The Blessed Virgin

We see in this action her obedience, her charity, and her gratitude. Her obedience, since, without reasoning on the length and difficulty of the road, nor on the inconvenience of the season, which was the end of winter, she executed without any delay what the Spirit of her Son inspired in her. Her charity, since she undertook this journey with the design of assisting her cousin in the needs of her pregnancy, and of rendering her all the services that women are accustomed to render one another on such occasions. Her gratitude, since she did it no doubt in part to acknowledge the assistance she herself had received, in her childhood, from this holy woman, who, having authority in the apartments of the temple, as the wife of one of the principal high priests, had taken particular care, according to several doctors, that nothing was lacking for her during the time she was secluded there.

But the virtue that shines forth most in this resolution, and which Saint Ambrose also weighs more particularly, is humility. Mary has just been raised above all the creatures of heaven and earth by the incomparable grace of divine maternity; she has just been established as the Queen of angels and men, and the Sovereign of the whole universe; yet, she makes no difficulty of going to visit this holy woman who was infinitely below her, and she undertakes a long and arduous journey to become, so to speak, her servant for the remainder of her pregnancy. What a prodigy of abasement! One must not, however, be astonished by it: humility could not be separated from divine maternity, and it was fitting that it should be as deep in Mary as her dignity as Mother of God was sublime, so that she might resemble her Son no less in the excess of her abasement than she approached him by the greatness of her elevation. Thus, we can say that the contempt of self, which she manifested in this conduct, is one of the most signal graces she received from divine liberality, and the disposition by which she was most pleasing to God and won his heart with more force and power.

It is therefore in this disposition that she departed from Nazareth and advanced toward the city where Zechariah and Elizabeth dwelt. Som e author Nazareth Place of origin of the Holy House in Galilee. s have believed that Joseph accompanied his Spouse on the way, and that, having led her to Zechariah's house, he retraced his steps to continue his usual work, without having known anything of what had passed between her and Elizabeth at the moment of their mutual greeting. There is little appearance, they say, that a young girl of fourteen years, such as the Virgin was, would have wished to go alone into the countryside to a place so remote, and which was distant from Nazareth by twenty-eight or thirty leagues. But this journey of Joseph is uncertain; Scripture and tradition do not speak of it; moreover, the Virgin could have had herself accompanied on her journey by one of her relatives or neighbors.

The Gospel does not name the city where the holy priest Zechariah dwelt; but it is commonly held that it was Hebron, because among the priestly cities, only that one was in the mountains of Judah. This city was very ancient and one of the most considerable in Palestine: for it had once been the capital city of the Giants, so famous in Scripture under the name of Anakim, and, since then, it had become very illustrious by the burial of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the translation of the bones of Joseph, and by the first seat of the reign of David. There was, near its gates, a terebinth that was said to be as old as the world, and which still lasted in the time of Hegesippus and Saint Jerome, that is to say, after more than four thousand four hundred years. The Virgin, having entered it accompanied invisibly by a great number of angels who admired her humility and courage no less than they adored her divine maternity, greeted her cousin Elizabeth. Saint Luke does not report what she said to her, and what greeting she gave her. It is highly probable that the Holy Spirit, who guided the pen of this Evangelist and inspired him with what he should write, arranged it thus to favor the humility of the Virgin, whose entire inclination was to speak very little of herself, and to let very little be said of her. One might even think that, as it was she who taught Saint Luke the whole sequence of this holy history, she hid this circumstance from him on purpose, telling him only what was absolutely necessary to reveal to the faithful for their edification, in order to confound the vanity and presumption of the children of Adam, who cannot help but speak of their own actions, even though they are filled with defects and imperfections, and bear, from beginning to end, the evident marks of their depravity and weakness. Let us not, therefore, seek curiously with what words this admirable Virgin approached her cousin; and let it suffice for us to admire the effects, which are altogether surprising and show clearly that the eternal Wisdom who resided in her womb also spoke through her mouth, and gave strength and blessing to all that she said.

She pronounced two or three words, as is customary when greeting a friend, and immediately the Child whom Elizabeth carried in her womb leaped for joy, and this holy woman was herself filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice: "Blessed are you among all women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this honor happen to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to visit me? For behold, as soon as your greeting struck my ears, the child I carry leaped for joy in my womb. You are, in truth, blessed for having believed; for the things that have been told you from the Lord will be infallibly accomplished." At that moment, the little Saint John the Baptist received grace and reason, and his spirit was raised to the knowledge and adoration of the all-powerful Lord who was before him. And it was by saint Jean-Baptiste Biblical figure cited in comparison for his early sanctification. the abundance of this grace and by the strength of this light that he had an extraordinary movement in his mother's womb, whether he turned as if to greet Jesus Christ and the Virgin, according to this beautiful saying of Saint Augustine: *De utero in uterum salutabat*; "from one womb he greeted him in another womb"; or whether he merely made a miraculous leap, in order to testify to the greatness of his joy at their amiable presence. Not only was he filled with grace and light, but he also filled his mother with it, following this other word of Saint Ambrose: *Spiritu Sancto repletus, replevit et matrem*; "Having received the fullness of the Holy Spirit, he communicated it to her who carried him in her flanks"; so that Elizabeth, by a divine illumination that was given to her in consideration of her son, knew at that instant the two greatest works that have ever come from the hand of God: we mean the incarnation of the divine Word in the womb of a Virgin, and the elevation of a Virgin to the august quality of Mother of God; and she was also the first who rendered an external and public homage to these two mysteries, saying: "Blessed are you among all women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." As Saint Ambrose remarks, Elizabeth heard the word of Mary first, but John felt the marvelous grace that flowed from it first; that which was given to Elizabeth was a reflection of that with which John had been filled; Mary was the organ of both, and Jesus speaking through her mouth was the first principle of it, or rather Mary carrying Jesus, and Jesus carried and applied by Mary, were like a single principle, because Mary then had this incomparable honor of being as one same substance with Jesus.

This is therefore a mystery of manifestation and sanctification, but of a manifestation and a sanctification so extraordinary that they have never had and will never have their equal. Children, who are not yet born, enlighten their mothers and speak to one another through their mothers. Jesus, still residing in the womb of Mary, makes himself felt to John, also enclosed in the womb of Elizabeth; he purifies him of original sin, confers grace upon him, justifies and sanctifies him, fills him with the Holy Spirit, raises him to a high contemplation of the divinity and the ministry of our redemption, makes him know the eminence of the state to which he calls him, and spreads in his soul the necessary dispositions to fulfill all its duties; finally, child that he is himself, he makes of this child a prophet, an apostle, a great preacher, and a prodigy of wisdom and holiness. And how does he operate these wonders? He operates them by a word that he puts into the mouth of Mary: a word so powerful and so effective that, passing through the ears of Elizabeth, it enters even into the spirit and the heart of her fruit, and from a vessel of wrath, he makes a vessel of grace and of all kinds of blessings. Moreover, Saint John answers Jesus and Mary: he speaks to them by his leaps, says Saint John Chrysostom: *Saltans nascitur, et saltibus loquitur*. He testifies to them his joy and his gratitude, he expresses to them the desire he has to leave his prison to begin his office as preacher, prophet, and precursor. *Quid hic sedeo vinctus?* makes him say this golden mouth: *exibo, præcurram et prædicabo omnibus: ecce Agnus Dei*: "Why shall I remain here bound? I will go out, I will go before my Lord, and I will preach to everyone that the Lamb of God has come."

But as he was still mute, he uses his mother to declare his sentiments. He pours into his mother's spirit a prophetic light, which makes her know the great wonders that were before her eyes: *Spiritus sui et gratiæ superabundantiam in eam refundit*, says the Abbot Guerric. He causes to be born in her heart, with inestimable joy, a singular reverence for the Virgin who carried in her womb her sovereign Lord. Finally, he puts into her mouth the most obliging and amiable words that this Virgin could expect from her piety. Words of profound humility: "And how does this honor come to me, that the Mother of my Lord should deign to visit me?" Words of praise and blessing: "Blessed are you among all women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." Words of thanks and congratulation: "As soon as your voice struck my ears, the child I carry leaped for joy in my womb." Words of applause and admiration: "You are in truth blessed for having believed." Finally, words of faith and prophecy: "The things that have been announced to you from the Lord will be infallibly accomplished in the course of all the centuries."

There is, in all these things, much to admire and much to imitate. We must admire the wonders that the Almighty performs to manifest His Son and to lift up the lowliness of His state as a child; but we must imitate the virtues that shine forth in these two children and these two mothers, which are, in a few words, humility, charity, gratitude, devotion, fervor, and many others that holy souls may notice therein through pious meditation. It is time to listen to the Virgin and to see what she answered to the praises that Elizabeth gave her.

"My soul," she says, "glorifies the Lord." Elizabeth praises Mary; but Mary rises above these praises and applies herself solely to blessing Jesus Christ, whom she carried in her womb. She does not resemble the children of Adam, who cannot be praised for their actions and the very gifts they have received from God without becoming shamefully preoccupied with what is said to them, and taking pleasure in it through a criminal and unbearable love of their own excellence. As she is entirely withdrawn into God, and entirely filled with the consideration, or, to speak more accurately, with the feeling and taste of His greatness, His power, and His goodness, before which every creature is nothing, she cannot receive praise except for Him; she returns to Him every kind of honor; and her soul, which is truly her own because she does not let it be stolen by fleeting and perishable things, has no action other than to bless and exalt Him. She glorifies Him by her words and by the profound annihilations of her heart; she glorifies Him by acknowledging before heaven and earth that He alone deserves the adoration of angels and men. "She glorifies Him," says Saint Augustine on the Magnificat, "with a respect full of love, tenderness, and affection."

"And my spirit," she adds, "has rejoiced in God my Savior." The soul and the spirit in man form the same immaterial substance: this substance is the soul insofar as it animates; this substance is the spirit insofar as it performs intellectual operations and thereby puts itself in relation with the immaterial world, and rises toward God. In the state of innocence, man moved toward God, not only according to the reasonable and intellectual part, but also according to the part we call animal: for the grace of that flourishing state, which is called original justice, was so sweet and so powerful that it held the flesh and all the senses pleasantly subjected to the spirit: which meant that they tended toward God under its guidance without any contradiction, and even participated, in some way, in the dignity of the reasonable part. But this happy condition was entirely ruined by the sin of the first man; and, whereas the flesh was then somewhat spiritual, the spirit, since that fall, has become carnal and coarse, having no longer anything but thoughts and feelings that apply it to the things of the earth. And, although our nature has been repaired by the grace of the Mediator, this perfect obedience of the flesh to the spirit has not, however, been repaired, and the most just have reason to complain, with Saint Paul, that they feel in their members a cursed and criminal law that opposes the law of their reason. But it is not the same for the sacred Virgin: as she had no part in the sin of our father, and was incomparably purer and more privileged, not only than innocent Adam, but also than the celestial spirits, her soul and her spirit were not opposed to each other; they both had the same object and the same end; they both moved toward God, and she could say continually what the King-Prophet said once: "My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God." This is what she expresses admirably in the words of her canticle, when she says that "her soul glorifies the Lord, and her spirit has rejoiced in God, her Savior." For, by these few words, she shows that her soul has the same functions as her spirit, which are to glorify God, and that her spirit also extends to the functions of her soul, which are to rejoice in having a Son of such great merit and so far above the merit of all men. She therefore glorifies God and rejoices in Him by her spirit and by her soul, and her joy is all the greater as the subjects she has for rejoicing, both according to nature and according to grace, are eminent and surpass everything that can give joy to a creature. Furthermore, it is with much justice that she calls God her own Savior; for He was the Savior of other men only by the salvation of deliverance and redemption, while He was hers by the salvation of perfect preservation, by preventing her, through the merits of His blood, to which God had regard from the beginning of the world, from having any part in the sin of Adam.

She then says: "Because God has regarded the humility of His Handmaid." Some authors translate: "the lowliness of His Handmaid," based on the fact that the Virgin was too humble to attribute to herself the virtue of humility, and to say that this virtue had made her worthy to be the Mother of God; but they do not consider that Mary spoke as of herself and as an organ of the Holy Spirit, who made her say truths that she did not expect, and that her admirable modesty hid from her; speaking as of herself, she spoke only "of her lowliness and her nothingness," and the meaning of her words is that she rejoices in God, her Savior, because He has cast a look of favor and mercy upon her unworthiness, and that without any merit on her part He has raised her to an inestimable glory; but speaking as an organ of the Holy Spirit, she speaks of her prodigious humility, because the Holy Spirit wished to teach us through her mouth, without her intending it, that it is this humility that made her pleasing to the Most High, that drew upon her the gaze of the most holy Trinity, that completed the dispositions necessary for her to be the Mother of God, and that made her worthy to carry in her womb Him who is the greatest and at the same time the humblest of all the children of men. Thus, to fulfill the entire meaning of these words: *Respexit humilitatem ancillae suae*, one must not translate: *the lowliness of His Handmaid*; but: *the humility of His Handmaid*: because this word humility signifies both, that is to say, the lowliness and the virtue of humility. One might say that the Greek word τεταπεινωσις, used by the holy Evangelist, signifies only *smallness* and *abjection*; but this is not true, since, according to the observation of Saint Jerome in his *Letter to Algasia*, there are other places in Scripture, such as in Saint Matthew, chap. II; in the Epistle of Saint James, chap. III, and in the first of Saint Peter, chap. V, where it also signifies *the virtue of humility*: because in effect, lowliness recognized and felt is a true humility. One may see on this subject the learned Benzonius, in the explanation of this verse.

"All generations shall call me blessed." This is the continuation of the same verse where our august Queen, enclosed in a corner of Judea and in the small house of Zechariah, makes a prediction whose truth we see every day. She says that "because God has regarded the lowliness and the humility of His Handmaid, and has regarded her with an eye so favorable that He has exalted her to the eminent dignity of Mother of God, all nations and all centuries will proclaim her blessed." This is what is accomplished in all the places where the Church is spread: this is what has been accomplished since the birth of Christianity, and will be accomplished until the consummation of the world: for, in what place does one not sing with gladness: "Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary that bore the Son of the eternal Father, and blessed are her breasts that nursed Jesus Christ Our Lord?" But although the words of Our Lady are only in the future tense, we believe nevertheless that they can and even must extend to all times. For, if the Christian Church and all the faithful in the New Testament have called her *blessed*: which will still be done until the day of judgment and in eternity; it is constant that the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament, who saw her in spirit, also applauded her happiness. This is what earned her the union of fruitfulness with virginity: for, if she had been a Virgin and had not been a Mother, the synagogue, which preferred mothers to virgins and the barren, would not have called her singularly *blessed*. If, on the contrary, she had been fruitful and a Mother and had not been a Virgin, the Church, which esteems virginity much more than fruitfulness, would not have preferred her happiness to that of virgins; but uniting in herself the qualities of Mother and Virgin, and uniting them so closely that her virginity honors her fruitfulness, and her fruitfulness infinitely elevates her virginity, she is the object of the veneration and blessings of all ages, and there is none that does not proclaim her blessed and the happiest of all virgins, of all mothers, and of all women.

She then explains herself further, and adds: "Because the Almighty has done great things for me." A marvelous expression, and one where the humility of this Queen of angels shines forth again admirably: for she does not say that the Almighty has done great things through her, but for her: *Fecit mihi*. However, it is constant that it is in her and through her that these great things have been done: for it is through her that the eternal Word took on human flesh, that He was conceived, and that He was made the Christ and the Savior of men. Thus, Mary cannot open her mouth without giving signs of her modesty and her perfect humility; she speaks only to praise God. And although it seems impossible that she should praise God without reporting the things that make her infinitely recommendable, she does so nevertheless in a manner so industrious that she returns all the glory to God, and attributes to herself only the happiness of having received the effects of His liberality and His mercy. Furthermore, the terms she uses: "The Almighty has done great things for me," have an infinite meaning, and show us that what God has done for Mary, in Mary, and through Mary is so great, so august, and so ineffable that there are no words that can represent it. "He has done for me," she says, "great things. He has given me as a son in time Him who is His Son in eternity; He has made me conceive in my womb Him whom He conceives in the bosom of His divine understanding; He has made me Virgin and Mother all at once, and has made me carry this eternal Light without any breach to my virginal purity." The Holy Spirit, of whom she is the organ, makes her also express by these words what her profound humility forbids her to report to us. He teaches us that God has gathered in her everything that heaven and earth, grace and nature, angels and men have that is rare and excellent; that He has given her the faith of the Patriarchs, the zeal of the Prophets, and the virtues of all the just who will be in the New Testament; that she surpasses the Thrones in beauty, the Cherubim in light, and the Seraphim in ardor; that her innocence is perfect, her fidelity inviolable, and her charity consumed; that, as she encloses the Holy of Holies in her chaste womb, she is also clothed with His life, His spirit, His feelings, and His inclinations; that she participates eminently in His divine and human holiness, and that she is like another himself; that there is no reserve for her, and that all the treasures of grace and glory are open to her. He reveals to us also by these terms that, as mothers have a share in all the prerogatives of their children, Mary, pregnant with the incarnate Word, is raised to three societies with Him: a society of greatness, which must make her recognized as the Queen of heaven, the Lady and Mistress of the angels, and the Sovereign of the universe; a society of office, which will make her called by the Fathers and Doctors, "the Repairer of the world, the Redeemer of the human race, and the Reconciler of sinners," insofar as it is she who provided the body and blood by which we were redeemed; a society of influence, which will make her cooperate until the end of the world in all the works of grace that God will operate in the economy of salvation. She was careful not to want to report these great things about herself; but the Spirit of God, in whose hands is the tongue and the voice of the Prophets, has enclosed them all under the two words she said to us; so that, by an admirable conduct of divine Providence, Mary, in wanting to praise God without praising herself, has given us occasion to recognize what is greatest and most praiseworthy in her.

She finishes this verse by saying: "And His name is holy." She speaks of the name of God as God, which it was permitted to no one to pronounce, and of the name of God made man, which the angel Gabriel had already brought to her from heaven, and which was the name of Jesus; and she calls both Holy, because they signify the source of all holiness. But she speaks of them only as a single name, because that of God is enclosed in that of the Savior and of Jesus, as we said at the feast of the Circumcision. Furthermore, we do not doubt that she represents here the holiness of her Lord by a new secret of humility, in order to turn the eyes of Elizabeth away from her perfections by the consideration of the divine holiness, before which all the perfections of creatures are but a faint glimmer that eclipses and disappears entirely. In the rest of her canticle, she expands in an admirable manner, full of religion and reverence, on the perfections of God: mainly on His justice against the rich, the proud, and the great of the world who abuse their power, and on His mercy toward the poor and the humble who walk in the fear of offending Him. She also represents that there is no longer any reason to complain that the promises of God are not fulfilled, since finally this sovereign Goodness has remembered His mercy, and has regarded with a favorable eye Israel, His servant, by associating him with His divinity, as He had promised to the holy Patriarchs, and especially to Abraham, the head of the Jewish nation.

This is a faint expression of the great mysteries enclosed in the canticle that Mary pronounced in the presence of Saint Elizabeth, her cousin. Let us say again in summary that her humility opposes the praises that this holy woman had given her with such justice. Elizabeth had glorified her, and her soul glorifies only the Lord. Elizabeth had rejoiced in her visit and her greeting, and her spirit finds joy only in God her Savior. Elizabeth had complimented her on her new dignity as Mother of God, and she takes no other quality than that of His most humble Handmaid. Elizabeth had attributed to her faith the miracles that had been accomplished and that were still to be accomplished in her, and she contents herself with saying that "the Lord has well deigned to cast His eyes upon her smallness, and that He has treated her with much liberality." Finally, continuing still in the same style of her humility, she attributes to her happiness, and not to her merits, the great things that the power and wisdom of God had operated in her, and passes promptly to the general praises of this Lord, who is all her joy and all the object of her love. It is thus that we must skillfully turn away the praises that are given to us, and instead of occupying ourselves with them and taking pleasure in them, return them promptly to Him to whom all honor is legitimately due.

Furthermore, if it is true that the two words that Mary uttered at the first meeting of her holy cousin were so effective that they brought sanctification and prophetic light into the soul of Saint John, to from there rebound upon the spirit and the heart of his mother, what shall we think were the effects of this beautiful canticle, composed of ten verses and pronounced by this holy Virgin in the ardor of an incomparable love? For one must not doubt that the Holy Spirit, who was its first author and who placed it in the mouth of our celestial cantor, also made the holy Precursor hear it and explained to him its meaning and all its mysteries. Oh! what knowledge did He not give him on the great sacrament of the Redemption of men! What acts of faith, of adoration, of thanksgiving, and of love did He not make him perform in the consideration of the kindnesses of the Almighty! What tenderness did He not imprint in him for this august Mother who was the subject and the organ of so many miracles! Finally, what new desires did He not inspire in him to employ himself as soon as possible in publishing the greatness of his Son, and in glorifying Him everywhere, by saying to the Jews that he was not even worthy to untie the strap of his sandals!

The Gospel does not tell us what Elizabeth replied to this canticle, nor what was the conclusion of the conversation between these illustrious mothers. It is content to add that Mary remained about three months in the house of Zechariah, and that she then returned to Nazareth. It is for us to consider what blessings such a long stay drew upon this house. We read in the second Book of Kings that the Ark of the Covenant having been placed by David in the house of Obed-Edom, where it remained for three months, all kinds of blessings fell upon this good man and all his possessions: which caused David to resolve to transport it to Jerusalem. Now, Mary was incomparably more than the Ark of the Covenant, and she carried in her womb, not the tables of the law, nor the rod of Moses, nor a little of the manna that had served as food for the children of Israel in the desert, like that Ark; but she carried the Lord of all things, of whom those tables, that rod, and that manna were but very imperfect figures. What then were the spiritual and temporal graces that her three-month stay procured for the whole house of Zechariah, and what progress did the three august persons who composed it—we mean Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Saint John—make in virtue and holiness during this time? This is what pious souls may meditate upon, but it is what we cannot represent with our pen. There are authors who believe that the Blessed Virgin assisted at the childbirth of her cousin, and that she did not return home until after the accomplishment of the wonders that occurred at the birth and circumcision of the holy Precursor. But, as Saint Luke reports her return before describing the history of this birth: « Mary », he says, « remained three months with Elizabeth, and then returned to her house; and the time of Elizabeth's delivery arrived, and she brought forth a son », it is much more probable that she left this holy woman before the nine months of her pregnancy were completed. Nicephorus Callistus says that she did so because it was the custom of virgins to withdraw in such circumstances. Simeon Metaphrastes, in his Sermon on Saint John, adds that it was to avoid the multitude that was expected to be present at the time of the nativity of this child. And Abbot Rupert says further that it was for fear that her pregnancy might appear to others before appearing to Saint Joseph. *Ne prius ab illis deprehenderetur in utero habens quam ab ipso beato Joseph*. The author of the Homilies attributed to Eusebius of Emesa says that Zechariah and Elizabeth shed many tears at her departure, to see themselves deprived of such a holy and advantageous company, and that Saint John himself, to whom the Holy Spirit revealed it in his mother's womb, felt much sorrow: but there has never been any joy in this world that has not been preceded and followed by some affliction: and it seems that this pain was necessary for them to dispose them to that great joy, which came to them soon after, when the divine Precursor appeared to the world.

Moreover, this mystery of the Visitation of Our Lady is so exalted and so full of wonders that it well deserved to be honored in the Church by a particular feast. The one who first thought to establish it was Saint Bonaventure, General of the Order of Friars Minor; he decreed it for the entire Order at his General Chapter held in Pisa in the year 1263. Later, Pope Urban VI extended th pape Urbain VI Pope who extended the feast of the Visitation to the entire Church in 1389. is feast to the whole Church; his Bull is from the year 1389, but it was only published the following year by Boniface IX, his successor. The Council of Basel also ordered it (1441) and set its day for July 2. Some authors have inferred from this that the Blessed Virgin did not leave Zechariah's house until the day after the circumcision of Saint John, which was July 1; but these kinds of arguments are uncertain, and one should dwell on them much less than on what the natural sense of the sacred text seems to require. Besides this feast, which is celebrated with solemnity in the Church, God also wished to honor the mystery of the Visitation through a sacred Order of nuns that bears its name . It is Saint Francis d saint François de Sales A model of gentleness to whom the venerable is compared. e Sales who is its founder, alon g with Saint Jane Frances Fremi sainte Jeanne-Françoise Fremiot Foundress of the Visitation, whose heart and personal items are preserved in Nevers. ot, formerly Baroness de Chantal, and then the first nun and first mother of this illustrious Congregation. The great number and splendor of the houses that compose it, which were established in such a short time, and above all the sweet odor of Jesus Christ and the holiness that reign everywhere within them, sufficiently show that this is not a work of men, but of God, and that it shares in the graces of which the Visitation of Our Lady was the source.

Regardin g the Magnificat ca cantique Magnificat Canticle of praise spoken by Mary during the Visitation. nticle, which is called the Canticle of the Blessed Virgin, it is well known that it is sung every day at Vespers: this is of very great antiquity, since the Venerable Bede, who lived in the 8th century, mentions it in a Homily for the Ember Days of Advent. The learned Benzonius, who provided a rich commentary on it, believes that in its original language, which was Syriac, it was written in verse, like the canticles of Mary, sister of Moses; of Jael, wife of Heber; of Deborah the prophetess; of Hannah, mother of Samuel; of Judith and of Esther, so that the Mother of God would yield in nothing to these illustrious women of the Old Testament. He adds that its mere pronunciation is extremely formidable to the demon, and that the latter has often been seen at Loreto to shudder with spite at these words: "He has regarded the humility of His handmaid"; and at these others: "He has put down the mighty from their seats, and has exalted the humble." Finally, he reports several miracles that were performed by the invincible power of the words that compose it; they may be seen in his works, Book I, chap. XXII.

To treat this subject, we have made use of what was written about it, after the holy Fathers, by Christopher de Castro, in the Life of the Virgin: Louis of Granada, in his Meditations, and Fr. Gibicof, of the Oratory, in the second part of his Life and Greatness of Our Lady, chaps. II, III, and IV, from which we have borrowed some thoughts.