According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Arnold of Bonneval was a
Benedictine abbot in the diocese of Chartres (1144-56), correspondent and biographer of St. Bernard, and author of other works of a spiritual and edifying character (P.L., CLXXXIX, 1507-1760).
The following
comes from his work, Laudibus B. M. Virginis (PL 189:1727A):
Maria Christo se spiritu immolat et pro mundi
salute obsecrat, Filius impetrat, Pater condonat. Magnum quidem est quod
latroni conceditur venia; sed et hoc stupendum quod consummata dispensatione
incarnationis, exspiraturus Jesus matrem tanto affectu honorat, victor
suppliciorum, et quasi sui immemor, ad matrem de cruce convertitur, et
colloquitur, intimans quanti apud eum meriti esset et gratiae, quam solam in
illo puncto respiceret, cum jam capite vulnerato, fixis manibus et pedibus, in
ultimis esset. Movebat enim eum matris affectio, et omnino tunc erat una
Christi et Mariae voluntas, unumque holocaustum ambo pariter offerbant Deo:
haec in sanguine cordis, hic in sanguine carnis.
Mary, in spirit, offers herself
to Christ and beseeches for the salvation of the world; the Son obtains it, the
Father pardons. Great indeed is the pardon that is granted to the thief; but
even more astonishing is this — that when the dispensation of the Incarnation
was complete, and about to breathe his last, Jesus, conqueror of sufferings,
honors his mother with so great an affection, and, as if forgetful of himself,
turns from the cross to his mother and speaks with her, showing how much merit
and grace she had with him, which alone at that moment he would regard, since,
his head already wounded and his hands and feet fixed, he was in his last
moments. For he was moved by a mother’s affection, and indeed at that time the
will of Christ and of Mary was one, and the two together equally offered one
holocaust to God: she in the blood of the heart, he in the blood of the flesh.
I thought I would
look this up as this is the text referenced in the Vatican’s most recent
document, Mater
Populi Fidelis (November 11, 2025). When discussing Mary’s role in
salvation and her role in objective redemption, we read in paragraph 12
that:
Arnold, a friend of Saint Bernard and the Benedictine abbot of
Bonneval (X after 1159), was the first to consider Mary’s cooperation with the
sacrifice of Calvary, standing next to her Son, Jesus Christ.
