The Name of the Marian Chapel Altar

Someone asked; what is the name of the Marian Chapel to the left of the sanctuary in
the church? The altar dedicated to our Blessed Mother Mary, has the Latin title; Mater
Admirabilis, meaning, “Mother Most Admirable”. It is a title given to Our Blessed Mother in the Litany of Loreto. Saint John Eudes comments on this title in his book; The Most Pure Heart of Mary, chapter 1, Mater Admirabilis. The following is an excerpt from this chapter.

 -- Father Donohoe

“MATER ADMIRABILIS” (MOTHER MOST ADMIRABLE)
By Saint John Eudes

The Heart of the most Blessed Virgin may well be called admirable or wonderful, for its
depths are full of wonders, and no one but her Son Jesus can understand them perfectly, or speak of them fittingly. Jesus, the only Son of God and the only Son of Mary, having chosen this incomparable Virgin from amongst all creatures to be His Mother, Nurse and Guardian, and having in His infinite goodness given her to us to be our Queen, our Mother, and our Refuge in every need, He wishes us to honour and love her as He does. He has exalted and honoured her above all men and Angels. He wills that we likewise should render more respect and veneration to her than to all Angels and Saints. But because we cannot give our love and esteem to anyone without knowing that which makes one worthy of both, the boundless zeal with which Mary’s Only Begotten Son is fired on behalf of the interests of His dearest Mother makes Him take the greatest pains to manifest to us even in this valley of darkness, through the medium of the Holy Fathers and the Holy Scriptures, some faint glimpse of the unparalleled perfection with which He has enriched her, reserving the full vision of the reality, which will indescribably surpass any knowledge we can have here, for the City of Light—Heaven. Amongst these divine utterances I have found one in the 12th chapter of the Apocalypse, which is an epitome of the highest praises we could bestow on or even conceive of this wondrous Queen. It is contained in these words: “Signum magnum apparuit in celo.’’ A great sign, a marvelous prodigy, a stupendous miracle has appeared in the Heavens: a Woman clothed with the sun, having the moon beneath her feet, and bearing on her head a crown of twelve stars. What is this great prodigy? Who is this miraculous woman?

St. Epiphanius, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, and many other Doctors, agree that it is the Queen of women, the Sovereign Lady of men and Angels, the Virgin of virgins, she who bore in her virginal womb a perfect man, the Man God: “A woman hath encompassed a man’’ (Jer. xxxi. 22). She appeared in the Heavens because she came from Heaven, because she is Heaven’s most illustrious masterpiece, because she is the Empress of Heaven, the joy and glory of Heaven, in whom there is naught but what is celestial: and who, even when dwelling corporally on earth, had her whole mind and thoughts, heart and affections continually in Heaven.

But why does the Holy Spirit style her a great sign, Signum magnum? It is to make us
understand that she is wholly miraculous; in order to publish everywhere the marvels with
which she is filled, to point her out to all the inhabitants of Heaven and earth as a subject of admiration, and to make her the delight of Angels and men. For this same reason the Holy Spirit has caused the faithful throughout the entire universe to sing in her honour this glorious eulogium: Mater admirabilis.

O Mother most admirable, with good cause art thou so called, for truly thou art
admirable in everything and in every way.
Admirable in the angelic beauty and the seraphic purity of thy virginal body; admirable in the most eminent sanctity of thy blessed soul; admirable in all the faculties of both one and the other, of which thou hast ever made a most holy use, for the glory of the All-holy God.
- Admirable art thou in all thy thoughts, the one object of which was always to please God alone: in thy words, which were like unto the words of God, conformably to the inspired precept: “If any man speak, let him speak as the words of God’;’ in thy actions, all of which have been consecrated to His Divine Majesty.
- Admirable art thou in thy sufferings which made thee worthy to be associated with Our
Savior in the work of the redemption of the world.
- Admirable in every state and in all the mysteries of thy life which are as so many mighty
depths containing untold wonders.
- Admirable in thy Immaculate Conception which is wholly miraculous.
- Admirable in thy holy birth which has been a subject of indescribable and never ending
joy to the whole universe.
- Admirable in thy holy name of Mary which contains in itself a world of deep and
wondrous meaning.
- Admirable in thy Presentation in the Temple, when but three years old, after having at
that tender age forsaken the house of thy Father and Mother—so holy a Father and
Mother, too—and having entirely renounced self and all things else in order to
consecrate thyself wholly to God in His holy Temple.
- Admirable in every step thou didst take when going from Nazareth to Bethlehem, there
to bring forth the Saviour of the world, steps that I revere with my whole heart and with
all possible respect, kissing in spirit the ground on which thou didst tread, and every
print of thy sacred feet:
- Admirable in all the miracles wrought when thou gavest birth to thy Divine Child.
- Admirable in the imposition of the most holy Name of Jesus which thou didst bestow on
Him through St. Joseph, according to the order thou hadst received from the Eternal
Father through the medium of St. Gabriel.
- Admirable in the mystery of His Epiphany—His manifestation to the three Kings who
found the Babe of Bethlehem with His most holy Mother, and who adored Him in her
arms.
- Admirable in all the extraordinary events which took place in the journey thou didst
make with thy adorable Child, and St. Joseph, thy spouse, from Nazareth to Egypt and
from Egypt to Nazareth, in order to rescue the Saviour of the world from the fury of
Herod, who sought to kill Him.
- Admirable wert thou, O Mother of Jesus, in thy resignation to the bitter sorrow which
filled thy heart and the unspeakable joy which succeeded it, when thou didst lose thy
dear Child in the Temple of Jerusalem, and three days later didst find Him there again in
the midst of the Doctors.
- Admirable in the large share He gave thee in His Cross and in all His sufferings.
- Admirable in the sacrifice thou didst make of Jesus Himself, with so much sorrow and
love at the foot of the Cross, for the entire human race, even including those who
crucified Him.
- Admirable in that thou didst contribute towards His Glorious Resurrection by thy ardent
prayers.
- Admirable in the altogether indescribable meeting which took place when thy Son—and
such a glorious Son—on the day of His Resurrection visited His Peerless Mother before
all others.
- Admirable in the benefits that accrued to thee from His Triumphant Ascension.
- Admirable in the sublime dispositions with which thou didst receive the Holy Spirit on
the day of Pentecost, and the manage effects He operated in thy soul.
- Admirable in the most ardent zeal and incomparable charity thou didst exercise towards
the newly-born Church during the period of thy stay here below after the Ascension of
thy Son.
- Admirable in thy miraculous resurrection, thy glorious Assumption, and Coronation,
when thou wast established at thy Son’s right hand, as the everlasting Queen of Heaven
and the Sovereign Empress of the Universe.
- Admirable in the immense share thou hast in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, for
that Eucharistic Body is derived from thee.
- Admirable in the incomprehensible charity with which thou dost continue to give us
individually, with thy Son, in this Divine Sacrament, the boundless treasures thou gavest
to all men in general by the mystery of the Incarnation.
- Admirable in thy Heavenly, faith, thy firm hope, thy most pure love of God, in the
perfection of thy charity towards men, in thy profound humility, thy exact obedience,
thy invincible patience and all thy other Christian virtues.
- Admirable in all the pre-eminent gifts with which God has adorned thee in thy quality of
eldest and infinitely loved Daughter of the Eternal Father, and as Mother of the Son of
God, as Spouse of the Holy Ghost, as Sanctuary of the most Blessed Trinity, treasury and
dispenser of Divine Grace, Queen of men and Angels, Mother of Christians, Consoler of
the afflicted, Advocate of sinners, Refuge of the miserable, and Sovereign Lady of the
Universe and of all creatures.
- Admirable, finally, in thy truly singular privilege and the unique prerogatives, unshared
by any other creature, with which God has honored thee. For is it not a subject of
singular admiration to see a creature giving birth to Him who created her, giving being
to Him Who Is, and life to Him from whom she received it? To see a star producing a
sun, a Virgin bring forth a child—a Virgin who is at once the daughter and mother of her
Creator?

Is it not a wondrous prodigy that a daughter of Adam, the sinner, should conceive the
Saint of Saints, God Himself, that she should be Mother of that Son of whom God is the Father, and be able to say in the words of the Eternal Father: ‘‘Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee.’’ Have not Heaven and earth cause to be ceaselessly lost in amazement to see a Maiden of fifteen years of age, bearing within her that which the Heaven of heavens cannot contain, feeding and nourishing with her own substance Him who is Eternal Life and the principle of all life, carrying in her arms Him who upholds all things by the power of His Word, caring for, ruling and governing the Creator, the Preserver and Governor of the Universe, and having the powers and authority of a mother over the only Son of God, who is co-equal with His Father? What prodigies and miracles!
Truly it is not without reason that the Holy Ghost styles the Blessed Virgin: “Signum
Magnum,’’ a great miracle!

Mater Admirabilis – Mother Most Admirable