Freepik
MARIAN
POETRY BY NUN-POETS
THE
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
O gentle maid, O lovely-hearted woman,
Sprung from the seed of patriarchs and
kings,
Conceived immaculate, divinely destined
Virgin!
When
the nun-poet Sister M Faith OP in her poem “Annunciation” thus addresses the
Blessed Virgin Mary, she is referring to the dogma of her Immaculate
Conception, a doctrine which is frequently misunderstood and sometimes
subjected to misinterpretation.
The meaning of the words “Immaculate
Conception” is simply that from the moment of her conception in her mother’s
womb, the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from the taint of hereditary sin. After their fall from paradise, our first
parents bequeathed this unwished-for legacy to all other members of the human
race.
Sister
Faith was one of several nuns and sisters of religion who wrote poetry in praise
of the Immaculate Conception. This
belief was cherished by many in the Church long before it became a doctrine of
faith.
The
Council of Trent at its fifth session in 1546 promulgated in its Decree on
Original Sin that the Blessed Virgin did not share in the hereditary taint of
the rest of the human race. More than
three centuries later, in 1854, the Mariological dogma of the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was defined by Pope Pius IX (1846-1878). In his papal bull Ineffabilis Deus he stated
that the Church holds that Mary from the first moment of her conception was
immune from all stain of original sin.
The doctrine is ascribed in the bull to a singular grace and privilege
of Almighty God and in view of the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour
of the world. The feast day is held on 8th
December.
Four
years later, in 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared on several occasions to
Bernadette Soubirous, a simple shepherdess, in a grotto at Massabielle in
Lourdes, France. Asked for her name, she
replied: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
She asked Bernadette to pray for the conversion of sinners. Instructed by the Lady, Bernadette, digging
with her hands in the soil, found a spring in the grotto. A number of authenticated miracles have been
ascribed by users of this water. The
Lourdes apparitions are recognised by the Catholic Church.
On
8 September 1953, in preparation for the celebration of the first centenary of
the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Pius XII in his encyclical letter
Fulgens Corona proclaimed a Marian year to be held throughout the world. This pontiff wrote that it lay in God’s
power to bestow on Mary the privilege of never for an instant having been
subject to sin and destitute of divine grace by virtue of the merits of the
Redeemer:
“It
was fitting that Jesus Christ should have such a mother as would be worthy of
Him as far as possible; and she would not have been worthy, if, contaminated by
the hereditary stain even for the first moment only of her conception, she had
been subject to the abominable power of satan.”
In
America, which falls under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception, many
twentieth century nun-poets sang the praises of Mary. Like flowers grown from a packet of mixed
seeds, their poetry ranges from the cheerfully colloquial to the profoundly
contemplative. Among the former variety
is found “Our Lady in America”, a simple verse for youngsters by Sister
Maryanna OP, published in the November 1947 issue of Junior Catholic Mission. Marked by simplicity and rhythm, it contains
no trace of sentimentality.
Mary Immaculate, Lady blue-gowned,
slippered in moonbeams, Virgin
star-crowned,
bend down from heaven to bless this our
land,
prairie and mountain and city and
strand.
Watch over Washington, pray for St
Paul,
Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles – all
cities that linked form a rosary chain
from Oregon’s Portland to Portland in
Maine.
On village and hamlet, on country and
town,
Mary of Nazareth, gently look down.
Outside
of America, if not indeed within its confines, the fine poetry of the nun-poets
has not known as much exposure as deserves, burgeoning as it does with a sense
of faith, love and hopefulness that make the reading of it an ever fresh
delight. Much of the work was published
only in religious magazines and then forgotten, along with its creators. Though the majority of these poets never
achieved any marked degree of fame, a few had their poetry published in general
or personal anthologies. In one of the
former we find “Mary Immaculate” by Sister Angela Marie. The third stanza starts off with a metaphoric
explanation of the Immaculate Conception of Mary:
Upon this earth ‘neath Anne’s
sweet breast a seed is stirred,
virgin-veiled; the Word
of God bends low with grace.
Mother
Mary Bertrand OM in her Song of the South Winds (For Our Lady’s Birthplace)
describes St Anne’s womb while she carried the Blessed Virgin as a thurible
containing burning incense. The poet equates the moment of Mary’s conception
with the budding of a lily whose fragrance overwhelms the sweetness of the
perfumes borne on the wind from Egypt and the East to her Palestinian home:
… the hours burnt silver in your censer
and the perfumes of Egypt and the East
were dulled by the budding of a lily
that one white morning hour released.
Sister
Maryanna OP metaphorically describes St Anne’s pregnancy as the spinning of
thread upon a loom:
Anne was the spinner,
Anne spun the thread
Petal-soft, rosewhite,
Filament starbright
To which an angel said:
Hail, full of grace!
Sister
M Julian RSM gives an encapsulated account of a Lourdes pilgrimage with its
links to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in a brief poem titled “For Our
Lady of Lourdes”:
“Blessed are they who have not seen …”
but who have sought
on mountain paths
your beauty poised
above a winter rose.
“Blessed are they …”
for life shall be for them
this only: your name
and the fair music of your smile.
Sister
Mary Lucina in her poem “To Our Lady on December 8th” found in
the December 1971 issue of the
periodical “Sisters Today” uses the symbolism of pure snow to celebrate Mary’s
Immaculate Conception. This conceit is
frequently found in the oeuvre of the American nun-poets of the twentieth
century. The poet differentiates between
the symbolism of snow and that of the heat of a candle’s flame. Thus she contrasts Mary’s spotless purity,
which light up the world’s darkness, with the warmth of her motherly love,
which embraces eternity:
Down in the courtyard
flakes fall on your shrine,
a white oasis in our winter.
Snowy pines enclose you
in a cathedral.
Everywhere darkness stretches
like an immense grave.
Stars hide
the sky is moonless.
But below in the courtyard
you burn like a candle,
your flame travelling light years
beyond the pines.
On
a profoundly spiritual level, the contemplative Jessica Powers (Sister Miriam
of the Holy Spirit OCD) captures the essence of Mary’s Immaculate Conception in
her composition “The Immaculate Heart”:
Light is intensely the inhabitant
of this unsullied place of consecration,
the Virgin’s heart. Light is itself the air
and firmament and sea and foliage.
Her thoughts are Godward mirror, one in
their
orientation.
At
the same time the poet expresses the fulfilment of the promise of the
Immaculate Conception. In the absence of
anything evil, from the very moment of her conception, the Blessed Virgin turned her heart towards God to enfold His grace with all the openness to His
omnipotence manifested by the elements of nature. She reflects His every feature in the purity
of her soul.
That
many American nun-poets of the twentieth century were teachers is clear from
their religious poetry. in which religious instruction is combined with
literary fluency in a way which is most convincing and yet easily
understandable. Today’s teachers could well benefit from studying their poetry, not only for the
qualities of faith, hope and love which it contains, but also for its pedagogic
value.
Dr Luky Whittle
Ineffabilis Deus
The Immaculate Conception
Pope Bl. Pius IX - 1854
https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9ineff.htm
Fulgens Corona
Encyclical of Pope Pius XII
Proclaiming a Marian Year in the year 1953
https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_08091953_fulgens-corona.html
With thanks to papalencyclicals.net and vatican. va
Image courtesy of Freepik with CN Whittle
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