The Catacombs

Saint Jean Eudes, forerunner of devotion both to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, was born in 1601, some time after France had been torn apart by the revolt of the Huguenots. The rebels were calmed but relegated to western France by King Henry IV, after he himself returned to the Catholic faith. It was in that region that this young Saint spent his childhood, at Argentan in Normandy, and was educated with the Jesuits of Caen. The father of this first-born of a family of solid and profound virtue, had himself desired the sacerdotal life, and he did not long oppose Jean’s desire to consecrate himself to God as a priest. At eighteen years of age Saint Jean had already composed a treatise on voluntary abnegation, which his confessor obliged him to publish. He was ordained in Paris as a member of the recently founded French Oratory of Saint Philip Neri; his teachers there were Fathers de Berulle and de Condren, two unsurpassed spiritual directors. The governing theme of his meditation, his preaching and his writings was the importance of the redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God, through the intermediary of His Immaculate Mother. Controversy was not lacking in those days, when the Mother of God had been relegated to a very secondary if not insignificant role by the reformers, and Saint Jean did not fear controversy. He chose to study both theology and what we would call debate, as essential preparations for his calling. In those days seminaries were scarce; aspiring future priests themselves sought out the instruction they needed.

At Caen a pestilence broke out and soon decimated the populace, often deprived of spiritual assistance. Jean Eudes offered to care for them in person, and while the scourge lasted slept outdoors in a field, in an old barrel, to protect his brothers in religion from contagion. In 1639 he was named Superior of the Oratory of Caen by Father de Condren, although the Superior General feared that office could interfere with his missions, from which they hoped for great renovation in western France. Nonetheless, from 1638 until 1642, Saint Jean, with his brethren in religion, was engaged in preaching missions in the dioceses of Bayeux and Lisieux, where the bishops encouraged him and soon were praising him highly. The fruits of these missions were rich and long-lived. Father Eudes was a follower of Saint Vincent de Paul in his ardent desire to evangelize the poor folk, so long neglected, and it was to the people that the preaching of the Oratorian missionaries was addressed. Their missions lasted for several weeks. “Otherwise,” said Saint Jean, “we put a bandage on the wound, but do not heal it.” Processions, hymns, little religious plays, special conferences for specific groups, organization of leagues against duels and blasphemy, and visits to the sick occupied the missionaries’ very full days.

Saint Jean Eudes left the Oratory, a Society of priests which he loved sincerely, like other founders who have been in a similar position, because he was called by God to break new ground in establishing a group of priests without religious vows, destined to occupy posts in the new seminaries of France. The Council of Trent had commanded these establishments everywhere, ordaining that priests be formed to head parishes and to establish in each of them a school. Already in 1658 Saint Jean himself had founded four seminaries in Normandy,—at Caen, Coutances, Lisieux and Rouen. Before the Revolution in France, the Eudists had accepted the responsibility for sixteen seminaries or minor seminaries. This required a foundation in depth in theology and all pastoral duties. Some of his former brethren turned against him when he left them, and he met obstacles also when founding in Caen a Congregation of women to raise up poor girls led astray by ignorance or need. The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity founded by Saint Jean, parent body of the Good Shepherd nuns, have done an immense good in many countries. The Congregation of Jesus and Mary has sent missionary priests to several countries, all over the world. Saint Jean Eudes, who died in 1680, was beatified in 1909 by Saint Pius X, and canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925.

“It is a great thing for a saint to have as much grace as would suffice for many; but if he had sufficient for all men in the world, that would be fullness of measure: and this is the case with Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin.” (Thom Aquin, Opusc. in Salutat. Angelicam) So speaks the prince of theologians with regard to her whom Suarez salutes as the “universal cause, intimately united to the Lord her Son.” (Suarez, III, Disputations XXI, Sect. 3)

A higher authority than that of the School has confirmed this teaching of the Angelic Doctor; in his encyclical Magne Dei Matris, the Sovereign Pontiff Leo XIII has deigned to make his own the words we have just quoted; and he adds: “When therefore we hail Mary as full of grace, we awaken the recollection of her sublime dignity and of the redemption of the human race, wrought by God through her intermediary; moreover we call to mind the divine and eternal relationship, whereby she is associated to Christ in his joys and his sorrows, his humiliations and his triumphs, in ruling and aiding men with a view to their eternal welfare.” (Magne Dei Matris, Sept 8, 1892)

St. Bernardine of Sienna compares our Lady to the fountain mentioned in Genesis, (Genesis 14:7) which sprang from the earth and watered its whole surface. (Pro Festiv. V.M., Sermon VI) And as it is well to know the different expressions of the different schools, we may add, that the illustrious representative of the Seraphic Order recognizes in Mary what he calls “a sort of jurisdiction or authority over every temporal procession of the Holy Ghost,” (Bernardine, Sermon V de Nativity of B.M.V., Ch. 8) because, he continues, “she is the Mother of him from whom the Holy Ghost proceeds; and therefore all the gifts, graces, and virtues of this Holy Spirit are administered by her hands, distributed to whom she wills, when she wills, as she wills, and as much as she wills.”

We must not, however, conclude from these words that the Blessed Virgin has a right, properly so called, over the Holy Ghost or his gifts. Nor may we ever consider our Lady to be in any way a principle of the Holy Ghost, any more than she is of the Word himself as God. The Mother of God is great enough not to need any exaggeration of her titles. All that she has, she has, it is true, from her Son by whom she is the first redeemed. But in the historical order of the accomplishment of our salvation, the divine predilection, whereby she was chosen to be Mother of the Savior, made her to be “the source of the source of life,” according to the expression of St. Peter Damian. (Homily on Nativity of the B.V.) Moreover, being Bride as perfectly as she was Mother, and united, in the fullness of all her powers of nature and of grace, to all the prayers, to all the sufferings, to the whole oblation of the Son of Man, as his truly universal cooperatrix in the time of his sorrow: what wonder that she should in the days of his glory have a Bride’s full share in the dispensation of the goods acquired in common, though differently, by the new Adam and the new Eve? Even if Jesus were not bound in justice to give it her, who would expect such a Son to act otherwise?

Bossuet, who cannot be suspected of being carried away, and whom we therefore quote by preference, did not consider his necessary controversies with heresy an excuse for not following the doctrine of the saints. “God,” says he, “having once willed to give us Jesus Christ by the holy Virgin, the gifts of God are without repentance, and this order remains unchanged. It is and ever will be true, that having received by her charity the universal principle of grace, we also receive through her mediation its various applications in all the different states whereof the Christian life is made up. Her maternal love having contributed so much to our salvation in the mystery of the Incarnation, which is the universal principle of grace, she will eternally contribute to it in all the other operations which are but dependent on the first.

Theology recognizes three principal operations of the grace of Jesus Christ: God calls us, justifies us, gives us perseverance. Vocation is the first step; justification is our progress; perseverance ends the voyage, and gives us in our true country glory and rest, which are not to be found on earth. Mary’s charity takes part in these three works. Mary is the Mother of the called, of the justified, and of the persevering; her fruitful charity is an universal instrument of the operations of grace.” (Bousset, Sermon 9 Dec 1669)

This noble language is an authentic testimony to the tradition of the holy Church of Gaul, which by its Irenæus, its Bernard, its Anselm, and so many others, made France the kingdom of Mary. May the present teachers put to profit what they have inherited from their great predecessors, and continue to sound the inexhaustible depths of mystery in Mary; so that one day they may deserve to hear from her lips, that word of Eternal Wisdom: They that explain me shall have life everlasting. (Ecclesiasticus 24:31)


℟. Who is this that hath penetrated the heavens? At whose passage the Savior came to meet her, and introduced her into his Royal Chamber, where music and hymns resound: * Which the Angels sing unceasingly, for ever praising the Eternal King.

℣ O Virgin unspeakably venerable, to whom Michael the Archangel and all the angelic hosts pay honor, whom they behold exalted above the heaven of heavens. * Which the Angels.

Glory be to the Father, etc. * Which the Angels.

℟ Holy first fruits does the Son offer to his Father. * The virginal flower lovely in its snowy whiteness.

℣ No heat has scorched it, nor night-cold withered it. * The virginal flower.

℟ Through the fruit of virginity of the heavenly kingdom, * The loss incurred by eating the forbidden fruit is repaired.

℣ The sacred hierarchy rejoices that its diminished number is restored. * The loss incurred.

℟ After the fall virginity is the first to recover heaven. * First of all in the son, then in his Blessed Mother.

℣ The heavenly ranks revere holy virginity. * First of all.

℟ The gate of Sion enters the gate of closed Paradise. * Which our first mother had closed to herself and the whole world.

℣ To the spotless Mother the gate of heaven is opened. * Which our first.

℟ The Blessed Virgin received the one thing she requested. * To enjoy the face of the Lord for all eternity.

℣ The divine bounty both prevented and surpassed her desire. * To enjoy.

℟ While she mounts the fifteen steps to the palace of life. * The Virgin deserved to rise above the Angelic heights.

℣ Next to her Son the Mother merited to surpass all others. * The Virgin.

℟ The Virgin brought forth the beautiful Spouse of the Church. * Who is both God and Man united in one Person.

℣ Thus he placed his Mother with him on his heavenly throne. * Who is.

Glory be to the Father, &c. * Who is.




Aurora velut fulgida,
Ad cœli meat culmina,
Ut sol Maria splendida,
Tamquam luna pulcherrima.

As a brilliant auroa Mary rises to the heights of heaven, glittering as the sun, most beautiful like the moon.


Regina mundi hodie
Thronum conscendit gloriæ,
Illum enixa filium
Qui est ante Luciferum.

Today the Queen of the world ascends to her throne of glory, the Mother of that Son who was begotten before the Day-Star.


Assumpta super Angelos,
Excedit et Archangelos;
Cuncta Sanctorum merita
Transcendit una femina.

She is raised above the Angels and passes beyond the Archangels; this one woman surpasses all the merits of the Saints.


Quem foverat in gremio,
Locarat in præsepio:
Nunc Regem super omnia
Patris videt in gloria.

Him, whom she had cherished in her bosom, she placed in a manger; now she beholds him King over all in the glory of his Father.


Pro nobis, Virgo virginum,
Tuum deposce Filium:
Per quam nostra susceperat
Ut sua nobis præbeat.

O Virgin of virgins, implore for us thy Son: by thee he received of ours, through thee may he give us of his own.


Sit tibi laus, Altissime,
Qui natus es ex Virgine:
Sit honor ineffabili
Patri, sanctoque Flamini. Amen.

To thee, O Most High, be praise who wast born of the Virgin: be honor to thy ineffable Father and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.