Defending Mary

Defending Mary

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Defending Mary

Contents

I: Mary: Ever Virgin...................................................................4

II: Mary: Mother of God........................................................... 9
III: Mary: “Full of Grace”.........................................................14
IV: Immaculate Conception and Assumption............................19
Defending Mary 4

I
Mary: Ever Virgin

Most Protestants claim that Mary bore children other than Jesus. To support their claim,
these Protestants refer to the biblical passages which mention the "brethren of the Lord." As
explained in the Catholic Answers tract Brethren of the Lord, neither the Gospel accounts nor
the early Christians attest to the notion that Mary bore other children besides Jesus. The faithful
knew, through the witness of Scripture and Tradition, that Jesus was Mary’s only child and that she
remained a lifelong virgin.
An important historical document which supports the teaching of Mary’s perpetual
virginity is the Protoevangelium of James, which was written probably less than sixty years after
the conclusion of Mary’s earthly life (around A.D. 120), when memories of her life were still vivid
in the minds of many.
According to the world-renowned patristics scholar, Johannes Quasten: "The principal aim
of the whole writing [Protoevangelium of James] is to prove the perpetual and inviolate virginity
of Mary before, in, and after the birth of Christ" (Patrology, 1:120–1).
To begin with, the Protoevangelium records that when Mary’s birth was prophesied, her
mother, St. Anne, vowed that she would devote the child to the service of the Lord, as Samuel had
been by his mother (1 Sam. 1:11). Mary would thus serve the Lord at the Temple, as women had
for centuries (1 Sam. 2:22), and as Anna the prophetess did at the time of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:36–
37). A life of continual, devoted service to the Lord at the Temple meant that Mary would not be
able to live the ordinary life of a child-rearing mother. Rather, she was vowed to a life of perpetual
virginity.
However, due to considerations of ceremonial cleanliness, it was eventually necessary for
Mary, a consecrated "virgin of the Lord," to have a guardian or protector who would respect her
vow of virginity. Thus, according to the Protoevangelium, Joseph, an elderly widower who already
had children, was chosen to be her spouse. (This would also explain why Joseph was apparently
dead by the time of Jesus’ adult ministry, since he does not appear during it in the gospels, and
since Mary is entrusted to John, rather than to her husband Joseph, at the crucifixion).
According to the Protoevangelium, Joseph was required to regard Mary’s vow of virginity
with the utmost respect. The gravity of his responsibility as the guardian of a virgin was indicated
by the fact that, when she was discovered to be with child, he had to answer to the Temple
authorities, who thought him guilty of defiling a virgin of the Lord. Mary was also accused of
having forsaken the Lord by breaking her vow. Keeping this in mind, it is an incredible insult to
the Blessed Virgin to say that she broke her vow by bearing children other than her Lord and God,
Defending Mary 5

who was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The perpetual virginity of Mary has always been reconciled with the biblical references
to Christ’s brethren through a proper understanding of the meaning of the term "brethren." The
understanding that the brethren of the Lord were Jesus’ stepbrothers (children of Joseph) rather
than half-brothers (children of Mary) was the most common one until the time of Jerome (fourth
century). It was Jerome who introduced the possibility that Christ’s brethren were actually his
cousins, since in Jewish idiom cousins were also referred to as "brethren." The Catholic Church
allows the faithful to hold either view, since both are compatible with the reality of Mary’s
perpetual virginity.
Today most Protestants are unaware of these early beliefs regarding Mary’s virginity
and the proper interpretation of "the brethren of the Lord." And yet, the Protestant Reformers
themselves—Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli—honored the perpetual virginity of
Mary and recognized it as the teaching of the Bible, as have other, more modern Protestants.

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.).
Defending Mary 6

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
Defending Mary 7

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]).
Defending Mary 8

"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]).

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials

presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004

IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827

permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
Defending Mary 9

II
Mary: Mother of God

Fundamentalists are sometimes horrified when the Virgin Mary is referred to as the
Mother of God. However, their reaction often rests upon a misapprehension of not only what this
particular title of Mary signifies but also who Jesus was, and what their own theological forebears,
the Protestant Reformers, had to say regarding this doctrine.
A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried him in her womb or if she was the
woman contributing half of his genetic matter or both. Mary was the mother of Jesus in both of
these senses; because she not only carried Jesus in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic
matter for his human body, since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus "was descended from
David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3).
Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God: If
Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way
out of this logical syllogism, the valid form of which has been recognized by classical logicians
since before the time of Christ.
Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that she is older
than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is neither. Rather, we say that she is the
Mother of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus Christ, God "in
the flesh" (2 John 7, cf. John 1:14)—and in the sense that she contributed the genetic matter to
the human form God took in Jesus Christ.
To avoid this conclusion, Fundamentalists often assert that Mary did not carry God in her
womb, but only carried Christ’s human nature. This assertion reinvents a heresy from the fifth
century known as Nestorianism, which runs aground on the fact that a mother does not merely
carry the human nature of her child in her womb. Rather, she carries the person of her child.
Women do not give birth to human natures; they give birth to persons. Mary thus carried and
gave birth to the person of Jesus Christ, and the person she gave birth to was God.
The Nestorian claim that Mary did not give birth to the unified person of Jesus Christ
attempts to separate Christ’s human nature from his divine nature, creating two separate and
distinctpersons—one divine and one human—united in a loose affiliation. It is therefore a
Christological heresy, which even the Protestant Reformers recognized. Both Martin Luther and
John Calvin insisted on Mary’s divine maternity. In fact, it even appears that Nestorius himself
may not have believed the heresy named after him. Further, the "Nestorian" church has now
signed a joint declaration on Christology with the Catholic Church and recognizes Mary’s divine
maternity, just as other Christians do.
Defending Mary 10

Since denying that Mary is God’s mother implies doubt about Jesus’ divinity, it is clear why
Christians (until recent times) have been unanimous in proclaiming Mary as Mother of God.
The Church Fathers, of course, agreed, and the following passages witness to their lively
recognition of the sacred truth and great gift of divine maternity that was bestowed upon Mary,
the humble handmaid of the Lord.

Irenaeus

"The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she
would bear God" (Against Heresies, 5:19:1 [A.D. 189]).

Hippolytus

"[T]o all generations they [the prophets] have pictured forth the grandest subjects for
contemplation and for action. Thus, too, they preached of the advent of God in the flesh to the
world, his advent by the spotless and God-bearing (theotokos) Mary in the way of birth and
growth, and the manner of his life and conversation with men, and his manifestation by baptism,
and the new birth that was to be to all men, and the regeneration by the laver [of baptism]"
(Discourse on the End of the World 1 [A.D. 217]).

Gregory the Wonderworker

"For Luke, in the inspired Gospel narratives, delivers a testimony not to Joseph only, but also to
Mary, the Mother of God, and gives this account with reference to the very family and house of
David" (Four Homilies 1 [A.D. 262]).

"It is our duty to present to God, like sacrifices, all the festivals and hymnal celebrations; and first
of all, [the feast of] the Annunciation to the holy Mother of God, to wit, the salutation made to
her by the angel, ‘Hail, full of grace!’" (ibid., 2).

Peter of Alexandria

"They came to the church of the most blessed Mother of God, and ever-virgin Mary, which, as we
began to say, he had constructed in the western quarter, in a suburb, for a cemetery of the martyrs"
(The Genuine Acts of Peter of Alexandria [A.D. 305]).

"We acknowledge the resurrection of the dead, of which Jesus Christ our Lord became the
firstling; he bore a body not in appearance but in truth derived from Mary the Mother of God"
(Letter to All Non-Egyptian Bishops 12 [A.D. 324]).

Methodius

"While the old man [Simeon] was thus exultant, and rejoicing with exceeding great and holy joy,
that which had before been spoken of in a figure by the prophet Isaiah, the holy Mother of God
now manifestly fulfilled" (Oration on Simeon and Anna 7 [A.D. 305]).
Defending Mary 11

"Hail to you forever, you virgin Mother of God, our unceasing joy, for unto you do I again return.
. . . Hail, you fount of the Son’s love for man. . . . Wherefore, we pray you, the most excellent
among women, who boast in the confidence of your maternal honors, that you would unceasingly
keep us in remembrance. O holy Mother of God, remember us, I say, who make our boast in
you, and who in august hymns celebrate your memory, which will ever live, and never fade away"
(ibid., 14).

Cyril of Jerusalem

"The Father bears witness from heaven to his Son. The Holy Spirit bears witness, coming down
bodily in the form of a dove. The archangel Gabriel bears witness, bringing the good tidings to
Mary. The Virgin Mother of God bears witness" (Catechetical Lectures 10:19 [A.D. 350]).

Ephraim the Syrian

"Though still a virgin she carried a child in her womb, and the handmaid and work of his wisdom
became the Mother of God" (Songs of Praise 1:20 [A.D. 351]).

Athanasius

"The Word begotten of the Father from on high, inexpressibly, inexplicably, incomprehensibly,
and eternally, is he that is born in time here below of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God" (The
Incarnation of the Word of God 8 [A.D. 365]).

Epiphanius of Salamis

"Being perfect at the side of the Father and incarnate among us, not in appearance but in truth, he
[the Son] reshaped man to perfection in himself from Mary the Mother of God through the Holy
Spirit" (The Man Well-Anchored 75 [A.D. 374]).

Ambrose of Milan

"The first thing which kindles ardor in learning is the greatness of the teacher. What is greater
than the Mother of God? What more glorious than she whom Glory Itself chose?" (The Virgins
2:2[7] [A.D. 377]).

Gregory of Nazianz

"If anyone does not agree that holy Mary is Mother of God, he is at odds with the Godhead"
(Letter to Cledonius the Priest 101 [A.D. 382]).

Jerome

"As to how a virgin became the Mother of God, he [Rufinus] has full knowledge; as to how he
Defending Mary 12

himself was born, he knows nothing" (Against Rufinus 2:10 [A.D. 401]).

"Do not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if a Virgin gives birth to God" (Commentaries on
Isaiah 3:7:15 [A.D. 409]).

Theodore of Mopsuestia

"When, therefore, they ask, ‘Is Mary mother of man or Mother of God?’ we answer, ‘Both!’ The
one by the very nature of what was done and the other by relation" (The Incarnation 15 [A.D.
405]).

Cyril of Alexandria

"I have been amazed that some are utterly in doubt as to whether or not the holy Virgin is able to
be called the Mother of God. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how should the holy Virgin who
bore him not be the Mother of God?" (Letter to the Monks of Egypt 1 [A.D. 427]).

"This expression, however, ‘the Word was made flesh’ [John 1:14], can mean nothing else but that
he partook of flesh and blood like to us; he made our body his own, and came forth man from
a woman, not casting off his existence as God, or his generation of God the Father, but even in
taking to himself flesh remaining what he was. This the declaration of the correct faith proclaims
everywhere. This was the sentiment of the holy Fathers; therefore they ventured to call the holy
Virgin ‘the Mother of God,’ not as if the nature of the Word or his divinity had its beginning from
the holy Virgin, but because of her was born that holy body with a rational soul, to which the
Word, being personally united, is said to be born according to the flesh" (First Letter to Nestorius
[A.D. 430]).

"And since the holy Virgin corporeally brought forth God made one with flesh according to
nature, for this reason we also call her Mother of God, not as if the nature of the Word had the
beginning of its existence from the flesh" (Third Letter to Nestorius [A.D. 430]).

"If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the holy Virgin is
the Mother of God, inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [John 1:14]: let
him be anathema" (ibid.).

John Cassian

"Now, you heretic, you say (whoever you are who deny that God was born of the Virgin), that
Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, cannot be called the Mother of God, but the Mother
only of Christ and not of God—for no one, you say, gives birth to one older than herself. And
concerning this utterly stupid argument . . . let us prove by divine testimonies both that Christ is
God and that Mary is the Mother of God" (On the Incarnation of Christ Against Nestorius 2:2
[A.D. 429]).

"You cannot then help admitting that the grace comes from God. It is God, then, who has given it.
Defending Mary 13

But it has been given by our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is God. But if he is
God, as he certainly is, then she who bore God is the Mother of God" (ibid., 2:5).

Council of Ephesus

"We confess, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect
man, of a rational soul and a body, begotten before all ages from the Father in his Godhead,
the same in the last days, for us and for our salvation, born of Mary the Virgin according to his
humanity, one and the same consubstantial with the Father in Godhead and consubstantial with
us in humanity, for a union of two natures took place. Therefore we confess one Christ, one Son,
one Lord. According to this understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the holy Virgin
to be the Mother of God because God the Word took flesh and became man and from his very
conception united to himself the temple he took from her" (Formula of Union [A.D. 431]).

Vincent of Lerins

"Nestorius, whose disease is of an opposite kind, while pretending that he holds two distinct
substances in Christ, brings in of a sudden two persons, and with unheard-of wickedness would
have two sons of God, two Christs,—one, God, the other, man; one, begotten of his Father, the
other, born of his mother. For which reason he maintains that Saint Mary ought to be called, not
the Mother of God, but the Mother of Christ" (The Notebooks 12[35] [A.D. 434]).

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials

presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004

IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827

permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
Defending Mary 14

III
Mary: “Full of Grace”

The Fathers of the Church taught that Mary received a number of distinctive blessings in
order to make her a more fitting mother for Christ and the prototypical Christian (follower of
Christ). These blessings included her role as the New Eve (corresponding to Christ’s role as the
New Adam), her Immaculate Conception, her spiritual motherhood of all Christians, and her
Assumption into heaven. These gifts were given to her by God’s grace. She did not earn them, but
she possessed them nonetheless.
The key to understanding all these graces is Mary’s role as the New Eve, which the
Fathers proclaimed so forcefully. Because she is the New Eve, she, like the New Adam, was born
immaculate, just as the First Adam and Eve were created immaculate. Because she is the New Eve,
she is mother of the New Humanity (Christians), just as the first Eve was the mother of humanity.
And, because she is the New Eve, she shares the fate of the New Adam. Whereas the First Adam
and Eve died and went to dust, the New Adam and Eve were lifted up physically into heaven.
Of particular interest in the following quotations from the Fathers are those that speak of
Mary’s immaculate nature. We will all one day be rendered immaculate (sinless), but Mary, as the
prototypical Christian, received this grace early. God granted her freedom from sin to make her a
fitting mother for his Son.
Even before the terms "original sin" and "immaculate conception" had been defined, early
passages imply the doctrines. Many works mention that Mary gave birth to Jesus without pain.
But pain in childbearing is part of the penalty of original sin (Gen. 3:16). Thus, Mary could not
have been under that penalty. By God’s grace, she was immaculate in anticipation of her Son’s
redemptive death on the cross. The Church therefore describes Mary as "the most excellent fruit
of redemption" (CCC 508).

The Ascension of Isaiah

"[T]he report concerning the child was noised abroad in Bethlehem. Some said, ‘The Virgin Mary
has given birth before she was married two months.’ And many said, ‘She has not given birth; the
midwife has not gone up to her, and we heard no cries of pain’" (Ascension of Isaiah 11 [A.D.
70]).
Defending Mary 15

The Odes of Solomon

"So the Virgin became a mother with great mercies. And she labored and bore the Son, but
without pain, because it did not occur without purpose. And she did not seek a midwife, because
he caused her to give life. She bore as a strong man, with will . . . " (Odes of Solomon 19 [A.D.
80]).

Justin Martyr

"[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]).

Irenaeus

"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]).

"The Lord then was manifestly coming to his own things, and was sustaining them by means of
that creation that is supported by himself. He was making a recapitulation of that disobedience
that had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience that was upon a tree [i.e., the
cross]. Furthermore, the original deception was to be done away with—the deception by which
that virgin Eve (who was already espoused to a man) was unhappily misled. That this was to be
overturned was happily announced through means of the truth by the angel to the Virgin Mary
(who was also [espoused] to a man). . . . So if Eve disobeyed God, yet Mary was persuaded to be
obedient to God. In this way, the Virgin Mary might become the advocate of the virgin Eve. And
thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so it is rescued by a virgin.
Virginal disobedience has been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in the
same way, the sin of the first created man received amendment by the correction of the First-
Begotten" (ibid., 5:19:1 [A.D. 189]).
Defending Mary 16

Tertullian

"And again, lest I depart from my argumentation on the name of Adam: Why is Christ called
Adam by the apostle [Paul], if as man he was not of that earthly origin? But even reason defends
this conclusion, that God recovered his image and likeness by a procedure similar to that in which
he had been robbed of it by the devil. It was while Eve was still a virgin that the word of the devil
crept in to erect an edifice of death. Likewise through a virgin the Word of God was introduced
to set up a structure of life. Thus what had been laid waste in ruin by this sex was by the same sex
reestablished in salvation. Eve had believed the serpent; Mary believed Gabriel. That which the one
destroyed by believing, the other, by believing, set straight" (The Flesh of Christ 17:4 [A.D. 210].

Pseudo-Melito

"If therefore it might come to pass by the power of your grace, it has appeared right to us your
servants that, as you, having overcome death, do reign in glory, so you should raise up the body of
your Mother and take her with you, rejoicing, into heaven. Then said the Savior [Jesus]: ‘Be it done
according to your will’" (The Passing of the Virgin 16:2–17 [A.D. 300]).

Ephraim the Syrian

"You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is no blemish in you
nor any stains upon your Mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these?" (Nisibene
Hymns 27:8 [A.D. 361]).

Ambrose of Milan

"Mary’s life should be for you a pictorial image of virginity. Her life is like a mirror reflecting
the face of chastity and the form of virtue. Therein you may find a model for your own life . . .
showing what to improve, what to imitate, what to hold fast to" (The Virgins 2:2:6 [A.D. 377]).

"The first thing which kindles ardor in learning is the greatness of the teacher. What is greater
[to teach by example] than the Mother of God? What more glorious than she whom Glory Itself
chose? What more chaste than she who bore a body without contact with another body? For
why should I speak of her other virtues? She was a virgin not only in body but also in mind,
who stained the sincerity of its disposition by no guile, who was humble in heart, grave in speech,
prudent in mind, sparing of words, studious in reading, resting her hope not on uncertain riches,
but on the prayer of the poor, intent on work, modest in discourse; wont to seek not man but God
as the judge of her thoughts, to injure no one, to have goodwill towards all, to rise up before her
elders, not to envy her equals, to avoid boastfulness, to follow reason, to love virtue. When did she
pain her parents even by a look? When did she disagree with her neighbors? When did she despise
the lowly? When did she avoid the needy?" (ibid., 2:2:7).

"Come, then, and search out your sheep, not through your servants or hired men, but do it
yourself. Lift me up bodily and in the flesh, which is fallen in Adam. Lift me up not from Sarah but
from Mary, a virgin not only undefiled, but a virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of every
Defending Mary 17

stain of sin" (Commentary on Psalm 118:22–30 [A.D. 387]).

Augustine

"Our Lord . . . was not averse to males, for he took the form of a male, nor to females, for of a
female he was born. Besides, there is a great mystery here: that just as death comes to us through
a woman, life is born to us through a woman; that the devil, defeated, would be tormented by
each nature, feminine and masculine, as he had taken delight in the defection of both" (Christian
Combat 22:24 [A.D. 396]).

"That one woman is both mother and virgin, not in spirit only but even in body. In spirit she is
mother, not of our head, who is our Savior himself—of whom all, even she herself, are rightly
called children of the bridegroom—but plainly she is the mother of us who are his members,
because by love she has cooperated so that the faithful, who are the members of that head, might
be born in the Church. In body, indeed, she is the Mother of that very head" (Holy Virginity 6:6
[A.D. 401]).
...

"Having excepted the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom, on account of the honor of the
Lord, I wish to have absolutely no question when treating of sins—for how do we know what
abundance of grace for the total overcoming of sin was conferred upon her, who merited to
conceive and bear him in whom there was no sin?—so, I say, with the exception of the Virgin,
if we could have gathered together all those holy men and women, when they were living here,
and had asked them whether they were without sin, what do we suppose would have been their
answer?" (Nature and Grace 36:42 [A.D. 415]).

Timothy of Jerusalem

"Therefore the Virgin is immortal to this day, seeing that he who had dwelt in her transported her
to the regions of her assumption" (Homily on Simeon and Anna [A.D. 400]).

John the Theologian

"[T]he Lord said to his Mother, ‘Let your heart rejoice and be glad, for every favor and every gift
has been given to you from my Father in heaven and from me and from the Holy Spirit. Every
soul that calls upon your name shall not be ashamed, but shall find mercy and comfort and support
and confidence, both in the world that now is and in that which is to come, in the presence of my
Father in the heavens’" (The Falling Asleep of Mary [A.D. 400]).

"And from that time forth all knew that the spotless and precious body had been transferred to
paradise" (ibid.).
Defending Mary 18

Gregory of Tours

"The course of this life having been completed by blessed Mary, when now she would be called
from the world, all the apostles came together from their various regions to her house. And when
they had heard that she was about to be taken from the world, they kept watch together with her.
And behold, the Lord Jesus came with his angels, and, taking her soul, he gave it over to the angel
Michael and withdrew. At daybreak, however, the apostles took up her body on a bier and placed
it in a tomb, and they guarded it, expecting the Lord to come. And behold, again the Lord stood
by them; the holy body having been received, he commanded that it be taken in a cloud into
paradise, where now, rejoined to the soul, [Mary’s body] rejoices with the Lord’s chosen ones and
is in the enjoyment of the good of an eternity that will never end" (Eight Books of Miracles 1:4
[A.D. 584]).

"But Mary, the glorious Mother of Christ, who is believed to be a virgin both before and after
she bore him, has, as we said above, been translated into paradise, amid the singing of the angelic
choirs, whither the Lord preceded her" (ibid., 1:8).

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials

presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004

IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827

permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
Defending Mary 19

IV
Immaculate Conception and Assumption

The Marian doctrines are, for Fundamentalists, among the most bothersome of the
Catholic Church’s teachings. In this tract we’ll examine briefly two Marian doctrines that
Fundamentalist writers frequently object to—the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption.

The Immaculate Conception

It’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and
what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without
the intervention of a human father; but that is the Virgin Birth. Others think the Immaculate
Conception means Mary was conceived "by the power of the Holy Spirit," in the way Jesus
was, but that, too, is incorrect. The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception
was brought about the normal way, was conceived without original sin or its stain—that’s what
"immaculate" means: without stain. The essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of
sanctifying grace, and its stain is a corrupt nature. Mary was preserved from these defects by God’s
grace; from the first instant of her existence she was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free
from the corrupt nature original sin brings.
When discussing the Immaculate Conception, an implicit reference may be found in the
angel’s greeting to Mary. The angel Gabriel said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke
1:28). The phrase "full of grace" is a translation of the Greek word kecharitomene. It therefore
expresses a characteristic quality of Mary.
The traditional translation, "full of grace," is better than the one found in many recent
versions of the New Testament, which give something along the lines of "highly favored
daughter." Mary was indeed a highly favored daughter of God, but the Greek implies more
than that (and it never mentions the word for "daughter"). The grace given to Mary is at once
permanent and of a unique kind.Kecharitomene is a perfect passive participle of charitoo, meaning
"to fill or endow with grace." Since this term is in the perfect tense, it indicates that Mary was
graced in the past but with continuing effects in the present. So, the grace Mary enjoyed was not
a result of the angel’s visit. In fact, Catholics hold, it extended over the whole of her life, from
conception onward. She was in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence.
Defending Mary 20

Fundamentalists’ Objections

Fundamentalists’ chief reason for objecting to the Immaculate Conception and Mary’s
consequent sinlessness is that we are told that "all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23). Besides, they say,
Mary said her "spirit rejoices in God my Savior" (Luke 1:47), and only a sinner needs a Savior.
Let’s take the second citation first. Mary, too, required a Savior. Like all other descendants
of Adam, she was subject to the necessity of contracting original sin. But by a special intervention
of God, undertaken at the instant she was conceived, she was preserved from the stain of original
sin and its consequences. She was therefore redeemed by the grace of Christ, but in a special
way—by anticipation.
Consider an analogy: Suppose a man falls into a deep pit, and someone reaches down to
pull him out. The man has been "saved" from the pit. Now imagine a woman walking along, and
she too is about to topple into the pit, but at the very moment that she is to fall in, someone holds
her back and prevents her. She too has been saved from the pit, but in an even better way: She
was not simply taken out of the pit, she was prevented from getting stained by the mud in the first
place. This is the illustration Christians have used for a thousand years to explain how Mary was
saved by Christ. By receiving Christ’s grace at her conception, she had his grace applied to her
before she was able to become mired in original sin and its stain.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that she was "redeemed in a more exalted
fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son" (CCC 492). She has more reason to call God her
Savior than we do, because he saved her in an even more glorious manner!
But what about Romans 3:23, "all have sinned"? Have all people committed actual sins?
Consider a child below the age of reason. By definition he can’t sin, since sinning requires the
ability to reason and the ability to intend to sin. This is indicated by Paul later in the letter to the
Romans when he speaks of the time when Jacob and Esau were unborn babies as a time when
they "had done nothing either good or bad" (Rom. 9:11).
We also know of another very prominent exception to the rule: Jesus (Heb. 4:15). So if
Paul’s statement in Romans 3 includes an exception for the New Adam (Jesus), one may argue that
an exception for the New Eve (Mary) can also be made.
Paul’s comment seems to have one of two meanings. It might be that it refers not to
absolutely everyone, but just to the mass of mankind (which means young children and other
special cases, like Jesus and Mary, would be excluded without having to be singled out). If not that,
then it would mean that everyone, without exception, is subject to original sin, which is true for a
young child, for the unborn, even for Mary—but she, though due to be subject to it, was preserved
by God from it and its stain.
The objection is also raised that if Mary were without sin, she would be equal to God. In
the beginning, God created Adam, Eve, and the angels without sin, but none were equal to God.
Most of the angels never sinned, and all souls in heaven are without sin. This does not detract from
the glory of God, but manifests it by the work he has done in sanctifying his creation. Sinning
does not make one human. On the contrary, it is when man is without sin that he is most fully
what God intends him to be.
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was officially defined by Pope Pius
IX in 1854. When Fundamentalists claim that the doctrine was "invented" at this time, they
misunderstand both the history of dogmas and what prompts the Church to issue, from time to
time, definitive pronouncements regarding faith or morals. They are under the impression that no
Defending Mary 21

doctrine is believed until the pope or an ecumenical council issues a formal statement about it.
Actually, doctrines are defined formally only when there is a controversy that needs to be
cleared up or when the magisterium (the Church in its office as teacher; cf. Matt. 28:18–20; 1 Tim.
3:15, 4:11) thinks the faithful can be helped by particular emphasis being drawn to some already-
existing belief. The definition of the Immaculate Conception was prompted by the latter motive; it
did not come about because there were widespread doubts about the doctrine. In fact, the Vatican
was deluged with requests from people desiring the doctrine to be officially proclaimed. Pope Pius
IX, who was highly devoted to the Blessed Virgin, hoped the definition would inspire others in
their devotion to her.

The Assumption

The doctrine of the Assumption says that at the end of her life on earth Mary was assumed,
body and soul, into heaven, just as Enoch, Elijah, and perhaps others had been before her. It’s also
necessary to keep in mind what the Assumption is not. Some people think Catholics believe Mary
"ascended" into heaven. That’s not correct. Christ, by his own power, ascended into heaven. Mary
was assumed or taken up into heaven by God. She didn’t do it under her own power.
The Church has never formally defined whether she died or not, and the integrity of
the doctrine of the Assumption would not be impaired if she did not in fact die, but the almost
universal consensus is that she did die. Pope Pius XII, in Munificentissimus Deus (1950), defined
that Mary, "after the completion of her earthly life" (note the silence regarding her death), "was
assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven."
The possibility of a bodily assumption before the Second Coming is suggested by Matthew
27:52–53: "[T]he tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep
were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and
appeared to many." Did all these Old Testament saints die and have to be buried all over again?
There is no record of that, but it is recorded by early Church writers that they were assumed into
heaven, or at least into that temporary state of rest and happiness often called "paradise," where
the righteous people from the Old Testament era waited until Christ’s resurrection (cf. Luke 16:22,
23:43; Heb. 11:1–40; 1 Pet. 4:6), after which they were brought into the eternal bliss of heaven.

No Remains

There is also what might be called the negative historical proof for Mary’s Assumption. It
is easy to document that, from the first, Christians gave homage to saints, including many about
whom we now know little or nothing. Cities vied for the title of the last resting place of the most
famous saints. Rome, for example, houses the tombs of Peter and Paul, Peter’s tomb being under
the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In the early Christian centuries relics of saints were
zealously guarded and highly prized. The bones of those martyred in the Coliseum, for instance,
were quickly gathered up and preserved—there are many accounts of this in the biographies of
those who gave their lives for the faith.
It is agreed upon that Mary ended her life in Jerusalem, or perhaps in Ephesus. However,
neither those cities nor any other claimed her remains, though there are claims about possessing
her (temporary) tomb. And why did no city claim the bones of Mary? Apparently because there
weren’t any bones to claim, and people knew it. Here was Mary, certainly the most privileged
Defending Mary 22

of all the saints, certainly the most saintly, but we have no record of her bodily remains being
venerated anywhere.

Complement to the Immaculate Conception

Over the centuries, the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church spoke often about the
fittingness of the privilege of Mary’s Assumption. The speculative grounds considered include
Mary’s freedom from sin, her Motherhood of God, her perpetual virginity, and—the key—her
union with the salvific work of Christ.
The dogma is especially fitting when one examines the honor that was given to the ark of
the covenant. It contained the manna (bread from heaven), stone tablets of the ten commandments
(the word of God), and the staff of Aaron (a symbol of Israel’s high priesthood). Because of its
contents, it was made of incorruptible wood, and Psalm 132:8 said, "Arise, O Lord, and go to thy
resting place, thou and the ark of thy might." If this vessel was given such honor, how much more
should Mary be kept from corruption, since she is the new ark—who carried the real bread from
heaven, the Word of God, and the high priest of the New Covenant, Jesus Christ.
Some argue that the new ark is not Mary, but the body of Jesus. Even if this were the case,
it is worth noting that 1 Chronicles 15:14 records that the persons who bore the ark were to be
sanctified. There would be no sense in sanctifying men who carried a box, and not sanctifying the
womb who carried God himself! After all, wisdom will not dwell "in a body under debt of sin"
(Wis. 1:4 NAB).
But there is more than just fittingness. After all, if Mary is immaculately conceived, then it
would follow that she would not suffer the corruption in the grave, which is a consequence of sin
[Gen. 3:17, 19].

Mary’s Cooperation

Mary freely and actively cooperated in a unique way with God’s plan of salvation (Luke
1:38; Gal. 4:4). Like any mother, she was never separated from the suffering of her Son (Luke
2:35), and Scripture promises that those who share in the sufferings of Christ will share in his
glory (Rom. 8:17). Since she suffered a unique interior martyrdom, it is appropriate that Jesus
would honor her with a unique glory.
All Christians believe that one day we will all be raised in a glorious form and then caught
up and rendered immaculate to be with Jesus forever (1 Thess. 4:17; Rev. 21:27). As the first person
to say "yes" to the good news of Jesus (Luke 1:38), Mary is in a sense the prototypical Christian,
and received early the blessings we will all one day be given.

The Bible Only?

Since the Immaculate Conception and Assumption are not explicit in Scripture,
Fundamentalists conclude that the doctrines are false. Here, of course, we get into an entirely
separate matter, the question of sola scriptura, or the Protestant "Bible only" theory. There is
no room in this tract to consider that idea. Let it just be said that if the position of the Catholic
Church is true, then the notion of sola scriptura is false. There is then no problem with the
Church officially defining a doctrine which is not explicitly in Scripture, so long as it is not in
Defending Mary 23

contradiction to Scripture.
The Catholic Church was commissioned by Christ to teach all nations and to teach them
infallibly—guided, as he promised, by the Holy Spirit until the end of the world (John 14:26,
16:13). The mere fact that the Church teaches that something is definitely true is a guarantee that
it is true (cf. Matt. 28:18-20, Luke 10:16, 1 Tim. 3:15).

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials

presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004

IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827

permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
Defending Mary 24

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