The Valiant Woman (De Muliere Forti): A Medieval Commentary on Proverbs 31:10-31 Especially Useful for Preachers

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PDF is final draft that Fr. Benny sent me before he died.

D e Muliere Forti (Latin orginal)

This splendid example of medieval scriptural interpretation shows us how the “spiritual sense” of scripture enriched the minds of the faithful and warmed their hearts. The literal and historical sense of the passage in Proverbs 31, which is known as the Valiant Woman, is a eulogy for a faithful Jewish wife and mother, who stands out above others for her strength. The spiritual sense, using analogy, meticulous divisions, and proof texts from scripture, finds in this acrostic poem, a catalyst for exploring the deepest mysteries of redemption, the mystical union of the risen Christ, the Husband, with his faithful Church his Bride, seen as the Valiant Woman. By extension, it is also the faithful soul, imitating the Church, experiencing the adventure of seeking the beloved and eternal happiness. St. Albert the Great puts his imagination to service in the understanding of every Christian’s spiritual quest.

Every verse, every chapter, opens a new vision of the Valiant Woman. Why the Church should be understood as a woman(ch. 1); how her Husband trusts in her(2); how they repay each other (3); symbols of wool and flax, and the work of her hands (4); she is a ship (5); nights and banquets (6); olives, fields, and vineyards (7); her arm and her strength (8); taste and sight, her lamp (9); wrestling with vices, her fingers (10); stretching out to the poor (11); her house in snow, her servants doubly clothed (12); her tapestry of the passion (13); Christ and the gates of Jerusalem (14); linen garments (15); her strength, fortitude and laughter (16); her “mouth” and “tongue” (17); her house (18); blessed like the sons of Jacob (19); her “riches” (20); how praised (21); fruits of the spirit, in the gates (22).

Sometimes amusing, always amazing, and profound in its spiritual wisdom, The Valiant Woman is a fruitful experience for the reader and a welcome addition to the translations of medieval scriptural commentaries.

It is a famously, as you put it “sublime” work by St. Albert.

“The spiritual sense, using analogy [which is the right term to use, as opposed to merely speaking about using “metaphor” or “allegory”], meticulous divisions, and proof texts from scripture, finds in this acrostic poem, a catalyst for exploring the deepest mysteries of redemption, the mystical union of the risen Christ, the Husband, with his faithful Church his Bride, seen as the Valiant Woman.”

When Doctors of the stature of St. Albert and St. Thomas expose the spiritual sense of in spir ed texts, their analogous function comes to the true universal light divinely intended in them for contemplative intellects of all generations.

Surrexit Dominus vere.

Ch. XIX ("Her children rose up, and called her blessed: her husband, and he praised her. (v.28)") of St. Albert's De Muliere Forti discusses the analogical sense of Leah (active life) and Rachel (contemplative life), Leah's fertility and Rachel's infertility, etc. I found this very interesting!

From the outline of De Muliere Forti ch. 19 § on Prov. 31:28a ("Surrexerunt filii ejus, et beatissimam prædicaverunt…"):

2. Moses the Lawgiver, however, when he blessed Joseph said,

1. Of the fruits of the earth and their fullness:

The “fruits of heaven”, that is, the fruit of eternal beatitude

The “dew of heaven”, that is, the dew of graces

“The deep that lieth beneath”; eternal punishment

“The fruits of sun & moon”: Sacraments of Church and pre-Sacraments of Synagogue

“The Tops of the ancient mountains”, that is, eminence of the ancient patriarchs

The “fruit of the everlasting hills”, that is, the ranks of angels

The fruits of the earth, that is, the common contemplation of all that is good by all the Saints,

Christ the fire of God in the use of the Virgin Mother of God

Octavum autem et ultimum est benedictio ejus qui in rubo apparuit [Ex 3:2], est, Verbi incarnati : quia rubum quem viderat Moyses incombustum, conservatam agnovimus Dei genetricis laudabilem virginitatem : in qua fulget ignis Dei Verbi incarnati non ad incendium, sed ad refrigerium ignis et incendii fomitis …

Fr. Ashley's translation:

The eighth and last note of this benediction [as it says in Exodus 3:2 is the blessing of “the Lord [who] appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt],” that is, the Word Incarnate, because we recognize that the unburnt bush which Moses beheld is the praiseworthy virginity of the Mother of God in which shone the fire of God Incarnate not to consumed but to be renewed, yet which burn up all traces of sin …

St. Albert's views on 1 Cor. 7:

ref:41:24:

From the virgins also are derived twofold kinds of flax, namely, the purity of chastity and the mortification of the flesh. Of the first, the purity of chastity, I Corinthians 7:34 says, “And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit,” and previously in verse 32 of the text [St. Paul] says, “He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God.”

ref:65.207 shows that 1 Cor. 7:28's "tribulations of the flesh" only apply to "evil married men":

Tyre is interpreted “narrow” and signifies evil married men of whom the Apostle says in I Corinthians 7:28, “They shall have tribulation of the flesh.”

ref:73.1 ff. on Prov. 31:29's "Many daughters [who] have gathered together riches: thou hast surpassed them all.": St. Albert's fourfold classification of women:

1. "Daughters of nature are those who put soul and will to the propagation of nature, supposing this to be best, namely to rejoice in children and husband." (ref:73.7)
2. "The daughters of this world are those who live always in luxury and pleasure-seeking and though they may remain virgin in body, in mind they are incestuous, losing their virginity of body by their external behavior by which they seduce the sons of God, that is clerics who have vowed themselves to chastity, as it says in Genesis 6:2, 'The sons of God seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took to themselves wives of all which they chose.' (ref:73.10)
3. "The daughters of the law are those who serve God only with fear and empty intentions fearing that they will be blamed by men who will be irritated if they vow a vow of chastity." (ref:73.12)
4. "The daughters of grace are those who are chaste in body and in heart and holy intention and serve Christ in humility, having as their banner carrying leader the glorious Mother of God and his Son the Immaculate Lamb." (ref:73.13)