De visitatione beatae virginis Mariae
The Advocate of the World
The Virgin Mary is presented as the supreme refuge and intercessor for those in need and those suffering from discord.
The most blessed Virgin of God, consecrated to God from her very beginning, is the one to whom all who are in need flee as to a unique remedy when other help is not enough, because of the unheard-of benefits she has shown to the people who call upon her. She has ordered all things below through her wisdom, providence, industry, and grace: in Mary, we find the governess of the world and earthly power; in Mary, the mother of mercy and intercessor for forgiveness; in Mary, the mother of the Church militant; and in Mary, the advocate of the world. Considering this, Urban, the sixth Roman pontiff, burdened by the rising schism and realizing with a sharp mind that the blessed Virgin is the most expert advocate for those who have gone astray, as the most sagacious restorer of discordant souls and the most diligent visitor of each one, piously decreed—for the sake of obtaining the grace to end the schism—that although the feast...
The Feast of the Visitation
The liturgical establishment of the Feast of the Visitation and the granting of spiritual indulgences to the faithful.
of the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth should have been celebrated at that time after the Lord's Annunciation, when she herself visited Elizabeth because of the greatest virtues worked therein—because, however, the Church at that time is occupied specifically with the Lenten office or the Passion of Christ, so that such a great solemnity of the office might not be omitted, to the praise and glory of the glorious Virgin, the same Urban the Sixth piously decreed that the memory of the aforementioned feast of the Visitation be celebrated by all the faithful on the day after the octave of blessed John the Baptist, with the following octaves of the feast of the Visitation of Mary; and so that the whole multitude of the faithful might be stirred more closely and devoutly to the memory of the aforementioned visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, the same Urban wished that to all who are truly confessed and contrite and who celebrate the said feast of the Visitation of Mary with its octaves, in place of the material distributions usually made in churches, there should be effectively granted in future times from the spiritual treasury of true indulgence, just as in the feast of Corpus Christi.
The Journey of Charity
Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit, hastens to visit Elizabeth to share the joy of the Incarnation.
When, therefore, the angel announced to Mary that she had found grace with the Lord and that the Son of God would be conceived of her for the salvation of all peoples, as soon as she believed, she immediately conceived the Word of God in her womb. After giving thanks for such a great benefit done to her, she strove out of great charity and piety to greet her kinswoman Elizabeth, who was already six months pregnant, in Jerusalem, and to sympathize with and serve her. Whence it is said of her: 'Mary rising went into the hill country with haste into the city of Juda, and entered the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth.' Mary therefore went into the hill country with haste, because she was easily led on the journey by the angel; she was led through the steep mountains by the inflammation of the Holy Spirit, by whose motion she was sweetly stirred. Blessed Mary, therefore, trusting in the Lord, traveled joyfully over the mountain peaks like a sparrow; she rejoiced in the roughness of the journey, and through the sweetness of the conversations, she despised the difficulty.
The Humility of the Queen
The Queen of Heaven humbles herself to visit her servant Elizabeth, sanctifying John the Baptist in the process.
She longed with all her heart for the blessings of the mountains in Jerusalem; she did not want to be found or seen in public, but left in haste. She went with haste into the hill country of Judah so that John, the Lord's forerunner, might be sanctified in the womb, so that the incarnation of Christ might be made known more publicly in the city, and so that the declaration of such great mysteries might be spread further from that place to the ends of the earth. And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth: see how the superior entered to the lesser, the Lady to the servant, the Queen of heaven and earth to the handmaid and maidservant, so that by praising her, she might visit Elizabeth, and her praise might echo back with reciprocal praises!1 .
Read the original Latin
Beatissima virgo Dei a suis primordiis Deo consecrata: propter beneficia ejus inaudita exhibita populo invocanti omnes in necessitate constituti ad emn confugiunt, tanquam ad singulare remedium, nbi subsidium non sufficit requisitum. Disposuit namque omnia inferiora sua sapientia, providentia, industria et gratia propulsata, nbi gubernatrix saeculi et terrenae potentiae, in Maria, wbi mater misericordiae et ünpetratrix veniae, in Maria, ubi mater militantis ecclesiae, ín Maria, ubi advocata saeculi, in Maria, Hujus rei consideratione Urbanus, Romanus pontifex sextns, dure ferens materiam schismatis occurrentem perpendensque animo perspicaci, quod beata virgo sit peritissima advocata delinquentium. viatorum, reparatrix sagacissima discrepantium animorum et visitatrix diligentissima singulorum, pro gratia exstinctionis schismatis impetranda pie statuit, quod, licet festun. visitationis Mariae ad Elizabeth illo tempore post anuuntialionem dominicam debuerit celebrari, quo ipsum Elizabeth visitavit propter maximas virtutes inibi operatas, Quia tamen ecclesin illo tempore circa Officium quadragesimale aut passionem Christi specialiter occupatur, ne tanta officii sollemnitas praetermittatur, ad laudem et gloriam virginis gloriosae idem Urbanus sextus pie statuit visitatlonis praefati festi memoriam in crastinum octavarum beati Johannis baptistae cum octavis sequentibus de festo visitationis Mariae a cunctis fidelibus celebrari, Ut autem omnis fidelium multitudo. ad memoriam praefatae visitationis Marine ad Elizabeth artius et devotius excitetur, voluit idem Urbanus, nt omnibus vere confessis et contritis dictum festum visitationis Mariae celebrantibus cum octavis loco distributionum materialimm in ecclesiis fieri consuetis de thesauro spirituali verae indulgentiae, sicut in festo corporis Christi, futuris temporibus effectualiter largirentur. Cum igitur angelus nuntiavit Mariae, quod invenit gratimn apud dominum et quod de ea conciperetur filius Dei ad salntem omnium populorum, quam cito ipsa credidit, statim concepit in utero verbum Dei et post gratias exhibitas de tanto beneficio sibi facto ex magna caritate et pietate studuit. suam cognatam Elizabeth jain sex mensibus gravidam tam in Hierusalem salutare et sibi compati ac servire, Unde dicitur de eadem: exsurgens Maria abiit in montana cum festinatione in civitatem Juda et intravit domun Zachariae et salutavit Elizabeth, Abiit igitur Maria in montana cum festinatione, quia ab angelo in itinere faciliter ductata fuit, spiritus sancti inflammatione per abrupta montium ducebatur, quae ejusdem spiritus motione suaviter fuit agitata. Beata igitur Maria in domino confidens hilariter transmigravit super cacumina montiuin sicnt passer, Jn asperitate itineris congaudebat, per vimm suavitatem colloquiorum aspernabatar,.
bona montium in Hierusalem in montanis celerrime cupiebat, Noluit ibi inveniri in publico vel videri, sed abiit festinanter, abiit cuin festinatione in civitatem Juda, ut Johannes praecursor domini statin sanctificaretur in utero, ut Christi incarnatio in civitate magis publica panderetur et ut de illo loco ad fines terrae tantorum mysteriorum declaratio ulterins panderetur, Et intravit domum Zachariae et salutavit Elizabeth: ecce quomodo intravit superior ad minorem, domina ad servam, regina coeli et terrae ad famulam et ancillam, nt sic laudando laudibus Elizabeth visitaret et laus ejus laudes reciprocas resonaret !) ,
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin text here is somewhat elliptical and likely corrupt (e.g., 'bona montium' and 'statin'). I have translated the intended sense of her movement toward the hill country and the theological purpose of the Visitation.
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