The Church Fathers- Mary: Ever Virgin

The Church Fathers ^ | 120AD-450AD

[marshmallow]

The Protoevangelium of James

“And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by [St. Anne], saying, ‘Anne! Anne! The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.’ And Anne said, ‘As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God, and it shall minister to him in the holy things all the days of its life.’ . . . And [from the time she was three] Mary was in the temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt there” (Protoevangelium of James 4, 7 [A.D. 120]).

“And when she was twelve years old there was held a council of priests, saying, ‘Behold, Mary has reached the age of twelve years in the temple of the Lord. What then shall we do with her, lest perchance she defile the sanctuary of the Lord?’ And they said to the high priest, ‘You stand by the altar of the Lord; go in and pray concerning her, and whatever the Lord shall manifest to you, that also will we do.’ . . . [A]nd he prayed concerning her, and behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him saying, ‘Zechariah! Zechariah! Go out and assemble the widowers of the people and let them bring each his rod, and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be. . . . And Joseph [was chosen]. . . . And the priest said to Joseph, ‘You have been chosen by lot to take into your keeping the Virgin of the Lord.’ But Joseph refused, saying, ‘I have children, and I am an old man, and she is a young girl’” (ibid., 8–9).

“And Annas the scribe came to him [Joseph] . . . and saw that Mary was with child. And he ran away to the priest and said to him, ‘Joseph, whom you did vouch for, has committed a grievous crime.’ And the priest said, ‘How so?’ And he said, ‘He has defiled the virgin whom he received out of the temple of the Lord and has married her by stealth’” (ibid., 15).

“And the priest said, ‘Mary, why have you done this? And why have you brought your soul low and forgotten the Lord your God?’ . . . And she wept bitterly saying, ‘As the Lord my God lives, I am pure before him, and know not man’” (ibid.).

Origen

“The Book [the Protoevangelium] of James [records] that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end, so that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word . . . might not know intercourse with a man after the Holy Spirit came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the firstfruit among men of the purity which consists in [perpetual] chastity, and Mary was among women. For it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the firstfruit of virginity” (Commentary on Matthew 2:17 [A.D. 248]).

Hilary of Poitiers

“If they [the brethren of the Lord] had been Mary’s sons and not those taken from Joseph’s former marriage, she would never have been given over in the moment of the passion [crucifixion] to the apostle John as his mother, the Lord saying to each, ‘Woman, behold your son,’ and to John, ‘Behold your mother’ [John 19:26–27), as he bequeathed filial love to a disciple as a consolation to the one desolate" (Commentary on Matthew 1:4 [A.D. 354]).

Athanasius

“Let those, therefore, who deny that the Son is by nature from the Father and proper to his essence deny also that he took true human flesh from the ever-virgin Mary” (Discourses Against the Arians 2:70 [A.D. 360]).

Epiphanius of Salamis

“We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, both visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God . . . who for us men and for our salvation came down and took flesh, that is, was born perfectly of the holy ever-virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit” (The Man Well-Anchored 120 [A.D. 374]).

“And to holy Mary, [the title] ‘Virgin’ is invariably added, for that holy woman remains undefiled” (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies 78:6 [A.D. 375]).

Jerome

“[Helvidius] produces Tertullian as a witness [to his view] and quotes Victorinus, bishop of Petavium. Of Tertullian, I say no more than that he did not belong to the Church. But as regards Victorinus, I assert what has already been proven from the gospel—that he [Victorinus] spoke of the brethren of the Lord not as being sons of Mary but brethren in the sense I have explained, that is to say, brethren in point of kinship, not by nature. [By discussing such things we] are . . . following the tiny streams of opinion. Might I not array against you the whole series of ancient writers? Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and many other apostolic and eloquent men, who against [the heretics] Ebion, Theodotus of Byzantium, and Valentinus, held these same views and wrote volumes replete with wisdom. If you had ever read what they wrote, you would be a wiser man” (Against Helvidius: The Perpetual Virginity of Mary 19 [A.D. 383]).

“We believe that God was born of a virgin, because we read it. We do not believe that Mary was married after she brought forth her Son, because we do not read it. . . . You [Helvidius] say that Mary did not remain a virgin. As for myself, I claim that Joseph himself was a virgin, through Mary, so that a virgin Son might be born of a virginal wedlock” (ibid., 21).

Didymus the Blind

“It helps us to understand the terms ‘first-born’ and ‘only-begotten’ when the Evangelist tells that Mary remained a virgin ‘until she brought forth her first-born son’ [Matt. 1:25]; for neither did Mary, who is to be honored and praised above all others, marry anyone else, nor did she ever become the Mother of anyone else, but even after childbirth she remained always and forever an immaculate virgin” (The Trinity 3:4 [A.D. 386]).

Ambrose of Milan

“Imitate her [Mary], holy mothers, who in her only dearly beloved Son set forth so great an example of material virtue; for neither have you sweeter children [than Jesus], nor did the Virgin seek the consolation of being able to bear another son” (Letters 63:111 [A.D. 388]).

Pope Siricius I

“You had good reason to be horrified at the thought that another birth might issue from the same virginal womb from which Christ was born according to the flesh. For the Lord Jesus would never have chosen to be born of a virgin if he had ever judged that she would be so incontinent as to contaminate with the seed of human intercourse the birthplace of the Lord’s body, that court of the eternal king” (Letter to Bishop Anysius [A.D. 392]).

Augustine

“In being born of a Virgin who chose to remain a Virgin even before she knew who was to be born of her, Christ wanted to approve virginity rather than to impose it. And he wanted virginity to be of free choice even in that woman in whom he took upon himself the form of a slave” (Holy Virginity 4:4 [A.D. 401]).

“It was not the visible sun, but its invisible Creator who consecrated this day for us, when the Virgin Mother, fertile of womb and integral in her virginity, brought him forth, made visible for us, by whom, when he was invisible, she too was created. A Virgin conceiving, a Virgin bearing, a Virgin pregnant, a Virgin bringing forth, a Virgin perpetual. Why do you wonder at this, O man?” (Sermons 186:1 [A.D. 411]).

“Heretics called Antidicomarites are those who contradict the perpetual virginity of Mary and affirm that after Christ was born she was joined as one with her husband” (Heresies 56 [A.D. 428]).

Leporius

“We confess, therefore, that our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Father before the ages, and in times most recent, made man of the Holy Spirit and the ever-virgin Mary” (Document of Amendment 3 [A.D. 426]).

Cyril of Alexandria

“[T]he Word himself, coming into the Blessed Virgin herself, assumed for himself his own temple from the substance of the Virgin and came forth from her a man in all that could be externally discerned, while interiorly he was true God. Therefore he kept his Mother a virgin even after her childbearing” (Against Those Who Do Not Wish to Confess That the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God 4 [A.D. 430]).

Pope Leo I

“His [Christ’s] origin is different, but his [human] nature is the same. Human usage and custom were lacking, but by divine power a Virgin conceived, a Virgin bore, and Virgin she remained” (Sermons 22:2 [A.D. 450]).

[Zionist Conspirator]

PLEASE NOTE!!!

Please disregard what I said about someone earlier on the thread saying Protestants aren't "real chr*stians." That was evidently on another thread and not this one.

I regret the error.

[D-fendr]

Thirty-three years with Luther, 27 as a Catholic.

I have you beat in the first category, not in the second. But I'm not about to reveal by how many years. :)

[fwdude]

Here is how Catholics always see Jesus; always overshadowed by, co-equal to, proceeding from and supported by "Mary":

By the way, there is NO scriptural support whatsoever that Mary held the body of Jesus after his crucifixion. On the contrary, strict custody was maintained by the Jewish leaders and Romans to prevent a fraudulent resurrection.

PRAYER TO THE MOTHER OF SORROWS

Ah, my Blessed Mother,
it is not one sword only with which I have pierced thy heart,
but I have done so with as many
as are the sins which I have committed.
Ah, Lady, it is not to thee,
who art innocent,
that sufferings are due, but to me,
who am guilty of so many crimes.
But since thou hast been pleased to suffer so much for me,
ah, by thy merits,
obtain me great sorrow for my sins,
and patience under the trials of this life,
which will always be light in comparison with my demerits;
for I have often deserved Hell.

Amen.

If this isn't blasphemy, the word has no meaning.

[Quix]

LOL.

I appreciate your kind words.

I prefer to think of my stance as

STEADFAST.

And, I’ve learned to trust the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s making clear to me the path HE has me on.

May He guide you ever closer to Himself.

[fwdude]

Stop hedging. Do you believe that Christians on earth are saints?

[presently no screen name]

Not quite the opposite - I don’t adhere to a denomination.

[D-fendr]

Hedging? I thought your answer a no brainer and so elaborated. There are saints on earth. Are all Christians saints? I think not, but I’m not the judge and I cannot know enough to determine.

[D-fendr]

Here is how Catholics always see Jesus; always overshadowed..

Gee, presume much?

Let's give it a try: All Protestants fear contemplating the incredible mystery of the Incarnation and cannot bear to imagine that our Lord was born of a woman - misogynists that they all are.

< / sarc >

[mlizzy]

Quix, I think of all the people on Free Republic that do not agree with Catholicism, you'd be the first to melt like butter at the sight of Our Lady. I wish she would come to you in a dream. She's so beautiful, free from sin, yet a human mother to Our Jesus. Nothing you post could ever take me away from the Holy Catholic Church. So perfect is the faith, as Christ is in the Eucharist.

Catholics, please come home.

[fwdude]

Try reading the sacrilegious prayer at the bottom of my post and then try to explain away how out of kilter the Roman Church is.

[D-fendr]

I think you have an excellent point.

I believe that very often those who exemplify an obsession with Mary - particularly the most negative - are the very ones who are drawn to her Son through her.

Obsessions such as these are not hate but can indicate a much deeper suppression of love.

[D-fendr]

I have no doubt that you can read any prayer sacrilegiously. But that is your problem, not mine and I pray that you overcome it and all similar temptations.

[fwdude]

Catholics come homo is so gay.

[fwdude]

Do words mean anything to you; or like a liberal, are they malleable to any mindset?

[D-fendr]

Thanks for your informative post.

[fwdude]

Thanks for your non-answer. It’s typical.

[D-fendr]

Your very welcome. For future reference, I don’t do flame wars.

[fwdude]

I don’t do flame wars.

Wow, then did you stumble into the wrong thread. :)

[mlizzy]

Catholics come homo is so gay.

Someone told me it was a good site. No?