The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Her Praises in the First-Half of the First Christian Millennium

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Her Praises in the First-Half of the First Christian Millennium

Then the tribes of Israel heard that Anna had conceived the immaculate one.  So everyone took part in the rejoicing.  Joachim gave a banquet, and great was the merriment in the garden.  He invited the priests and Levites to prayer; then he called Mary into the center of the crowd, that she might be magnified. (On the Birth of Mary, St. Romanos the Melodist (c.490-c.556 AD)

Introduction

We must always resist the modern tendency of turning the Sacred Scriptures into a history book.  The Scriptures are in no way concerned with giving us a biography of Moses, David, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, Luke, or even the Holy Virgin Mary.  For the Sacred Scriptures are a proclamation and revelation of the self disclosure of God in Jesus Christ.  St. Ephrem wrote: “Scripture brought me to the Gate of Paradise, and the mind stood in wonder as it entered.” At the Gates of Paradise we enter into that perfect relationship with God and his holy martyrs and saints, the Church of heaven that John speaks about in his Apocalypse/Revelation, whose queen is the Holy Virgin.  

Jesus reveals to us that God is not a philosophical concept of notions of divine perfection, rather God is the perfection of relationship, which means love.  God is from all eternity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, communion as perfection, communion of eternal love. It is this life into which we enter as members of the Church, this is why we listen to the prophets, honor the saints, and adore Mary, who is the image par excellence of the Church.  From her nativity, Annunciation, the flight into Egypt, the presentation in the Temple, the wedding at Cana, and at the foot of the Cross; Mary, image of the  Church, contemplates all these things in her heart, shares in his suffering, listens to his words, stands by his Cross, and shares in his Resurrection.  

The Fathers of the Church pondered the silence of Mary, rejoiced in her nativity and maternity, followed her example of sanctity, and invoked her prayerful assistance.   As noted by Chorbishop Seely Beggiani in his book Early Syriac Theology, “It was natural for Syriac writers to see Mary as the fulfillment of Old Testament types and a symbol of the future church.

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Protoevangelium of James, whose original title was The Nativity of Mary, was written probably around 145 AD.  While not being one of the four canonical Gospels, it is from this influential early Christian writing that we read of the Nativity of Mary.        

And her months were fulfilled, and in the ninth month Anna brought forth. And she said to the midwife: What have I brought forth? And she said: A girl. And said Anna: My soul has been magnified this day. And she laid her down. And the days having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, … and called her name Mary. …

And when she was a year old, Joachim made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel. And Joachim brought the child to the priests; and they blessed her, saying: O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations. … And Anna made a song to the Lord God, saying: I will sing a song to the Lord my God, for He has looked upon me, and has taken away the reproach of mine enemies; - Protoevangelium of James

 
The Protoevangelium of James is not a biography but a proclamation of the earliest traditions of the Church concerning Mary, the one chosen to be the holy mother of the Christ; the Theotókos (God-bearer, Mother of God), as the Third Ecumenical Council, held in Ephesus in 431AD will proclaim as dogma.  

From this early Christian apocryphal writing and other lesser known apocryphal  writings of that time we discover the devout parents of Mary, Joachim and Anna, Joseph a widower who will become betrothed to Mary and will be the protector of the Holy Family.  Also, we discover the oldest teachings of the perpetual virginity of Mary.  

The Nativity of Mary along with her fiat given to the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation, will form the hinge on the door of human history.  For due to the “yes” of Mary to “let it be done to me according to your will,” the door of human history is opened to the Father to send his Son for our salvation.   

She is the leaven of our new creation, the root of the true vine whose branches we have become, by virtue of the germination proper to baptism.  She is the point of arrival of the reconciliation of God with men, on which occasion the angels sang: “Glory to God in the highest; peace on earth and good will toward men.” - Severus of Antioch (c.465-538 AD)

 
Saint Ephrem the Syrian: Poet of the Virgin Mary

The poetic theological and spiritual writings of St. Ephrem on the role of Mary in salvation history, are some of the most beautiful and profound expressions of faith to be found among the Church Fathers.  His work on the significance of the Holy Virgin for the Church and its mission to the world, will influence later Syriac writers, such as Narsai (d. 502AD) and Jacob of Serug (d. 521AD).

For St. Ephrem, Mary is the beauty of creation: “Only you [Jesus] and your Mother are more beautiful than everything.” He sees Mary as All-Holy: “Handmaid and daughter of blood and water [am I] whom You redeemed and baptized.”  He is possibly the first speak of the Holy Name of Mary: “Blessed are you also, Mary, whose name is great and exalted because of your Child.” For Ephrem, Mary is a defender of the Church’s faith in Christ: “His death on the Cross attests to his birth from the woman.  For anyone who dies must have been born as well…Therefore, the human conception of Jesus is demonstrated by his death on the Cross.  If anyone denies his birth, the Cross proves him wrong.” Importantly, Mary is a symbol of the Church: “Three angels were seen at the tomb, these three announced that he was risen on the third day.  Mary, who saw him, is the symbol of the Church which will be the first to recognize the signs of his Second Coming.”

As regards the Nativity of Mary, some have held that St. Ephrem is the first Christian writer to explicitly refer to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.  He wrote:

In Mary, as in an eye,

the Light has made a dwelling and purified her spirit,

refined her thoughts, sanctified her mind, and 

transfigured her virginity.    

 
St. Ephrem affirms the enduring belief of the Church, that Mary is the greatest of our human race and the perfect example of one who gave their whole life in service to God’s will.  

Conclusion: St. Romanos the Melodist

St. Romanos the Melodist (d. 560AD)  was born in Emesa (modern Homs) Syria, of Jewish parents who seemingly converted to Christianity.  As a young man he moved to Beirut, and was ordained a deacon, serving in the Church of the Resurrection.  From there he moved to Constantinople, to live as an ascetic in the Marian shrine known as Blachernae. It was here, living a monastic life, serving as a deacon and cantor, that Romanos created the kontakion, the first formal construction of Byzantine chant.  

St. Romanos although known for being one of the most important founders of Byzantine hymnology; represents the Syriac poetic, musical tradition of expressing theological and doctrinal truths in hymns.  In expressing his theology of Mary in musical verse he brings the tradition of St. Ephrem two centuries forward.  He sings of Mary’s Nativity as an address to Mary’s mother Anna:

Your birth is worthy of veneration, O holy woman, because you brought to light the joy of the world, the powerful mediatrix of graces for men.  Indeed she is the rampart, the defense, and the haven of whoever trusts in her.  Every Christian finds in her, in your fruit, a protector, a defense, and the hope of salvation.

 
These words of St. Romanos are a summation of the devotion to Mary in the Church of the first half of its first millennium.  The birth of Mary is the beginning of the Christ-event, which is our salvation and deification.  Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Theotókos who never ceases to intercede for us before the throne of God.  

(Rev.) David A. Fisher