Sinlessness of Mary

Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Cyril of Jerusalem developed the idea of Mary as the New Eve. So too, Ephrem the Syrian said she was as innocent as Eve before the Fall. Ambrose says she is incorrupt, a virgin immune through grace from every stain of sin. It was John Damascene's opinion that the supernatural influence of God at the generation of Mary was so comprehensive that it extended also to her parents. He says of them that, during the generation, they were filled and purified by the Holy Spirit, and freed from sexual concupiscence. Consequently, according to Damascene, even the human element of her origin, the material of which she was formed, was pure and holy. This opinion of an immaculate active generation and the sanctity of the "conceptio carnis" was taken up by some Western authors. Many Greek and Byzantine Fathers asserted that Mary remained without sin throughout her entire life. By the 4th century the sinlessness of Mary was a common belief. Origen, Origen of Alexandria In Origen's Homilies on Luke xvii.6 he states: Thereupon Simeon says, "a sword will pierce your very soul" (Lk 2.35). Which sword is this that pierced not only others' hearts, but even Mary's? Scripture clearly records that, at the time of the Passion, all the apostles were scandalized. The Lord himself said, "This night you will all be scandalized" (Mk 14.27). Thus, they were all so scandalized that Peter too, the leader of the apostles, denied him three times. Why do we think that the mother of the Lord was immune from scandal when the apostles were scandalized? If she did not suffer scandal at the Lord's Passion, then Jesus did not die for her sins. But, if "all have sinned and lack God's glory, but are justified by his grace and redeemed" (Rom 3.23) then Mary too was scandalized at that time." == Christian denominations teaching the sinlessness of Mary ==

Eastern Orthodoxy The Eastern Orthodox Churches teach that while Mary "inherited the same fallen nature, prone to sin" as with other humans, "she did not consent to sin through her free will." Due to being conceived in ancestral sin, Mary still needed "to be delivered by our Savior, her Son" according to Eastern Orthodox teaching. The Smalcald Articles, a Lutheran confession of faith, declare "that the Son became man in this manner: he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, without the cooperation of man, and was born of the pure, holy, and ever-virgin Mary." The theologian Kristofer Carlson, in explicating the Book of Concord, writes that "When Lutherans confess Mary as pure & holy, it is a reference to the chastity and sinlessness of Mary." Certain Lutheran denominations, such as the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, however, assert that "Jesus Christ, came to save people from their sins, including Mary." == Comparison with Catholic doctrine ==

The Catholic Church teaches the Marian dogma of the Immaculate Conception, that Mary was conceived without original sin. Outside of dogma, there is a common belief that Mary was also sinless personally. Pope Pius XII's 1943 encyclical Mystici corporis Christi from holds that Mary, was "free from all sin, original or personal". Kenneth Baker writes that: The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that by the grace of God "Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long." == References ==