J. Duvergier de Hauranne, also known as Saint-Cyran
J. Duvergier de Hauranne, also
known as Saint-Cyran
died in 1643 AD
Texts quoted in French by Réné Laurentin (in Maria,
Ecclesia, Sacerdotium, Nouvelles Éditions Latines, Paris 1952, pp.
351 - 353) and translated into English by John Wijngaards.
“I am consoled because of some thoughts which I have dictated on the day
of the Nativity of the Virgin, because God had made me see in her person,
through the light which he spreads in the hearts of Christians for the sake of
this feast, the main conditions and dispositions which Jesus Christ and the
Church require in the priesthood. This will not seem new to those who know that
the eminence of the priesthood resides in the Virgin, as I have often told my
friends. And this will be even easier to believe if one considers that,
according to St Augustine and St Anselm, the Virgin is the model and compendium
of the Church and St Joseph that of bishops. Nothing is easier than to see in
her the image of the first sacrifice and communion in the room of Nazareth, the
image of the first preaching of the divine word at her entrance in
Elizabeth’s house, the image of the first forgiveness of sins, worked by
her in the same home on the soul of St John [the Baptist] who was purified and
sanctified by her word.” Lettre . . . à un
ecclésiastique de ses amis touchant les dispositions de les
prêtrise [=‘Letter to a bishop who is a friend regarding the
disposition of the priesthood’], Paris 1947, chap 18, pp. 175 -
179.
“In as far as the Virgin carries Jesus Christ in her bosom she is the
figure of preachers, as a Father of the Church tells us; and in as far as she
forms the body of Jesus Christ through simple words, she is the figure of the
same priests when they offer the sacrifice and consecrate the same
body.” Lettres chrétiennes et spirituelles de messire
Jean Duvergier de Hauranne ... etc., published in 1744, p. 380.
“No other predisposition necessary for the priesthood appears more clearly
in the Virgin than being called by God . . . . That great calling made her the
Mother of God, just as a priest’s calling makes him, to some extent, the
source and the father of the same Son of God since it gives the priest the
power to produce Christ’s body through words, as the Virgin has
done.” Lettre à un ecclésiastique etc.,
chap 18, p. 179.
“
It is in the months before Christmas that the ancient Church mainly conferred
Sacred Orders and ordained priests and bishops. It makes us see that the secret
reason for the Holy Spirit lay in the conformity that exists between priests
and the holy Virgin, since they receive on the day of their ordination the
power to form God’s body just as the Virgin received it at the time of her
Annunciation; that is why the Church then reads the Gospel ‘An Angel was
sent . . .’. ” Considérations sur les Dimanches
et les festes de la Vierge, Paris 1670, p. 27.
“You will be very happy, Father, if God permits you to live in that
disposition. For that it is enough if you are content with the power which he
has given you over the glorious and divine body of Jesus Christ through the
[priestly] order and the congregation which you have netered for the
priesthood. He gave you power to produce the body of Christ through the same
Spirit through whom he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin.”
Lettres chrétiennes et spirituelles de messire Jean Duvergier de
Hauranne ... etc., published in 1744, p. 647.
