LIV. O virga ac diadema (Sequentia de sancta Maria)
The Noble Branch Foreseen by God
Mary is hailed as the royal branch and flower whose life-giving bloom reversed Adam's ruin, springing forth not by nature but by divine radiance foreseen from the first day of creation.
O branch and diadem, purple of the king, you are in your enclosure like a breastplate. You flourished, leafing out in a different turn of events than Adam brought forth for the whole human race. Hail, hail, from your womb a different life went forth, by which Adam had stripped his sons bare. O flower, you did not sprout from dew, nor from drops of rain, nor did the air flutter over you from above, but divine radiance brought you forth in a most noble branch. O branch, God had foreseen your blooming on the first day of his creation. And from his word he made a golden material, O praiseworthy virgin.
Woman as Mirror of God's Adornment
The strength of man's side from which woman was made is praised as the mirror of all God's adornment, and all creation marvels because God loved Mary greatly.
O how great is the side of man in its strength, from which God brought forth the form of woman, which he made the mirror of all his adornment and the embrace of all his creation. From there the heavenly instruments sing together, and all the earth marvels, O praiseworthy Mary, because God loved you greatly.
From Eve's Wound to Mary's New Dawn
The sorrow brought by Eve through the serpent's counsel is lamented, then overturned by the new sun born from Mary's womb, and the Savioress is implored to gather her Son's members into heavenly harmony.
Oh, how deeply it must be lamented and mourned, that sorrow flowed into woman through the serpent's counsel into sin.✦ For that woman, whom God placed as mother of all, tore away her own heart with the wounds of ignorance, and brought forth deep grief for her own race.✦ But, O dawn, from your womb a new sun came forth, who wiped away all the sins of Eve and brought forth through you a greater blessing than Eve had brought harm to humankind.✦ Therefore, O Savioress, who brought forth new light for the human race, gather the limbs of your Son into the heavenly harmony.✦
Read the original Latin
O virga ac diadema purpure regis, que es in clausura tua sicut lorica. Tu frondens floruisti in alia vicissitudine, quam Adam omne genus humanum produceret. Ave, ave, de tuo ventre alia vita processit, qua Adam filios suos denudaverat. O flos, tu non germinasti de rore nec de guttis pluvie, nec aer desuper te volavit, sed divina claritas in nobilissima virga te produxit. O virga, floriditatem tuam deus in prima die creature sue previderat. Et de verbo suo auream materiam, o laudabilis virgo, fecit. O quam magnum est in viribus suis latus viri, de quo deus formam mulieris produxit, quam fecit speculum omnis ornamenti sui et amplexionem omnis creature sue. Inde concinunt celestia organa, et miratur omnis terra, o laudabilis Maria, quia deus te valde amavit.
O quam valde plangendum et lugendum est, quod tristicia in crimine per consilium serpentis in mulierem fluxit. Nam ipsa mulier, quam deus matrem omnium posuit, viscera sua cum vulneribus ignorantie decerpsit, et plenum dolorem generi suo protulit. Sed, o aurora, de ventre tuo novus sol processit, qui omnia crimina Eve abstersit et maiorem benedictionem per te protulit, quam Eva hominibus nocuisset. Unde, o salvatrix, que novum lumen humano generi protulisti, collige membra filii tui ad celestem armoniam.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.3.1-Gen.3.6 — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other animal that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" Gen.3.2 — And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, Gen.3.3 — but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.' Gen.3.4 — But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not certainly die.' Gen.3.5 — for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Gen.3.6 — And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
- ↩Gen.3.20 — And the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
- ↩Gen.3.15 — I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
- ↩Eph.5.30;1Cor.12.27 — because we are members of his body. 1Cor.12.27 — Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.
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