" The whole sixteenth chapter of the _Booklet of Eternal
Wisdom_ is an ardent hymn to the Madonna, almost comparable to St.
Bernard's prayer to Mary in Dante's _Divine Comedy_. It was written
about the time of Dante's death, not very long, therefore, after the
composition of the last chapters of the _Paradise_.
_The Life of Suso_ (the first German biography ever written) evidences
his adoration for the Lady of Heaven: "It was customary in his country,
Swabia, for the young men to go to their sweethearts' houses on New
Year's Eve, singing songs until they received from the maidens a chaplet
in return. This custom so pleased his young and ardent heart that he,
too, went on the eve of the New Year to his eternal love, to beg her for
a gift. Before daybreak he repaired to the statue which represented the
Virginal Mother pressing her tender child, the beautiful Eternal Wisdom,
to her bosom, and kneeling down before her, with a sweet, low singing of
his soul, he chanted a sequence to her, imploring her to let him win a
chaplet from her Child.
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