Reguła naśladowania Maryi
The Rule of the Imitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Summary/Abstract: The Rule of the Ten Virtues of the Most B.V.M., or the Rule of the Ten Pleasures of the Most B.V.M. (Regula Decem Beneplacitorum Beatissimae Virginis Mariae), is one of the few religious rules approved in spite of the decree issued by the IV Lateran Council in 1215. This decree forbade the approval of the newly founded religious orders on any other than one of the previously approved rules. The Rule was composed by a Franciscan, Fr. Gilbert Nicolas, better known as Gabriel Maria, the name he received from Pope Leo X by his brief (breve) of June 11, 1517. From 1498, Bl. Gabriel Maria was the confessor and spiritual director of Joan de Valois, Queen of France and then the Duchess of Berry. With the help from her spiritual director, Blessed Gabriel Maria, the Duchess of Berry and 11 other women started a contemplative order of the Virgin Mary. It was also known as the Order of the Ten Virtues or Ten Pleasures of the Mother of God, the Order of Annunciation of the B.V.M. or the Annunciade. The Blessed Virgin Mary was to be the model for the nuns and the virtues that she practiced, that are mentioned in the Gospels, became their rule of life. Thus The Rule of the Ten Virtues came into being, because the Scriptures directly speak of those virtues.Pope Julius II, and also popes Innocent XII and Innocent XIII, confirmed The Rule of the Ten Virtues of the Most B.V.M. Along with giving a certification to the Rule, Julius II, and the above-said Leo X, granted indulgences to the Chaplet of the Ten Evangelical Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, contained in that Rule. The Chaplet which was composed by St. Joan is an obligatory spiritual exercise for those who retain the Rule. In following of the instruction from the Apostolic See, The Rule of the Ten Virtues of the Most B.V.M. was adopted for a male order, which was in agreement with the wish of the Foundress, as mentioned before. Throughout the centuries, the popes granted numerous spiritual graces, privileges, and indulgences to the Order of the Annunciade (ed. Andrew Maczynski).

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