Fortitudo Egenis

by Michael Field — a poem card from Justes Mots

A prayer to the Virgin Mary, invoked as intercessor for souls in purgatory, emphasizing her immaculate purity and her power to plead for their swift purification and vision of God. The poem combines Marian devotion with Catholic theology of the afterlife.

LOVER of Souls, Immaculate,
Mary, by thy Immaculate Conception,
Thy soul and body white for God’s reception,
Beyond the ridg’d snows on the sky;
Beyond the treasure of white beams that lie
Within the golden casket of the sun;
By the excelling franchise of thy state,
Plead for the Holy Souls, O Holiest One!…

Themes: sympathy · grief · reflection