Some fourth century Fathers as witnesses to the active role of Mary in humanity’s salvation
4 min • Digitized on May 2, 2023
From A Defense of the Teachings of Mary, page 41
By St. John Henry Newman
Having then adduced these Three Fathers of the second century, I have at least got so far as this: viz.—no one, who acknowledges the force of early testimony in determining Christian truth, can wonder, no one can complain, can object, that we Catholics should hold a very high doctrine concerning the Blessed Virgin, unless indeed stronger statements can be brought for a contrary conception of her, either of as early, or at least of a later date.
But, as far as I know, no statements can be brought from the ante-Nicene literature, to invalidate the testimony of the three Fathers concerning her; and little can be brought against it from the fourth century, while in that fourth century the current of testimony in her behalf is as strong as in the second; and, as to the fifth, it is far stronger than in any former time, both in its fulness and its authority. This will to some extent be seen as I proceed.
4. St. Cyril of Jerusalem (215—386) speaks for Palestine:—
“Since through Eve, a Virgin, came death, it behoved, that through a Virgin, or rather from a Virgin, should life appear; that, as the Serpent had deceived the one, so to the other Gabriel might bring good tidings.”—Cat. xii. 15.
5. St. Ephrem Syrus (he died 378) is a witness for the Syrians proper and the neighbouring Orientals, in contrast to the Greco-Syrians. A native of Nisibis on the further side of the Euphrates, he knew no language but Syriac.
“Through Eve, the beautiful and desirable glory of men was extinguished: but it has revived through Mary.”—Opp. Syr. ii. p. 318.
Again:—
“In the beginning, by the sin of our first parents, death passed upon all men; to-day, through Mary we are translated from death unto life. In the beginning, the serpent filled the ears of Eve, and the poison spread thence over the whole body; to-day, Mary from her ears received the champion of eternal happiness: what, therefore, was an instrument of death, was an instrument of life also.”—iii. p. 607.
I have already referred to St. Paul’s contrast between Adam and our Lord in his Epistle to the Romans, as also in his first Epistle to the Corinthians. Some writers venture to say that there is no doctrinal truth, but a mere rhetorical display, in those passages. lt is quite as easy to say so, as to attempt so to dispose of this received comparison, in the writings of the Fathers, between Eve and Mary.
6. St. Epiphanius (320—400) speaks for Egypt, Palestine, and Cyprus:—
“She it is, who is signified by Eve, enigmatically receiving the appellation of the Mother of the living. … It was a wonder that after the transgression she had this great epithet. And, according to what is material, from that Eve all the race of men on earth is generated.
“But thus in truth from Mary the Life itself was born in the world, that Mary might bear living things, and become the Mother of living things. Therefore, enigmatically, Mary is called the Mother of living things…
“Also, there is another thing to consider as to these women, and wonderful, — as to Eve and Mary. Eve became a cause of death to man … and Mary a cause of life; … that life might be instead of death, life excluding death which came from the woman, viz. He who through the woman has become our life.”—Haer. 78. 18.