The Infallible Teaching of the Church
"If anyone does not properly and truly confess in accord with the holy Fathers, that the holy Mother of God and ever virgin and
immaculate Mary in the earliest of the ages conceived of the Holy Spirit without seed, namely, God the
Word Himself specifically and truly, who was born of God the Father before all ages, and that she incorruptibly bore [Him], hre virginity remaining indestructible even after His birth, let him be condemned."
-Pope Saint Martin I, The Lateran Council, Canon 3, 649AD (DS 256)
From Sacred
Scripture
“Therefore the Lord himself
shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and
shall call his name Immanuel.”
-Isaias 7:14
“Before she travailed, she
brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.”
-Isaias 66:7
“Then he brought me back the
way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it
was shut. Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be
opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel,
hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.”
-Ezechiel
44:1-3 (see quote from Saint Ambrose below)
"A garden enclosed is my
sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed."
-Song
of Songs 4:12
“And she brought forth her
firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger;
because there was no room for them in the inn.”
-Luke 2:7
More from Saint Peter
"Within her virginal
womb Christ our Lord already bore the exalted title of Head of the Church; in a
marvelous birth (mirando partu edidit) she brought Him forth as the source of
all supernatural life, and presented Him newly born, as Prophet, King and
Priest to those who, from among Jews and Gentiles, were the first to come to
adore Him.."
- Pope Pius XII, Mystici
Corporis, 1943 AD
"O just, O most blessed
Joseph, since thou art sprung from a royal line, thou hast been chosen from
among all mankind to be spouse of the pure Queen who, in a way which defies
description, will give birth to Jesus the king."
-Pope Pius XII, Ad Caeli
Reginam, citing a Byzantine prayer, 1954 AD
"Along with many others,
the Seraphic Doctor held the same views. He considered it as entirely certain
that, as God had preserved the most holy Virgin Mary from the violation of her
virginal purity and integrity in conceiving and in childbirth, he would never
have permitted her body to have been resolved into dust and ashes."
-Pope Pius XII,
Munificentissimus Deus, citing Saint Bonaventure's: De Nativitate B. Mariae
Virginis, Sermo V., November 1 1950 AD
"Therefore, the life of
Joseph's pure spouse, who remained a virgin 'during childbirth and after
childbirth' -- as the Catholic Church has always believed and professed and as
was fitting for her who was raised to the incomparable dignity of divine
motherhood -- was a life of such perfect union with the Son that she shared in
His joys, sorrows and triumphs"
-Pope Paul VI, Signum Magnum,
1967 AD
"The Christmas season is
a prolonged commemoration of the divine, virginal and salvific motherhood of
her whose 'inviolate virginity brought the Saviour into the world.'”
-Pope Paul VI, Marialis
Cultus, 1974
"Mary was therefore a
virgin before the birth of Jesus and she remained a virgin in giving birth and
after the birth. This is the truth presented by the New Testament texts, and
which was expressed both by the Fifth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in
553, which speaks of Mary as 'ever virgin', and also by the Lateran Council in
649, which teaches that 'the mother of God...Mary...conceived [her Son] through
the power of the Holy Spirit without human intervention, and in giving birth to
him, her virginity remained incorrupted, and even after the birth her virginity
remained intact."
-Pope John Paul II, General
Audience of Jan 28 1987
"It is a well-known fact
that some of the Church Fathers set us a significant parallel between the
begetting of Christ ex intacta virgine [from the inviolate Virgin] and his
resurrection ex intacto sepulcro [from the sealed tomb]. In the parallelism
relative to the begetting of Christ, some of the Fathers put the emphasis on the
virginal conception, others on the virgin birth, others on the subsequent
perpetual virginity of the Mother, but they all testify to the conviction that
between the two saving events – the generation–birth of Christ and his
resurrection from the dead – there exists an intrinsic connection which
corresponds to a precise plan of God: a connection which the Church led by the
Spirit, has discovered, not created. . . [I]t is necessary for the theologian,
in presenting the Church's doctrine on Mary's virginity to maintain the
indispensable balance between stating the fact and elucidating its meaning.
Both are integral parts of the mystery: the meaning, or symbolic value of the
event is based on the reality of the fact, and the latter, in turn, reveals all
its richness only if its symbolic meanings are unfolded."
-Pope John Paul II, during a
talk in Capua Italy, June 10 1992
"With the shepherds let
us enter the stable of Bethlehem beneath the loving gaze of Mary, the silent
witness of his miraculous birth."
-Pope Benedict XVI, Urbi et
Orbi message of Christmas 2005
From the Fathers and Doctors of the Church
"Mary's virginity was
hidden from the prince of this world; so was her childbearing, and so was the
death of the Lord. All these three trumpet-tongued secrets were brought to pass
in the deep silence of God."
-Saint Ignatius of Antioch,
Bishop and Father of the Church, Epistle to the Ephesians, 19; 107 AD
"Who loves you is amazed
and who would understand is silent and confused, because he cannot probe the
Mother who gave birth in her virginity. If
it is too great to be clarified with words the disputants ought not on that
account cross swords with your Son.”
-Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Father and Doctor of the Church, Songs of Praise 1,
2
"Believe in the Son of
God, the Word before all the ages, who was...in these last days, for your sake,
made Son of Man, born of the Virgin Mary in an indescribable and stainless
way,-for there is no stain where God is and whence salvation comes..."
-Saint Gregory Nazianzen;
Bishop, Father, and Doctor of the Church; Oration on Holy Baptism, 40:45; 381
AD
"According to the
condition of the body (Jesus) was in the womb, He nursed at His mother's
breast, He lay in the manger, but superior to that condition, the Virgin
conceived and the Virgin bore, so that you might believe that He was God who
restored nature, though He was man who, in accord with nature, was born of a
human being."
-Saint Ambrose of Milan;
Bishop, Father, and Doctor of the Church; Mystery of the Lord's Incarnation,
6:54; 382 AD
"Though coming in the
form of man, yet not in every thing is He subject to the laws of man's nature;
for while His being born of a woman tells of human nature; virginity becoming
capable of childbirth betokens something above man. Of Him then His mother's
burden was light, the birth immaculate, the delivery without pain, the nativity
without defilement, neither beginning from wanton desire, nor brought to pass
with sorrow. For as she who by her guilt engrafted death into our nature, was
condemned to bring forth in trouble, it was meet that she who brought life into
the world should accomplish her delivery with joy."
St Gregory of Nyssa, Homily
on the Nativity 388 AD
"This is the virgin who
conceived in her womb and as a virgin bore a son."
-Pope Siricius, 390 AD
"Who is this gate
(Ezekiel 44:1-4), if not Mary? Is it not closed because she is a virgin? Mary
is the gate through which Christ entered this world, when He was brought forth
in the virginal birth and the manner of His birth did not break the seals of
virginity.... There is a gate of the womb, although it is not always closed;
indeed only one was able to remain closed, that through which the One born of
the Virgin came forth without the loss of genital intactness"
-Saint Ambrose of Milan;
Bishop, Father, and Doctor of the Church; The Consecration of a Virgin and the
Perpetual Virginity of Mary, 8:52; c. 391 AD
"It is not right that He
who came to heal corruption should by His advent violate integrity"
-St. Augustine, Sermon 189:2
"She brought Him forth
without the loss of virginity even as she conceived Him without its loss.… in
the Lord Jesus Christ born from the womb of the Virgin, because His birth was
miraculous, nature was not for that reason different from ours. For He who is
true God, is likewise true man, and there is no falsehood in this unity, as
long as there are alternately the lowliness of man and the exaltedness of the
Divinity. For, just as God is not changed by His compassion, so man is not
destroyed by His dignity. For each nature does what is proper to it with the
mutual participation of the other; the Word clearly effecting what belongs to
the Word, and the flesh performing what belongs to the flesh."
-Pope Saint Leo the Great,
Father and Doctor of the Church, Tome to Flavian
"Jesus Christ, true God
and the same true man proceeded, that is, was born, while his mother's
virginity remained intact: for the Virgin remained such in bearing him just as
she had in conceiving him"
-Pope Pelagius I, Letter to
King Childebert I
"O mystery! I see
miracles, and I proclaim the Godhead: I perceive sufferings, and I do not deny
the humanity. For Emmanuel opened the doors of nature as man, but as God did
not break through the bars of virginity"
-Saint Proclus of
Constantinople, Bishop and Father of the Church, Oratio 1, no. 10; PG
65:692A (d. 447 AD)
“How can death claim as its
prey this truly blessed one, who listened to God's word in humility, and was
filled with the Spirit, conceiving the Father's gift through the archangel,
bearing without concupiscence or the co-operation of man the Person of the
Divine Word, who fills all things, bringing Him forth without the pains of
childbirth, being wholly united to God?... It was fitting that the body of her,
who preserved her virginity intact in childbirth, should be kept from
corruption even after death. She who nursed her Creator as an infant at her
breast, had a right to be in the divine tabernacles.... It was fitting that she
who saw her Son die on the cross, and received in her heart the sword of pain
which she had not felt in childbirth, should gaze upon Him seated next to the
Father.”
-Saint John Damascene;
Bishop, Father, and Doctor of the Church; Second Homily on the Dormition of the
Mother of God
“So far as He was born of
woman, His birth was in accordance with the laws of parturition, while so far
as He had no father, His birth was above the nature of generation: and in that
it was at the usual time (for He was born on the completion of the ninth month
when the tenth was just beginning), His birth was in accordance with the laws
of parturition, while in that it was painless it was above the laws of
generation. For, as pleasure did not precede it, pain did not follow it,
according to the prophet who says, Before she travailed, she brought forth,
and again, before her pain came she was delivered of a man-child (Isaiah
66:7). The Son of God incarnate, therefore, was born of her, not a
divinely-inspired man but God incarnate.... But just as He who was conceived
kept her who conceived still virgin, in like manner also He who was born
preserved her virginity intact, only passing through her and keeping her closed
(Ezekiel 44:2).”
-Saint John Damascene;
Bishop, Father, and Doctor of the Church; On the Orthodox Faith, IV, 14
From the Angelic Doctor Saint Thomas Aquinas
The following is taken from the Summa Theologiae,
Tertia Pars, Q. 28, a. 2
On the contrary, In a sermon
of the Council of Ephesus (P. III, Cap. ix) it is said: “After giving birth,
nature knows not a virgin: but grace enhances her fruitfulness, and effects her
motherhood, while in no way does it injure her virginity.” Therefore Christ's
Mother was a virgin also in giving birth to Him.
I answer that, Without any doubt
whatever we must assert that the Mother of Christ was a virgin even in His
Birth: for the prophet says not only: "Behold a virgin shall
conceive," but adds: "and shall bear a son." This indeed was
befitting for three reasons. First, because this was in keeping with a property
of Him whose Birth is in question, for He is the Word of God. For the word is
not only conceived in the mind without corruption, but also proceeds from the
mind without corruption. Wherefore in order to show that body to be the body of
the very Word of God, it was fitting that it should be born of a virgin
incorrupt. Whence in the sermon of the Council of Ephesus (quoted above) we
read: "Whosoever brings forth mere flesh, ceases to be a virgin. But since
she gave birth to the Word made flesh, God safeguarded her virginity so as to
manifest His Word, by which Word He thus manifested Himself: for neither does
our word, when brought forth, corrupt the mind; nor does God, the substantial
Word, deigning to be born, destroy virginity."
Secondly, this is fitting as
regards the effect of Christ's Incarnation: since He came for this purpose,
that He might take away our corruption. Wherefore it is unfitting that in His
Birth He should corrupt His Mother's virginity. Thus Augustine says in a sermon
on the Nativity of Our Lord: "It was not right that He who came to heal
corruption, should by His advent violate integrity."
Thirdly, it was fitting that
He Who commanded us to honor our father and mother should not in His Birth
lessen the honor due to His Mother.
Reply to Objection 1. Ambrose
says this in expounding the evangelist's quotation from the Law: "Every
male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." This, says Bede,
"is said in regard to the wonted manner of birth; not that we are to
believe that our Lord in coming forth violated the abode of her sacred womb,
which His entrance therein had hallowed." Wherefore the opening here
spoken of does not imply the unlocking of the enclosure of virginal purity; but
the mere coming forth of the infant from the maternal womb.
Reply to Objection 2. Christ
wished so to show the reality of His body, as to manifest His Godhead at the
same time. For this reason He mingled wondrous with lowly things. Wherefore, to
show that His body was real, He was born of a woman. But in order to manifest
His Godhead, He was born of a virgin, for "such a Birth befits a
God," as Ambrose says in the Christmas hymn.
Reply to Objection 3. Some
have held that Christ, in His Birth, assumed the gift of "subtlety,"
when He came forth from the closed womb of a virgin; and that He assumed the
gift of "agility" when with dry feet He walked on the sea. But this
is not consistent with what has been decided above (Article 14). For these
gifts of a glorified body result from an overflow of the soul's glory on to the
body, as we shall explain further on, in treating of glorified bodies (XP, 82):
and it has been said above (13, 3, ad 1; 16, 1, ad 2) that before His Passion
Christ "allowed His flesh to do and to suffer what was proper to it"
(Damascene, De Fide Orth. iii): nor was there such an overflow of glory from
His soul on to His body.
We must therefore say that
all these things took place miraculously by Divine power. Whence Augustine says
(Sup. Joan. Tract. 121): "To the substance of a body in which was the
Godhead closed doors were no obstacle. For truly He had power to enter in by
doors not open, in Whose Birth His Mother's virginity remained inviolate."
And Dionysius says in an epistle (Ad Caium iv) that "Christ excelled man
in doing that which is proper to man: this is shown in His supernatural
conception, of a virgin, and in the unstable waters bearing the weight of
earthly feet."
The following is taken from the Summa Theologiae,
Tertia Pars, Q. 35, a. 6
On the contrary, Augustine says (Serm. de Nativ. [Supposititious), addressing
himself to the Virgin-Mother: "In conceiving thou wast all pure, in giving
birth thou wast without pain."
I answer that, The pains of childbirth are caused by the infant opening the
passage from the womb. Now it has been said above (28, 2, Replies to
objections), that Christ came forth from the closed womb of His Mother, and,
consequently, without opening the passage. Consequently there was no pain in
that birth, as neither was there any corruption; on the contrary, there was
much joy therein for that God-Man "was born into the world,"
according to Is. 35:1,2: "Like the lily, it shall bud forth and blossom,
and shall rejoice with joy and praise."
Reply to Objection 1. The pains of childbirth in the woman follow from the
mingling of the sexes. Wherefore (Genesis 3:16) after the words, "in
sorrow shalt thou bring forth children," the following are added:
"and thou shalt be under thy husband's power." But, as Augustine says
(Serm. de Assumpt. B. Virg., [Supposititious), from this sentence we must
exclude the Virgin-Mother of God; who, "because she conceived Christ
without the defilement of sin, and without the stain of sexual mingling,
therefore did she bring Him forth without pain, without violation of her
virginal integrity, without detriment to the purity of her maidenhood."
Christ, indeed, suffered death, but through His own spontaneous desire, in order
to atone for us, not as a necessary result of that sentence, for He was not a
debtor unto death.
Reply to Objection 2. As "by His death" Christ "destroyed our
death" [Preface of the Mass in Paschal-time, so by His pains He freed us
from our pains; and so He wished to die a painful death. But the mother's pains
in childbirth did not concern Christ, who came to atone for our sins. And
therefore there was no need for His Mother to suffer in giving birth.
Reply to Objection 3. We are told (Luke 2:7) that the Blessed Virgin herself
"wrapped up in swaddling clothes" the Child whom she had brought
forth, "and laid Him in a manger." Consequently the narrative of this
book, which is apocryphal, is untrue. Wherefore Jerome says (Adv. Helvid. iv):
"No midwife was there, no officious women interfered. She was both mother
and midwife. 'With swaddling clothes,' says he, 'she wrapped up the child, and
laid Him in a manger.'" These words prove the falseness of the apocryphal
ravings.
From the Roman Catechism (edited by Saint Charles
Borromeo)
“But as the Conception itself
transcends the order of nature, so also the birth of our Lord presents to our
contemplation nothing but what is divine.
Besides, what is admirable beyond the power of thoughts or words to
express, He is born of His Mother without any diminution of her maternal
virginity, just as He afterwards went forth from the sepulchre while it was
closed and sealed, and entered the room in which His disciples were assembled,
the doors being shut; or, not to depart from every day examples, just as the
rays of the sun penetrate without breaking or injuring in the least the solid
substance of glass, so after a like but more exalted manner did Jesus Christ
come forth from His mother's womb without injury to her maternal virginity.
This immaculate and perpetual virginity forms, therefore, the just theme of our
eulogy. Such was the work of the Holy Ghost, who at the Conception and birth of
the Son so favoured the Virgin Mother as to impart to her fecundity while
preserving inviolate her perpetual virginity.”
Early Christian Apocryphal Writings
"And after two months of
days while Joseph was in his house, and Mary his wife, but both alone. It came
to pass that when they were alone that Mary straight-way looked with her eyes
and saw a small babe, and she was astonished. And after she had been
astonished, her womb was found as formerly before she had conceived. And when
her husband Joseph said unto her: "What has astonished thee?" his
eyes were opened and he saw the infant and praised God, because into his
portion God had come. And a voice came to them: "Tell this vision to no
one." And the story regarding the infant was noised broad in Bethlehem.
Some said: "The Virgin Mary hath borne a child, before she was married two
months." And many said: "She has not borne a child, nor has a midwife
gone up (to her), nor have we heard the cries of (labour) pains.""
-“Ascension of Isaiah”
11:7-14; c. 70 AD
"So the Virgin became a
mother with great mercies. And she labored and bore the Son, but without pain,
because it did not occur without purpose. And she did not seek a midwife,
because he caused her to give life. She bore as a strong man, with will"
-“Odes
of Solomon” 19:6-10; c. 80 AD
From Private Revelation
“I saw the radiance round the
Blessed Virgin ever growing greater. The
light of the lamps which Joseph had lit was no longer visible. Our Lady knelt on her rug in an ample ungirt
robe spread out round her, her face turned toward the east. At midnight she was wrapt in an ecstasy of
prayer. I as her lifted from the earth,
so that I saw the ground beneath her.
Her hands were crossed on her breast.
The radiance about her increased; everything, even things without life,
were in a joyful inner motion, the stones of the roof, of the walls, and of the
floor of the cave became as it were alive in the light. Then I no lager saw the roof of the cave; a
pathway of light opened above Mary, rising with every-increasing glory towards
the height of heaven. In this pathway of
light there was a wonderful movement of glories interpenetrating each other,
and, as they approached, appearing more clearly in the form of choirs of
heavenly spirits. Meanwhile the Blessed
Virgin, borne up in ecstasy, was now gazing downwards, adoring her God, whose
Mother she had become and who lay on the earth before her in the form of a
helpless new-born child. I saw our
Redeemer as a tiny child, shining with a light that overpowered all the
surrounding radiance, and lying on the carpet at the Blessed Virgin’s
knees. It seemed to me as if He were at
first quite small and then grew before my eyes.
But the movement of the intense radiance was such that I cannot say for
certain how I saw it.”
-Blessed Anne Catherine
Emmerich, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary (a transcription of her visions)
