions of which a pure and devoted heart is capable, and almost one fears to choose a passage from them, when, as a whole, they are so full of beauty and of grace.
"O Clemens, O Pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria:
O Virgin, you are clement to those who are poor, tender to those who pray, sweet to those who love you!
O Virgin, kind to those who repent, tender to those who advance in goodness, sweet to those who contemplate you!
O Virgin, clement in your consolations, tender
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in your caresses, sweet in your embraces!
O Virgin, kind to those who are subject to you, tender towards those who are trying to correct their faults, sweet to those whom you love!
O clement, O tender, O sweet Virgin Mary. Amen."
CuHaPprer XVIII.
Poetry of the Middle Ages—The Praises of the Cross.
'Carmen pertinet ad sanctos, qui ad Dei canticum provocantur."'
THE age in which lived St. Louis, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas of Aquin was not only an age of profound thinkers and great theologians, of gigantic monuments of piety and humble devotion, but also it was an age of beautiful poetry.
° Since the period which has been derisively called that of the '' Renaissance," the world has looked disdainfully on the Catholic age.
Because, in the Middle Ages, Christians esteemed their treasures too great to need to borrow from paganism its terrestrial inspirations and tastes; because they thought their flower-strewn fields sufficiently fragrant, without reaching out their hands to gather the withered blossoms of earth; because they felt themselves too strong to need foreign
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IgI support—they have been accused of weakness : injury and contempt have been lavished upon them, it has even been declared that faith is incapable of furnishing genius with the noble inspirations of poetry.
But in our days men who hold their holy faith dear have cleared it from the imputation of having been sterile in the days of its greatest triumphs, or like a field which is destitute of flowers.
One such writer says:
"Never has poetry played so important and so popular a part as in the thirteenth century.
Europe then seemed to be a vast azelier of poetry, whence issued every day some new work...
_ Epic poems, odes, satires, elegies, the drama itself, were as familiar to the poets of that period as to those of the time of Augustus and of Louis
XIV.
And when we read their works with the sympathy induced by the religious faith which was their inspiration, with the impartial appreciation of a society where the soul governed matter in so high a degree, with an indifference very easy to be conceived for modern versification— one asks, What has been invented by the writers of more modern times, and what have thought and imagination gained in exchange for the pure
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treasures which they have lost?
For, if only we knew it, every subject that is worthy of literary honour has been sung by those despised poets, and made glorious in the eyes of their contemporaries by their songs.
. There is no secret of the soul which they have not penetrated, no mine of deep feeling which they have failed to explore, not one fibre of the human heart which they have not touched, not one chord of the immortal lyre which they have not waked to melody." * But it is not the province of this volume to dilate on the poetry of the Middle
Ages, except incidentally, in describing the part which the object of this memoir took in such work.
In his poetry, as in his other writings, St.
Bonaventure has maintained his position on the sublime heights to which his genius had raised him.
He does not sing of the world, with its passions, its vain hopes, its frivolous and humiliating desires ; but his heart being absorbed in amore noble love, he does not waste his affections on things of earth, which abuse and soil the soul.
The Saviour of mankind, the Cross, the spotless Virgin Mary, are the keynotes of * Montalembert.
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the melody he makes.
Like St. Francis of Assisi, who was his master and his model, divine love _ made him a poet, and the music of his canticles was divine.
The first of his poems he called " Philomel ".
Its object is to recall the benefits of God in the works of Creation and Redemption.
The soul also contemplates in this poem the sorrows of the Saviour, and weeps over "the tender Lamb, the Lamb without spot, crowned with thorns, wounded, covered with blood," and at last, overcome with tears and sorrows, it dies to the world,
_and the poet thus celebrates its death.
"O holy Soul! O tender Rose, Lily of the Valley, precious stone, you who always have abhorred the flesh, happy indeed is your end, in_estimable the manner of your death."
In this manner in the Catholic age, the friends of the Saviour celebrated His gifts to them, and if in our day we speak in finer language, at least we shall not exceed the spirit of love which inspired their words.
The poets of that time would have thought their work imperfect, if, after having celebrated the Savour's praise, they had not associated with Him in their songs, His
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blessed and venerated Mother, and many were the hymns in which pious hearts expressed their tenderness for her, to whose prevailing prayers they looked for hope and consolation.
St.
Bonaventure's works occupy a distinguished place among these holy songs, for no man has ever shown a more filial love to Mary, or sung of her with more enthusiastic joy.
In the Praises of Mary, hespeaks of her under the figures by which she is represented in the Holy
Books.
A few passages will show the tenor of the whole.
"Tender Virgin, you are incomparable, you have deserved to hear the voice of the Angel, and to conceive the Son of God, by the sacred operation of the Holy Spirit.
A virgin before your conception, you remain a virgin still...
In this uncertain world deign to console those who serve you.
'The Law has shown you to us in its figures; the holy pages of the Old Testament have declared you to us by numerous types; and the Incarnation has made you great among women, and raised you far above all creatures.
'** Before the beginning of the world the Lord
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chose you, when in His wisdom He laid the foundations of the heavens.
'"' Rejoice, O Virgin! O Mother, rejoice !
Mingle the accents of your joy with those of Heaven...
. Your glory is beyond all praise. .
. ."
St. Bonaventure also consecrated his poetic vein to celebrate the sign of our salvation.
"Remember the holy Cross, O you who are leading a perfect life ; and at all times seek your happiness in it.
"Remember the holy Cross; let it be the subject of your thoughts; meditate on it incessantly, and never tire.
" Let your heart be on the Cross, and let the Cross be in your heart ; so that it may be without stain, and that peace may reign within it.
'* Let the Cross be in your heart, that it may be in your mouth, that it may make you taste its sweetness.
"In the midst of tribulations of every kind, in afflictions and calamities, the Cross is the sovereign cure.
"The Cross is the gate of Heaven, the Saints have trusted in it, and have conquered.
** The Cross is the salvation of souls ; it is the
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true and shining light, the balm which fills all hearts with joy.
"The Cross is a magnificent tree, which is watered with the Blood of Jesus Christ, and abounds with every kind of fruit.
"Seek the Cross then, bear the Cross, contemplate the Cross of Jesus Christ, till you faint with love.
"© Christians, weep over the death of Jesus, weep day and night, and let it be your chief happiness to mourn for Him.
'Let us weep and sigh; let us lament and mourn from the depth of our hearts, as men lament over an only son.
. ."
Good Christians, at His word, did weep for love of their crucified God ; they wept and they embraced heroic sacrifices.
When men like Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure, and Thomas of Aquin became poets, the world seemed to have returned to the days of David, while in their songs they celebrated the marvels of the power and love of God.
Alas! such men are but rarely seen on earth; and Poetry, the daughter of Heaven, too often forgets her noble vocation, and, by uniting herself to the sons of. earth,
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allows her beauty to be destroyed, her innocence defiled, and her sublimity abased, so that her charms no longer attract souls to heavenly contemplation, but rather draw them down to meretricious earthly joys.