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- Mary, Queen of the
Friars Minor -
According to a pious legend, one day St. Francis of
Assisi had a
vision in which he saw his friars trying to reach Christ by a ladder
that was
red and very steep. After climbing a few rungs, they would suddenly
fall back. Our Lord then showed St. Francis another ladder, white and
much less steep, at whose summit appeared the Blessed Virgin, and He
said to Francis: "Advise your sons to go by the ladder of My Mother."
Among those devotions rich in Franciscan, and
especially Capuchin
Franciscan, tradition is devotion to the Virgin Mother of God. St.
Francis of Assisi was among the greatest Marian devotees in the history
of the Church and, according to the Second
Vita of Thomas of Celano,
had a love for her that was beyond words. "Inexpresseble," he writes of
Francis' love for the Blessed Virgin, "for it was she who made the Lord
of majesty our brother." St. Francis chose her as the patroness and
Queen of the Friars Minor and exhorted his friars to always possess a
true and living devotion to the Mother of God. This loving devotion is
imbued in his famous Salutation to the Blessed Virgin Mary:
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Hail, O Lady,
Mary, holy Mother of God:
you are the Virgin made Church
and the one chosen by the
most holy Father in heaven
whom He consecrated
with His most holy beloved Son
and with the Holy Spirit the Paraclete,
in whom there was and is
the fullness of grace and every good
Hail His Palace!
Hail His Tabernacle!
Hail His Home!
Hail His Robe!
Hail His Servant!
Hail His Mother!
And (hail) all you holy
virtues which through the grace and light of the Holy Spirit are poured
into the hearts of the faithful so that from their faithless state you
may make them faithful to God.
AMEN |
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In
obedience to and imitation of their holy founder,
the Capuchins have promoted and popularized Marian devotion throughout
the
Church in the last four centuries. Indeed it was due in large part to
the writings of the Franciscan theologian Blessed John Duns Scotus,
that
led to the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
All of the Capuchin saints, from St. Conrad of
Parzham to St. Pio of Pietrelcina, have had a strong and healthy
devotion to the Blessed Virgin and she has been integral to their
Franciscan spirituality. Indeed, promoting devotion to her has been
incorporated into the Capuchin Constitutions: "Let us, in particular,
venerate, especially through liturgical worship and the rosary the
Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, conceived without sin, daughter and
handmaid of the Father, mother of the Son, and spouse of the Holy
Spirit.. let us especially promote devotion to her among the
people"(Const. 54:3). In 1910 St. Pope Piux X exhorted the followers of
St. Francis: "Beloved sons, you will preserve holiness of life, joined
with purity and integrity of doctrine if you cultivate a fervent
devotion to the Queen of your Order, the Immaculate Mother of God, for
the omnipotent God wished us to have all things through her who is the
Mirror of Justice and the Seat of Wisdom."
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