Virgin Mary
Virgin Mary EuropeIn the person of the Virgin Mary the earth goddess—the ‘great mother’ of ancient religions—succeeded in re-establishing something of her former position. At first the Virgin was not honoured above other saints, but from the fourth century onwards there was a marked growth in the devotion accorded by Christians to Mary. In 431 the Council of Ephesus, which met in a church supposed to contain her mortal remains, confirmed the title of Theotokos, ‘God-bearer’, which was translated into Latin as Mater Dei, mother of God. It subsumed the vision of St John of Patmos as described in Revelation. ‘And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.’
She was Mater Virgo, virgin mother, the primal material prior to its division into the multiplicity of created things; Stella Maris, star of the sea, the...
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