| Mary Question from Thomas on 03-08-2003: |
| Hello, Who is the earliest church father who writes about praying to mary? Or to any of the saints? Thank You for your time, Thomas |
| Answer by Matthew Bunson on 03-11-2003: |
| Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary can be traced to the earliest era of the Church, certainly to the 1st century. By 107, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the Ephesians of Jesus as “Son of Mary and the Son of God.” He was followed by a number of early writers, including Aristides, Justin, and Irenaeus, who honored Mary for the Virgin Birth. The proper veneration of the Virgin Mary – termed hyperdulia – was stressed by St. Epiphanius (d. 403) who both condemned the Collyridians for worshiping Mary and was abundant in his praises for her. Veneration was advanced further by such Fathers as Sts. Ambrose and Jerome. It is possible to trace in a practical way the development of veneration, especially in the Eastern Church, through the rapidly increasing numbers of churches dedicated to her. For example, in 431, the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. St. Cyril of Alexandria could thus write eloquently, “Hail to thee Mary, Mother of God, to whom in towns and villages and in island were founded churches of true believers.” |
"[Jesus] became man by the Virgin so that the course which was taken by disobedience in the beginning through the agency of the serpent might be also the very course by which it would be put down. Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, for which reason the Holy One being born of her is the Son of God. And she replied ‘Be it done unto me according to your word’ [Luke 1:38]" (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 100 [A.D. 155]).
"Consequently, then, Mary the Virgin is found to be obedient, saying, ‘Behold, O Lord, your handmaid; be it done to me according to your word.’ Eve, however, was disobedient, and, when yet a virgin, she did not obey. Just as she, who was then still a virgin although she had Adam for a husband—for in paradise they were both naked but were not ashamed; for, having been created only a short time, they had no understanding of the procreation of children, and it was necessary that they first come to maturity before beginning to multiply—having become disobedient, was made the cause of death for herself and for the whole human race; so also Mary, betrothed to a man but nevertheless still a virgin, being obedient, was made the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. . . . Thus, the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith" (Against Heresies 3:22:24 [A.D. 189]).