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June 21, 2006
A Blessed Feast Day!
Since Peter posted links to two of my fellow Gonzaga alumni I thought I would wish you all a blessed feast of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of young Christian men. While poking around, I found this prayer composed by Saint Aloysius.
"O holy Mary, my Mistress,
into thy blessed trust
And special keeping,
into the bosom of thy tender
Mercy, this day, every day of my life
and at the hour of my death,
I commend my soul and body; to thee
I entrust all my hopes and
consolations,
All my trials and miseries, my life and
the end of my life, that through thy most
Holy intercession and thy merits,
all my actions may be ordered and
disposed according
To thy will that of thy divine Son.
Amen."
Perhaps you can pray it for young Christian men, that they may be as devoted to Mary as St. Aloysius.
Posted by Albertus Testudo on June 21, 2006 at 10:11 PM | Permalink
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Comments
What do you think was meant by the reference to Mary as "my Mistress"? My lady? My governing lady?
Posted by: Hannah | Jun 24, 2006 7:21:44 PM
I was trying to find a copy of the original (Italian or Latin I presume). But have failed. I did find another translation that says "my queen" instead. I would say Mistress implies governing lady, but for St. Aloysius it would be a voluntary submission to her governance, unlike Earthly queens that we don't choose.
Was there a particular angle that you were hoping to tease out from the prayer?
Posted by: Al T | Jun 26, 2006 11:15:36 PM
For the majority of its life in the English language, mistress has always been a term of respect for a woman. Granted, this is a translation, but the English obviously attempts to sound archaic. Just look at all that use of the familiar.
Even as late as Shakespeare's day (when thee and thou were already removed from standard, everyday English), mistress only rarely implied anything unsavory.
Of course, being from Castiglione, Aloysius wouldn't have written it in English, and probably still used the familiar in his native tongue, but you get the idea.
Anyway, one should think of it more in terms of a pledge to a lady.
The prayer, as it is translated, is trying to inspire young men to devote themselves to Mary as a chivalric knight would devote himself to a woman. Saint Aloysius Gonzaga was a man of the 16th Century after all, and would have been trained in chivalric ideals (although chivalry survived more in literary forms than in actual practice at this point).
If it sounds vaguely idolatrous to elevate Mary in this prayer, it is only because the ideal, courtly, chivalric knight spoke this way to the woman (usually a local queen or noble) to whom he had dedicated all of his victories and service.
Posted by: PeterTerp | Jun 27, 2006 9:13:06 AM
