INTRODUCTION

The church has made Mary the object of its dogmatic definitions. It has
proclaimed with infallible authority what she is for the faithful. In doing so
the Church was not confronting any particular disputes that required
authoritative clarifications. Rather, it was coming to grips with a doxological
situation that spurred it on to glorify Mary and to express itself in the most
solemn manner on the figure of this woman, the Virgin and Mother of the Son
of God.

Dogma came to mean those truths which the Church authoritatively

proposes as matters to be believed by all the faithful without exception. 1 The
doctrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary reveals the role of the Mother of Jesus in
relation to Christ and his Church.

In this work, we shall look at four central Catholic truths (known as de

fide doctrines) regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary: Her Motherhood of God,
Her Immaculate Conception, Her perpetual Virginity and Her Assumption.

I MOTHER OF GOD

The first and foremost revealed truth about Mary from which all her
other roles and all her other honors flow is the Mother of God. This doctrine
proclaims that the Virgin Mary is true Mother of Jesus Christ who is God the
Son made man. The doctrine of Mary’s divine motherhood, as it is commonly
referred to, is explicitly revealed in sacred scripture. At the Annunciation the
Angel Gabriel declared to Mary: Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and
shall bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus. (Luke 1:35).

The angelic message which originates from God Himself attests that
Mary is true Mother of Jesus and secondly, that Jesus is true Son of God.
From these words of Angel, we can derive the following simple theological

1 Joseph Paredes, Mary and the Kingdom of God, U.K: St. Paul Publications, 1991, P.218.

1
syllogism: Mary is Mother of Jesus; Jesus is God, therefore, Mary is Mother of
God. Origen’s main concern was to demonstrate that Mary’s motherhood is
real and normal, above all on the level of natural reality. For him: those who
believe in Jesus who was crucified in Judea under Pontius Pilate, but do not
believe that he was born of the Virgin Mary, do not believe in the person.2

The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 declared Mary as the Mother

of God or Theotokos. The Council approved of the teaching of St. Cyril of
Alexandria who against the error Nestorius: if anyone does not confess that
Emmanuel, (Christ) in truth is God and that on this account the Virgin Mary is
the mother of God (Theotokos) in as much as She gave birth to the Word of
God made flesh… let him be anathema3 . Nestorius refused to call Mary
“Mother of God” not primarily because of Mariological error, but because of
Christological error.

Motherhood: To have an accurate understanding of Mary as Mother of God,

we must first have a clear understanding of the nature of motherhood itself.
Motherhood is the act of a woman giving to her offspring the same type of
nature that she herself has. This gift of nature is given through the process
of conception, growth or gestation and rebirth. The fruit of this process,
which we call maternal generation, is the whole child, the son or daughter,
and not only the physical body. It is in this accurate sense that Mary is rightly
called the “Mother of God”.

II THE IMMACULATES CONCEPTION

The second central Marian doctrine is the doctrine of the Immaculate

Conception. The proclamation of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin
Mary, as a dogma, has a long history behind it. Historically, it was a much-
debated issue. This doctrine, which received the added certainty of an

2 Luigi Gambero, Mary and the Fathers of the Church, U.S.A: Ignatius Press, 1999, P.73.

3 Council of Ephesus, DS113

2
infallible definition by pope Pius IX in 1854, proclaims that Mary was
conceived without original stain of Original Sin. From Sacred Scripture we
have at least two passages of the Bible that present the implicit seed of the
revealed truth of Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

In Genesis 3:15, after Adam and Eve committed Original Sin, God
addresses Satan, who is represented by Serpent: I will put enmity between
you and the woman and between your seed and her seed; he shall crush
your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel.

From the New Testament, the principal scriptural seed for the
Immaculate Conception is revealed in the inspired words of the Angel
Gabriel, “Hail, full of grace, the lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). These angel’s
words referred to a fullness of grace, a plentitude of grace that is part of
Mary’s very nature. It true that no person with a fallen nature could possess
a fullness of grace, a plentitude of grace, appropriate only for the woman
who was to give God the Son an identical, immaculate human nature. Mary
was conceived in providence to be the woman who would give her same
immaculate nature to God when God became man. Certainly we can see the
fittingness in God receiving a human nature from a human Mother, and
receiving an immaculate nature from a truly Immaculate Mother.

The early Church Fathers refer to Mary under such titles as “all holy,”
“all pure,” “most innocent,” “a miracle of grace,” “purer than the angels,”
“all together without sin,” and these within the first three centuries of the
Church. Since the word “immaculate” means “without sin” then the titles
used for Mary by the early Church Fathers, such as “altogether without sin”
certainly contains the understanding of her immaculate nature.4

The early Church Fathers also compared Mary’s sinless state as being
identical to Eve’s state before the participation of Eve in Original Sin. Mary as

4 Cf. Pius IX, Inneffabilis Deus, 1854.

3
the “New Eve” was sent to be in the same state of original grace and justice
that Eve was in when she was created by God. Since Eve was obviously
conceived in grace, without the fallen nature that we receive due to Original
Sin, the parallel made by the Church fathers between Mary and Eve before
the fall illustrates their understanding of Mary’s likewise Immaculate nature.

III THE VIRNITY OF MARY

The third central doctrine regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary is the doctrine of
Mary’s perpetual virginity. This defined truth received unanimous acceptance
among the early Church Fathers and unquestionably confirmed by papal
definitions and ecumenical councils alike.

The doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity proclaims that the Blessed

Virgin Mary was always a virgin, before, during, and after the birth of Jesus.
This threefold character of Mary’s physical virginity was stressed in the
definition of Pope St. Martin I at the Lateran Synod in 649 A. D. where he
declared it in faith: “The Blessed ever-virginal and immaculate Mary
conceived, without seed, by the Holy Spirit, and without loss of integrity
brought Him forth, and after His birth preserved her virginity inviolate”.5

Mary’s virginity before the birth of Jesus is well attested to in the

sacred scripture and Tradition. The prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 states: “Behold a
virgin shall conceive a son….” Likewise in the Gospel of Luke, the Angel
Gabriel was sent by God to “a virgin… and the virgin’s name was Mary”
(Luke1:27). In the dialogue between the Angel Gabriel and Mary we have a
further confirmation of Mary’s virginity before the birth of Jesus Christ.
Gabriel announces: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son” (Luke
1:31). Mary responds: “How will this be since I know no man” (Luke 1:34). To
know in this context is a reference to sexual intercourse.

5 Denzinger’s Enchiridion Symbolorum (DS), 256.

4
 The Angel Gabriel responds: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you”. (Luke1:35). The dialogue
between Mary and the Angel Gabriel brings out both the virginity of Mary and
the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb by the miraculous intervention of the
Holy Spirit.

The Apostle’s Creed professes the truth of Mary’s virginity before the
birth of Jesus Christ when it states that Jesus Christ was “conceived by the
Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.” The early Fathers of the Church
unanimously expressed their belief that Jesus had no human father and was
conceived in Mary in a virginal and miraculous manner by the Holy Spirit.6 In
like manner, her virginity during birth and after the birth of our Lord Jesus
Christ was expressed by the Tradition of the Church and the Fathers of the
Church.

IV THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY

The fourth central Marian doctrine is the Assumption of Mary. The

doctrine of Mary’s Assumption, like her Immaculate Conception, has the
added certainty of an infallible papal statement. Pope Pius XII in 1950
defined the Assumption of Mary in the following statement: “The Immaculate
Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her
earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” 7

Pope Pius XII in his papal document, declared the Assumption a

doctrine “revealed by God” and refers to several sources. This doctrine
received the unanimous consensus from the Magisterium of the Church. In

6 Mark, Miravalle, Intoduction to Mary: The Heart of Marian Doctrines and Devotion, U.S.A:
Queenship Publiishing Company, 1993.

7 Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus.

5
1946, Pope Pius XII petitioned the bishops of the world asking them whether
the Assumption of Mary could be defined and whether they favor such
definition. Out of 1232, 1210 enthusiastically answered yes to both question.
Such unanimity among the bishops is almost unprecedented in the history of
the Church regarding doctrinal pronouncements.

The doctrine of the Assumption of Mary is also found in the Sacred

Tradition. The early Christians gradually unraveled the implicitly revealed
reference to Mary’s Assumption. Our first explicit reference is by St. Gregory
of Tour: the Lord commanded the holy body of Mary to be borne on the cloud
to paradise where, reunited to its soul and exalting with the elect, it enjoys
the everlasting bliss of eternity.8From the seventh century onward, numerous
Church Fathers proclaimed the doctrine of Assumption9. From thirteenth
century on, the doctrine of Mary’s Assumption was taught with near
unanimity by Church writers and theologians in both East and West.10

From the forgone, we can conclude that for now we have four
dogmatic declarations about the Blessed Virgin Mary.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Joseph Paredes, Mary and the Kingdom of God, U.K: St. Paul Publications,

1991.

Luigi Gambero, Mary and the Fathers of the Church, U.S.A: Ignatius Press,

1999.

8 St. Gregory of Tours, Libri Miraculorumm, Lib I, Cap.4, Pl 71, 708.

9 St. Germain of Constantinople, d. 733

10 Cf. Fundamentals, P.188.

6
Mark, Miravalle, Intoduction to Mary: The Heart of Marian Doctrines and

Devotion, U.S.A: Queenship Publiishing Company, 1993.

Council of Ephesus, DS113

Pius IX, Inneffabilis Deus, 1854.

Denzinger’s Enchiridion Symbolorum (DS), 256.

Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, 1946.

St. Gregory of Tours, Libri Miraculorumm, Lib I, Cap.4.