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St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Ephrem the Syrian: Reflections on The Mother of God
“Through Eve death, life through Mary”
- St. Jerome, (Epistula 22 ad Eustochium)
Introduction
Mary the Blessed Virgin, proclaimed the “God-Bearer” (Mother of God) by the Council of Ephesus, is significant throughout the theology of the period of the Fathers of the Church. As noted by Chorbishop Seely Joseph 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.
What must be kept in mind is that the Fathers, often were confronted with heresies that challenged the Church’s doctrinal understanding of the Triune nature of God, and the unity of the “divine” and “human” natures in the Son of God made Man, Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore, theological writings on Mary in the Patristic Era are more often than not a defense of the truth of the Incarnation, and a safeguard of the actual humanity of Christ. We find these teachings in doctrinal proclamations, liturgical documents, apologetic arguments defending the “true faith," theological tomes, and in the case of St. Ephrem and others in the Syriac tradition — poetry.
St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
St. Ignatius was the second successor of St. Peter as the Bishop of Antioch. He was born in Syria sometime around the year 50A.D. and was martyred in the arena in Rome between 98 and 117A.D. Although the date of his birth makes it impossible, according to some early writers he was the child taken up into the arms of Jesus in Mark 9:36-37. "He then took a little child whom he set among them and embraced, and he said to them, 'Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.' “ On his way to Rome to be martyred, he wrote letters to the various Christian communities he passed through, leaving us with seven letters that allow us a glimpse of the early Church. In the following quotes from his Letter to the Ephesians, we see Mary’s role as the mother of Jesus, and related to this her connection with the action of the Holy Spirit:
There is only one Physician, having both flesh and spirit, born and unborn,
God become man, true life in death, from Mary and from God, first passible
and then impassible - Jesus Christ our Lord. …
For our God Jesus Christ, according to God’s economy, was conceived
by Mary of the seed of David, but also by the Holy Spirit. He was born and
baptized, that by his Passion he might purify the water.
We see here also that St. Ignatius places Mary within God’s “economy” of salvation. He is one of the first Church Fathers to use this term, which eventually becomes a technical term that refers to God’s plan of salvation being perfect and central to the total revelation of God to his people. Mary, who is always linked to the ministry of her Son and Lord, in bringing salvation to the Father’s creation, is overshadowed by the Father’s Holy Spirit at the Annunciation, that same Spirit who raises Jesus form the dead - the mystery of faith, the economy of salvation.
St. Ephrem, the Harp of the Holy Spirit
Ephrem was born in Syria around 306 and died in Nisibis in 373. He became the greatest example of Syriac poetry in the Patristic period, writing over three million lines of verse. The beauty and quantity of his work awarded him the title Harp of the Holy Spirit. “His verses not only overflow with beauty of form and lyricism but also express rich religious and theological thought. The poet reveals his feelings of deep awe and admiration when considering the holy Virgin and her virtues.” Living some two centuries after St. Ignatius and the Apostolic Fathers (those Fathers who knew the Apostles or disciples of the Apostles), St. Ephrem not only sees Mary in relation to doctrine and apologetics, but also as the object of spiritual devotion. This is illustrated in the following quote:
Only you (Jesus) and your Mother
are more beautiful than everything
For on you, O Lord, there is no mark;
neither is there any stain in your Mother
Some have held that St. Ephrem is one of the first Christian writers 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."
For St. Ephrem, Mary is the symbol of the Church, the People of God, who await the Kingdom of God, whose gates were opened by Christ. In his Hymns on the Crucifixion, he wrote:
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.
Conclusion
This brief exposition introduces us to the vital role of Mary in the “economy of salvation," and this role is illustrated even in the primitive Church and throughout the Patristic tradition and beyond. Mary especially in her most important title, Mother of God, affirms the true humanity of Christ, accepts the power of the Holy Spirit in the Word becoming flesh, and mirrors the Church as being the daughter of Christ and vessel of the Holy Spirit.
(Rev.) David A. Fisher
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Footnotes:
1 “The Holy Fathers do not hesitate to call the holy Virgin Theotókos, …he took his holy body, gifted with a rational soul, from her.” From, Mary and the Fathers of the Church, by Luigi Gambrel, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1999. p.237.
2 Early Syriac Theology: With Special Reference to the Maronite Tradition, revised edition, Catholic University of America Press, Washington, DC, 2014, p. 93.
3 The terms passible and impassible refer to the suffering (passion) of Christ. The early Church was confronted with the Greco-Roman philosophical tradition that did not allow for any suffering to be possible with God. While the Church certainly condemned the heresy of Patripassionism , that is to say, that the Father suffered on the Cross; it defended the suffering of Christ, true God and true Man, who suffered in his humanity.
4 Letter to the Ephesians, 7,2 and 18,2, St. Ignatius of Antioch.
5 Gambero, L.,pp. 108-109.
6 Corpus scriptorum Christianorum orientalium, Paris-Louvain. 1903. p.219.
7 Hymns on the Church 36, 2. St. Ephrem; CSCO 199, 88.
8 Hymns on the Crucifixion, 4, 17. CSCO, 249,47.
Maronite Catholic Priest, Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles. Ordained 31 May 1984 by His Holiness, Pope Saint John Paul II. Studied at Pontifical College Josephinum, Ohio Dominican College, Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Presently, Instructor in Eastern Christian Studies at Saint Charles Seminary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
