dear father Angelo,

What does the invocation of the Ivory Tower with which we address Mary in the Loreto Litany mean?

I thank you and greet you

Alessandra

Priest’s response

Dear Alessandra,

Newman does not comment on this title.

However, I found a beautiful comment in “The Praises of the Virgin” by Gabriele Roschini, a great Mariologist. The work dates back to 1954 and I doubt it has had any recent reprints.

“IVORY TOWER”

This invocation of the Loreto Litany, like various others, is also taken from Holy Scripture, and more precisely from the Song of Songs. In fact, speaking to his Beloved, the Groom tells her: “Your neck is like a tower of ivory” (7, 4). The “Beloved” by God and men, par excellence, is compared to an “ivory tower”. What does the Church express with this metaphor? First of all, it intends to enhance its singular beauty. But that’s not all: ivory is the material of the teeth of the elephant, the hippopotamus, the narwhal and is used to form luxury objects with it. In ancient times it was widely used. In Holy Scripture not only ivory furniture but also houses are mentioned, for example that of Ahab (3 Kings, 22-39). Not because these houses were all made of ivory, but because they were all adorned with ivory. Having said this, there are three main properties of ivory: whiteness, consistency and value. Are not these the characteristics of this mystical tower, of Mary?

Mary ivory tower for her beauty

The Church, to exalt the singular beauty of Mary, applies to her the words addressed by the Groom to his Beloved in the Song of Songs: “You are completely beautiful, my friend, and there is no stain in you” (4,7). All beautiful, not just partially. All beautiful in body, all beautiful, in a particular way, in soul.

All beautiful in body. In fact, she is “the face that most resembles Christ” (Par. 32,85). And Christ was undoubtedly “the fairest of the children of men.” Children ordinarily “matricise”, that is, they resemble their mother. Then Jesus could not fail to “matricise”, since he had no earthly father. Furthermore, Most Holy Mary was the palace of the King of Kings. Well, if the palaces of the Sovereigns of the earth are so beautiful, what beauty must not have been the palace of the Sovereign of heaven, of the King of Kings?…

All beautiful in the soul. Natural beauties and supernatural beauties made Mary’s soul the highest finite expression of the infinite beauty of God. Natural beauties, first and foremost. Mary’s soul was undoubtedly the most perfect after that of Christ, her Son. In her singular sharpness of intellect in grasping the truth, singular readiness of will to rush towards the good, singular tenacity of memory in preserving the ideas of past things. Among all these spiritual faculties the most melodious harmony reigned. But more than natural beauty, Mary’s soul presents itself to us all adorned with supernatural beauties, that is, all full of grace and all those supernatural gifts that accompany this exalted queen.

To say grace, in fact, is to say beauty. To say fullness of grace is to say fullness of beauty. All this beauty of the soul could not fail to be reflected on the body too. All this singular, transcendent beauty of both soul and body brought out from the chest of George of Nicomedia that exclamation full of amazement: «O most beautiful beauty of all beauties!».

Maria ivory tower for its whiteness, for its consistency, for its value

As we have already noted, there are three characteristics of ivory: whiteness, consistency, and value. Well, we find all three of these prerogatives in a completely singular way in Mary.

The first characteristic of ivory is candour, whiteness. And isn’t candor, whiteness, perhaps the first, fundamental characteristic of Mary’s life? In fact, the life of the Virgin, and that of Her’s alone, was always completely free from any stain of guilt, whether original or actual.

The second characteristic of ivory is its consistency or resistance to physical, chemical and organic agents, resistance due to its specific composition. And the Holy Virgin didn’t she perhaps demonstrate the most singular moral consistency in the face of the assaults of all her enemies, in the face of the waves of grief that crashed with unprecedented violence against her?

The third characteristic of ivory is its value, deriving from the composition itself and its rarity. And is not the Most Holy Virgin, by the divine enchantment of her soul and body, what is most precious among all pure creatures, both on earth and in heaven? Rather than being rare, she is and must be said to be unique.

The words written by Solomon of the strong woman apply fully to her: «Procul et de ultimas finibus pretium eius» (Prov. 31,10). Her price is truly unknown: «Nescit homo pretium eius» (Wisdom 28, 3).

Maria, the most sublime tower in the universe

«May Ptolemy of Egypt exalt too, exclaims Miechow in the life of Marcus Aurelius (L. I, c. 40), his tower which rises proudly in the lighthouse of Alexandria, composed of eighty talents of gold, built with stones shiny and white as glass! May the people of Cizici exalt their seven wonderfully echoing towers! May the Chinese also praise their tower in the city of Fuchaeo, rising above forty solid and very high columns of which Pliny speaks (L. 36, c. 15)! May the Indians of Miense also admire their tower completely covered and shining with gold foil, full of gold and silver bells which, when blown by the winds, emit a varied and harmonious sound!… The Mariana Tower rises above all the other towers… Those are inanimate, This one is animated; those have succumbed to time, but This remains perennial and uncorrupted. The tower of Alexandria is composed of smooth and transparent stones. Mary, on the other hand, is covered with the same sun: «Mulier amicta sole».The towers of Cyzicus emit human voices, Mary instead emits a divine voice. The Chinese tower stands on forty columns, while Mary stands on seven columns incomparably more sublime, more solid and more precious than the forty ones… The Indian tower was covered with gold and silver, Mary on the other hand is completely covered, inside and out, of the gold of charity… O most worthy Tower! O most precious Tower! O Tower superior to all estimation! ….» (Discursus praedicabiles super Litanias Lauretanas, Naples, 1857, vol. II, p. 314 15).

I thank you, I greet you and I bless you and your family.

Father Angelo

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