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Our Lady of Chivalry

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“Our Lady Queen of Chivalry”
April 3rd 2011
Rough Estimate: 25 Hours
About 13 by 13 inches
Ink and watercolor


“Under thy protection
we seek refuge, O Virgin Theotokos:
disdain not our supplications in our distress,
but deliver us from all perils,
O only pure and blessed one.”

~ Sub Tuum Praesidium
(the oldest known hymn to the Theotokos, 250 c.)[link] or [link]

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“Virgin Mother of God, by God glorified Mary,
Ask Thy Son, Our Lord, chosen Mother Mary!
Mercy obtain, and then send to us.
Kyrie eleison!

Son of God, for Thy Baptist's sake,
Hear our voices, fulfill the pleas we make!
Listen to the prayer we say,
For what we ask, give us today:
Life on earth, free of vice;
And after life: then paradise.
Kyrie eleison!”

~ From the Polish Knight’s Hymn, “Bogurodzica” [link]


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Awesome version of the Salve Regina: [link]

“Oh what strength do the servants of this great Lady possess, to overcome all the assaults of hell! Mary is that tower of David, which is built with bulwarks; a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armor of valiant men. She is as a well-defended fortress in defense of [those who love her], who in their wars have recourse to her. In her do her clients find all shields and arms, to defend themselves against hell.”The Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus Ligouri


"Mary, the beloved Mother of chosen souls, shelters them under her protecting wings as a hen does her chicks…To ensure their safety from the hawk and vulture, she becomes their escort, surrounding them as an army in battle array. Could anyone surrounded by a well-ordered army of say a hundred thousand men fear his enemies? No, and still less would a faithful servant of Mary, protected on all sides by her imperial forces, fear his enemy." (From True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Louis de Montfort)

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So. This. Is. That. Picture. That picture I’ve been working on for the entire month of March and never really got around to finishing until today. :faint: I’ve always loved militant theological imagery, and especially in regards to Our Lady. In the Middle Ages she was the perfect Ideal of the Lady for whom knights would gladly rick themselves in battle. Often you’ll hear chivalric lays about great feats being done for queens and ladies, like Tristan and Isolde, or Gwenivere and Lancelot, etc. But you know, what about Our Lady? Is she not the most Peerless Maiden? Is she not the Perfection of Virtue? She is the perfect model of Chivalry, she is the Mother of the King of that most unrivaled Chivalry. Therefore, I say, she is Our Lady, Queen of Chivalry.

I got this idea quite awhile ago, and I really wanted to do it. Well, y’all are well aware by now of my love for the Crusades and my affection for my dear little Crusader knights. *pats* I wanted to depict them all gathered around her beneath her sheltering protection, offering their swords and their service to Christ, the Infant Redeemer King, their Liege Lord to whom they swear fealty. I chose to depict the Knights from the Crusading Orders because of their obvious religious significance and their ties to service of the Church, but also because, in addition to their being knights, they were also monks, and therefore sworn to the vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. They are the Knights of the Immaculata.


Obviously, I went to town on the symbolism, but I’ll break it down in the two main sections. Mary, the Virgin Mother is seated with the Christ Child enthroned upon her lap, garbed in the raiment of a King. He is robed in red and white, which symbolizes martyrdom and purity. His outer robe is detailed with a floral rose pattern, both pointing to the red color of the flower and of blood, and also to the thorns that come from roses. His hands are in a position that both signifies Crucifixion and blessing. As an innocent Child, He is also the Pure Lamb of Sacrifice, and the wounds on his hands and feet testify to His Crucifixion. He is the King of Martyrs.

Our Lady is arrayed like a Queen and robed in blue and white. These symbolize perfect purity and chastity. Her hands are outstretched in a token of protection and maternal tenderness. In either hand she holds a scepter of flowers. In her right hand are three roses (three traditionally is the symbolically perfect number) which symbolize martyrdom. In her left hand is a scepter of three lilies which represent purity.

The footstool has the words: “IN HOC SIGNO VINCES” which means: “By this sign [of the cross] you shall conquer.” This both points to the obvious cross shape of the swords they are offering her (which represents both the offering of their service and felty to Our Lord and Lady, and also acceptance of the gentle yolk of the cross) but also points, again, to the Cross-shape position of the Child Jesus, who is the center of this whole picture.

On either side of Our Lady are the two great Archangels and Princes of the Heavenly Host, and both very appropriate for their respective places in the picture. St. Michael (on the left) is robed in red and grasps a naked sword in his gauntleted hand. As the one who led the armies of Heaven to victory over the hosts of Hell, his place here is very apt, in that he is also a very militant saint. Trailing from his hands is a banner that reads: “Quis ut Deus?” which means: “Who is like God?” and was his challenging war-cry to Lucifer as they fought in Heaven. :D On the right side is the Archangel Gabriel. He holds three lilies in his hands (reminiscent of traditional images of the Annunciation, where Gabriel acknowledges the surpassing purity of the Blessed Lady with a token of lilies) and a banner that reads: “Ave Maria, gratia plena, dominus tecum” which of course means: “Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.”

Beneath the two angels are two martyr saint-knights. Beneath St. Michael on the left is St. George, and beneath St. Gabriel is St. Nicasius the Hospitaller.

St. George is one of the most iconic saints throughout the whole of Christendom. He is venerated around the world as an early martyr to the Christian faith. He was a soldier of very high degree in the Emperor’s army, and when asked to sacrifice to the Roman gods he refused, and was eventually beheaded. He is commonly depicted as riding a white horse and slaying a dragon according to a legend that was attributed to him. During the Crusades particularly, he was highly venerated and looked to as a model of the perfect Christian soldier and was called “the bulwark of Christians.” His colors, the red cross on white, are similar to the colors of the Knights Templar as well. I gave him the garb of the Crusaders mostly because I thought it would be somewhat incongruous to give him Roman legionnaire armor. :XD: His patronages are too many to name. Many towns and cities have been named for him, he is highly venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, he is well beloved in Russia, and he is also the special patron of England. (His feast day is April 23rd)

“Faithful servant of God and invincible martyr, Saint George; favored by God with the gift of faith, and inflamed with an ardent love of Christ, thou didst fight valiantly against the dragon of pride, falsehood, and deceit. Neither pain nor torture, sword nor death could part thee from the love of Christ. I fervently implore thee for the sake of this love to help me by thy intercession to overcome the temptations that surround me, and to bear bravely the trials that oppress me, so that I may patiently carry the cross which is placed upon me; and let neither distress nor difficulties separate me from the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Valiant champion of the Faith, assist me in the combat against evil, that I may win the crown promised to them that persevere unto the end.”


St. Nicasius of Sicily (c. 1135 – 1187) is the only canonized saint that I know of from one of the Crusading Orders in the Holy Land, and he is also the most incredibly obscure saint ever. :faint: Anyway, he joined the Hospitaller Knights as lay brother I believe, along with his brother Ferrandino. When the Hospitaller Grand Master Roger des Moulins recalled all available troops to help in the defense of the Holy Land, he and his brother came to fight with the Hospitallers. There are differing accounts as to when he was martyred. Either it is said he was decapitated after the disaster at the Battle of Hattin or he was captured during the defense of Acre and beheaded. His Feast day is July 1st

”O God, every year you give us joy in the commemoration of your martyr, blessed Nicasius: grant that through his prayers and example the companions of our Order may grow in faith and always follow you with all their hearts. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”


“…but the [Templar] Order itself was dedicated to Our Lady…during the trial of the Templars, some of the brothers were proud to state to their inquisitors under great duress that the cords which they wore around their waists as a symbol of chastity had touched an object, especially the pillar, at the church of the Blessed Mary at Nazareth where Mary received the Annunciation…Regarding Our Lady, it is interesting that section 306 specifically states that “the hours of Our Lady should always be said first in this house…because Our Lady was the beginning of Our Order, and in her, and in her honor, if it please God, will be the end of our lives and the end of our Order, whenever God wishes it to be.” – “Knights Templar Encyclopedia” by Karen Ralls (The Templar Rule: [link])

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All that being said, this thing TOOK FOREVER. I mean, okay, FIRST I had to go with a larger-than-usual piece of paper (which caused me much grief today when I was uploading it, because I had to scan it in pieces and then paste it together on ArtWeaver which took about an hour and a half of fiddling with it. It’s still not perfectly meshed, but I’m not going to over-protest about it. :XD:). THEN I decided to go ahead and stick in nineteen people. Ya know. Because people don’t take that long to draw or anything. :iconheaddeskplz: NINETEEN. :faint:

Yeah, and it’s also supposed to be somewhat reminiscent of a stained-glass window. :nod:

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“Rose of roses and flower of flowers,
Lady of ladies, Lord of lords.

Rose of beauty and fine appearance
And flower of happiness and pleasure,
lady of most merciful bearing,
And Lord for relieving all woes and cares;

Such a Mistress everybody should love,
For she can ward away any evil
And she can pardon any sinner
To create a better savor in this world.

We should love and serve her loyally,
For she can guard us from falling;
She makes us repent the errors
That we have committed as sinners:

This lady whom I acknowledge as my Master
And whose troubadour I'd gladly be,
If I could in any way possess her love,
I'd give up all my other lovers.”

– Cantiga 10, Rosas das Rosas, by King Alfonso X Sabio (one version I really like: [link])

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And to leave you with one last thought. I think Archbishop Fulton Sheen describes perfectly why Mary is the ideal Queen of Chivalry:

“Every man who pursues a maid, every maid who yearns to be courted, every bond of friendship in the universe, seeks a love that is not just her love or his love but something that overflows both her and him that is called "our love." Everyone is in love with an ideal love, a love that is so far beyond sex that sex is forgotten. We all love something more than we love. When that overflow ceases, love stops. As the poet puts it: "I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honor more." That ideal love we see beyond all creature-love, to which we instinctively turn when flesh-love fails, is the same ideal that God had in His Heart from all eternity—the Lady whom He calls "Mother." She is the one whom every man loves when he loves a woman—whether he knows it or not. She is what every woman wants to be when she looks at herself. She is the woman whom every man marries in ideal when he takes a spouse; she is hidden as an ideal in the discontent of every woman with the carnal aggressiveness of man; she is the secret desire every woman has to be honored and fostered; she is the way every woman wants to command respect and love because of the beauty of her goodness of body and soul. And this blueprint love, whom God loved before the world was made, this Dream Woman before women were, is the one of whom every heart can say in its depth of depths: "She is the woman I love!" - “Mary, the Woman the World Loves” – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen


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MorningstarsHier's avatar

Gorgeous Sights. Great Details ❤️