Luigi Gambero - Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought

MARY AND THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH

LUIGI GAMBERO, S.M.

The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought

Translated by Thomas Buffer

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Title of the Italian original:
Maria nel pensiero dei padri della Chiesa
1991 Edizione Paoline, S.R.L., Milan

Cover art:
Madonna and Child with Angels , detail
Duccio
Galleria Nazionale dellUmbria, Perugia, Italy
Scala / Art Resource, NY

Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum

1999 Ignatius Press, San Francisco
ISBN 978-0-89870-686-4 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-64229-097-4 (EB)
Library of Congress catalogue number 98-71259
Printed in the United States of America

FROM THE APOSTOLIC AGE
TO THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA (325)

FROM THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA
TO THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS (431)

FROM THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS
TO THE FIFTH CENTURY

THE END OF THE PATRISTIC PERIOD
(SIXTH-EIGHTH CENTURY)

AAS Acta apostolicae sedis (Vatican City, 1909 )

ACO Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum , ed. E. Schwartz and J. Straub (Berlin, 1914 )

CCL Corpus Christianorum , Series Latina (Turnhout, 1953 )

CSCO Corpus scriptorum Christianorum orientalium (Paris-Louvain, 1903 )

CSEL Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum (Vienna, 1865 )

CWS Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press)

GCS Diegriechischen christlichen Schriftsteller (Leipzig-Berlin, 1897 )

MGH Monumenta germaniae historica (Hanover-Berlin, 1826 )

PG Patrologiae cursus completus , Series Graeca (Paris: Migne, 18571866)

PL Patrologiae cursus completus , Series Latina (Paris: Migne, 18411864)

PLS Patrologiae latinaesupplementum , ed. A. Hamman (Paris, 19571971)

PO Patrologia orientalis (Paris, 1903 )

SC Sources chrtiennes (Paris, 1941 )

TU Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur (Leipzig-Berlin, 1882 )

The exploration of the very earliest history of Christianity, where the original roots of Christian faith and theology are buried, is an undertaking that has never ceased to arouse enthusiasm and curiosity. This is so despite the fact that this period remains enigmatic and mysterious in many ways. It poses various problems of a historical-critical nature, both for the student of Christian origins and for the theologian. Still, many find it truly fascinating to rediscover the beginnings of such an enormously important religious and historical phenomenon as Christianity.

In any case, the purpose of such research cannot be the search for a verification of our religious creed and our personal Christian life, or a quest to make sure that we are being faithful to the patrimony of faith ( depositum fidei ) entrusted by the Lord to his apostles and to the Church. The teaching of the Church, in every age of her history, is sufficient to guarantee this certainty, because it embraces the whole treasury of tradition, rendered present and alive by the faith and Christian action of the people of God.

Our interest in rediscovering the very beginning of the Christian tradition becomes more understandable if considered from a different perspective. For us, retrieving the origins of Christian doctrine can be like tasting the fresh waters of a spring, where the word of God is poured out by the pen of man under the illuminating and charismatic impulse of the Spirit, where the first Christian generations found nourishment for their faith, prayer, and life. We, too, know the wellsprings of this inspiration: Sacred Scripture and the apostolic tradition, the marvelous works of the Holy Spirit, acting in the lives of the scriptural authors and Fathers of the Church to make them authoritative witnesses and outstanding heralds of the good news of Jesus, through their preaching, writings, and living example.

The teaching of the Fathers boasts both evangelical simplicity and doctrinal riches. When we examine it today, it is easy to discover that this same spiritual patrimony has survived to our day as the treasure of todays Church. This treasure has been handed down to us in a long development, from generation to generation, and we will have to hand it on to future generations. The study of the Fathers involves more than just admiring and recognizing what they accomplished in developing Christian thought; above all, it is a task carried out by todays believers on behalf of tomorrows Christians. The Church makes her own the words of the apostle Paul, I hand on to you what I received from the Lord (1 Cor 11:23). The faith of the Fathers has to be handed down to successive generations, intact, yet enriched and updated by the Christian experience of present generations.

The Fathers of the Church were the first to put this divine mandate into practice. Blessed with a special charism, in most cases related to their role as bishops, they nourished themselves on the word of God, profoundly assimilating its contents. They made it the object of their preaching and writing, but above all they witnessed to it by their lives, thus becoming the first models of Christian holiness. The Church recognizes these eminent persons as Fathers of the Church on the basis of two conditions: the authoritative teaching of revealed truth and the example of personal holiness. The time in which they lived (the first six or seven centuries) was still close enough to the historical period of New Testament revelation that their mentality and upbringing made them particularly attentive and open to the hermeneutical problems present from the beginning of Christianity. They felt the urgent need to provide an exact interpretation of Gods word, which, inevitably, is expressed in human language.

In addition, their status within the Church makes them faithful and authoritative witnesses to the faith of the Christian people, and this is the most important aspect of the teaching they have left us. Cardinal Newman makes the point well, We receive those doctrines which [the Fathers] thus teach, not merely because they teach them, but because they bear witness that all Christians everywhere then held them.

For all these reasons, it is not difficult to understand the importance of the doctrine that the Fathers of the Church taught about Mary. We can understand and evaluate the first steps taken by Christian tradition as it labors, sometimes with difficulty, to remain faithful to the Marian statements of the New Testament. During the first centuries, the Fathers and other Christian writers rarely speak of Mary apart from Christ. Allusions to the Virgin usually arise out of a christological and biblical context. The discussion of the mystery of the incarnate Word becomes clear and concrete when Mary and her role as mother are brought into it.

As the centuries passed, especially from the second half of the fourth century on, the Fathers and other Christian writers began to pay more attention to Mary, although we must grant that the quantity of Marian literature produced in that period is fairly modest. We also see ecclesiological discourse beginning to take an interest in the Mary-Church parallel. After the Councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451), there is a sharp increase in the level of Marian doctrine and devotion. Marys extraordinary role as Virgin Mother of the Savior had more and more influence on the faith of the Church. Christians began using the texts of Scripture to reflect on the mystery of this woman, in whom the Lords extraordinary intervention was interwoven with her own faith and openness.

The homilies of the Church Fathers help to make even more room for the Blessed Virgin in the liturgical worship of the Christian people and in the personal devotion of the faithful. This devotion took on a life of its own, to the point that Marys conduct became a model for Christian life. This influence became even more apparent in the Christian practice of consecrated virginity and in the monastic life in general. Then, under the influence of Western theology, the Mary-Church parallel took on considerable importance, which would influence future developments in Mariology and ecclesiology.