Christian Christian Marian perspectives include a great deal of diversity. While some Christians such as Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have well established Marian traditions, Protestants at large pay scant attention to
Mariological themes. Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Lutherans and Anglicans
venerate the Virgin Mary. This veneration especially takes the form of
prayer for intercession with her Son, Jesus Christ. Additionally, it includes composing poems and songs in Mary's honor, painting
icons or carving statues of her, and
conferring titles on Mary that reflect her position among the saints. The
four Catholic dogmas regarding Mary are: her status as , or Mother of God; her perpetual virginity; the Immaculate Conception; and her bodily Assumption into Heaven. The
Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus has a more central role in Roman Catholic teachings and beliefs than in any other major Christian group. Not only do Roman Catholics have more theological doctrines and teachings that relate to Mary, but they have more feasts, prayers, devotional and venerative practices than any other group. For centuries, Catholics have performed acts of
consecration and entrustment to Mary at personal, societal and regional levels. These acts may be directed to the Virgin herself, to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary and to the
Immaculate Conception. In Catholic teachings, consecration to Mary does not diminish or substitute the love of God, but enhances it, for all consecration is ultimately made to God. Following the growth of Marian devotions in the 16th century, Catholic saints wrote books such as
Glories of Mary and
True Devotion to Mary that emphasized Marian veneration and taught that "the path to Jesus is through Mary". Marian devotions are at times linked to
Christocentric devotions (such as the
Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary). Major Marian devotions include:
Seven Sorrows of Mary,
Rosary and scapular,
Miraculous Medal and
Reparations to Mary. The months of May and October are traditionally "Marian months" for Roman Catholics; the daily
rosary is encouraged in October and in
May Marian devotions take place in many regions. Popes have issued a number of
Marian encyclicals and Apostolic Letters to encourage devotions to and the veneration of the Virgin Mary. Catholics place high emphasis on Mary's roles as protector and intercessor and the
Catechism refers to Mary as "honored with the title 'Mother of God', to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs". Key Marian prayers include: , , , , , and the . Mary's participation in the processes of
salvation and redemption has also been emphasized in the Catholic tradition, but they are not doctrines.
Pope John Paul II's 1987 encyclical began with the sentence: "The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation." In the 20th century, both popes John Paul II and
Benedict XVI emphasized the Marian focus of the Catholic Church. Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) suggested a redirection of the whole church towards the program of Pope John Paul II in order to ensure an authentic approach to
Christology via a return to the "whole truth about Mary," There is significant diversity in the Marian doctrines attributed to her primarily by the Catholic Church. The key Marian doctrines held primarily in Catholicism can be briefly outlined as follows: •
Immaculate Conception: Mary was conceived without
original sin. •
Mother of God: Mary, as the mother of Jesus, is the (God-bearer), or Mother of God. •
Virgin birth of Jesus: Mary conceived Jesus by action of the
Holy Spirit while remaining a virgin. •
Perpetual Virginity: Mary remained a virgin all her life, even after the act of giving birth to Jesus. •
Dormition: commemorates Mary's "falling asleep" or natural death shortly before her Assumption. Dormition is part of accepted
Eastern Catholic theology, but not part of
Latin Catholic doctrine. •
Assumption: Mary was taken
bodily into heaven either at, or before, her death. The acceptance of these Marian doctrines by Roman Catholics and other Christians can be summarized as follows: The title "Mother of God" () for Mary was confirmed by the
First Council of Ephesus, held at the
Church of Mary in 431. The Council decreed that Mary is the Mother of God because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human. It is included in the two most widely used Christian
creeds, which state that Jesus "was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary" (the
Nicene Creed, in what is now its familiar form) and the
Apostles' Creed. The
Gospel of Matthew describes Mary as a virgin who fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, The authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke consider Jesus' conception not the result of intercourse, and assert that Mary had "no relations with man" before Jesus' birth. This alludes to the belief that Mary conceived Jesus through the action of God the Holy Spirit, and not through
intercourse with Joseph or anyone else. The doctrines of the Assumption or Dormition of Mary relate to her death and bodily assumption to heaven. Roman Catholic Church has dogmatically defined the doctrine of the Assumption, which was done in 1950 by
Pope Pius XII in . Whether Mary died or not is not defined dogmatically, however, although a reference to the death of Mary is made in . In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is believed, and celebrated with her
Dormition, where they believe she died. Catholics believe in the
Immaculate Conception of Mary, as proclaimed by Pope
Pius IX in 1854, namely that she was filled with grace from the very moment of her conception in her mother's womb and preserved from the stain of
original sin. The
Latin Church has a liturgical
feast by that name, kept on 8 December. Orthodox Christians reject the Immaculate Conception dogma principally because their understanding of ancestral sin (the Greek term corresponding to the Latin "original sin") differs from the
Augustinian interpretation and that of the Catholic Church. The Perpetual Virginity of Mary asserts Mary's real and perpetual
virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made Man. The term Ever-Virgin (Greek ) is applied in this case, stating that Mary remained a virgin for the remainder of her life, making Jesus her biological and only son, whose
conception and
birth are held to be miraculous. The Orthodox Churches hold the position articulated in the
Protoevangelium of James that Jesus' brothers and sisters were Joseph's children from a marriage prior to that of Mary, which had left him widowed. Roman Catholic teaching follows the Latin father
Jerome in considering them Jesus' cousins.
Eastern Orthodox from the
Hagia Sophia of
Constantinople (modern Istanbul), depicting Mary with Jesus, flanked by
John II Komnenos (left) and his wife
Irene of Hungary (right), AD of the ("God-bearer")
Eastern Orthodox Christianity includes a large number of traditions regarding the Ever-Virgin Mary, the . The Orthodox believe that she was and remained a virgin before and after Christ's birth. Within the Orthodox tradition, the order of the saints begins with: the , Angels, Prophets, Apostles, Fathers and Martyrs, giving the Virgin Mary precedence over the angels. She is also proclaimed as the "Lady of the Angels". Five of the twelve
Great Feasts in Orthodoxy are dedicated to Mary. A number of Orthodox feasts are connected with the miraculous icons of the . The Orthodox does not venerate Mary as conceived immaculate.
Gregory of Nazianzus,
Archbishop of Constantinople in the 4th century AD, speaking on the Nativity of Jesus Christ argues that "Conceived by the Virgin, who first in body and soul was purified by the Holy Ghost, He came forth as God with that which He had assumed, One Person in two Natures, Flesh and Spirit, of which the latter defined the former." The Orthodox celebrate the
Dormition of the Theotokos, rather than Assumption. The Orthodox believe that Mary was instrumental in the growth of Christianity during the life of Jesus, and after his Crucifixion, and Orthodox theologian
Sergei Bulgakov has written: "The Virgin Mary is the centre, invisible, but real, of the Apostolic Church." Theologians from the Orthodox tradition have made prominent contributions to the development of Marian thought and devotion.
John Damascene () was one of the greatest Orthodox theologians. Among other Marian writings, he proclaimed the essential nature of Mary's heavenly Assumption or Dormition and her meditative role. More recently,
Sergei Bulgakov expressed the Orthodox sentiments towards Mary as follows: but they generally do not agree that Mary is to be venerated. She is considered to be an outstanding example of a life dedicated to God. As such, they tend not to accept certain church doctrines such as her being preserved from sin. Theologian
Karl Barth wrote that "the heresy of the Catholic Church is its
Mariology". Early Protestantism had high regard for Mary.
Martin Luther wrote that: "Mary is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin. God's grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil."
John Calvin remarked, "It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honor." However, Calvin firmly rejected the notion that Mary can intercede between Christ and man. Although Calvin and
Huldrych Zwingli honored Mary as the Mother of Christ in the 16th century, they did so less than Martin Luther. Thus the idea of respect and high honor for Mary was not rejected by the first Protestants; however, they came to criticize the Roman Catholics for venerating Mary. Following the
Council of Trent in the 16th century, as Marian veneration became associated with Catholics, Protestant interest in Mary decreased. During the Age of the Enlightenment, any residual interest in Mary within Protestant churches almost disappeared, although Anglicans and Lutherans continued to honor her. The tone of the
Second Vatican Council began to mend the ecumenical differences, and Protestants began to show interest in Marian themes. In 1997 and 1998, ecumenical dialogues between Catholics and Protestants took place, but, to date, the majority of Protestants disagree with Marian veneration and some view it as a challenge to the
authority of Scripture. The Evangelical-Lutheran Churches celebrate several Marian feast days, including the
Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The
Formula of Concord and the
Smalcald Articles, upheld by the Lutheran Churches, teach the
virgin birth,
Theotokos and the
perpetual virginity of Mary. Theologians agree that Martin Luther adhered to the Marian decrees of the
ecumenical councils and dogmas of the church. He held fast to the belief that Mary was a perpetual virgin and Mother of God. Special attention is given to the assertion that Luther, some 300 years before the dogmatization of the
Immaculate Conception by
Pope Pius IX in 1854, was a firm adherent of that view. Others maintain that Luther in later years changed his position on the Immaculate Conception, which, at that time was undefined in the church, maintaining however the
sinlessness of Mary throughout her life. For Luther, early in his life, the Assumption of Mary was an understood fact, although he later stated that the Bible did not say anything about it and stopped celebrating its feast. Important to him was the belief that Mary and the saints do live on after death. "Throughout his career as a priest-professor-reformer, Luther preached, taught, and argued about the veneration of Mary with a verbosity that ranged from childlike piety to sophisticated polemics. His views are intimately linked to his Christocentric theology and its consequences for liturgy and piety." Luther, while revering Mary, came to criticize the "Papists" for blurring the line between high admiration of the grace of God wherever it is seen in a human being, and religious service given to another creature. He considered the Roman Catholic practice of celebrating
saints' days and making intercessory requests addressed especially to Mary and other departed saints to be
idolatry. His final thoughts on Marian devotion and veneration are preserved in a sermon preached at Wittenberg only a month before his death: Certain Lutheran churches such as the
Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church venerate Mary and the saints in the same manner that Roman Catholics do, and hold all Marian dogmas as part of their faith.
Anglican The various churches that form the
Anglican Communion and the
Continuing Anglican movement have different views on Marian doctrines and venerative practices given that there is no single church with universal authority within the Communion and that the mother church (the
Church of England) understands itself to be both "Catholic" and "
Reformed". The Anglican Communion includes segments which still retain some veneration of Mary. Mary's special position within God's purpose of salvation as "God-bearer" is recognized in a number of ways by some Anglican Christians. All the member churches of the Anglican Communion affirm in the historic creeds that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, and celebrates the feast days of the
Presentation of Christ in the Temple. This feast is called in older
prayer books the
Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 2 February. The
Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin on 25 March was from before the time of
Bede until the 18th century New Year's Day in England. The Annunciation is called the "Annunciation of our Lady" in the 1662
Book of Common Prayer. Anglicans also celebrate in the
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin on 31 May, though in some provinces the traditional date of 2 July is kept. The feast of the St. Mary the Virgin is observed on the traditional day of the Assumption, 15 August. The
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin is kept on 8 September. Conversely,
low church Anglicans rarely invoke the Blessed Virgin except in certain hymns, such as the second stanza of
Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones. The
Anglican Society of Mary was formed in 1931 and maintains chapters in many countries. The purpose of the society is to foster devotion to Mary among Anglicans.
High church Anglicans espouse doctrines that are closer to Roman Catholics, and retain veneration for Mary, such as
Anglican pilgrimages to
Our Lady of Lourdes, which have taken place since 1963, and
pilgrimages to
Our Lady of Walsingham, which have taken place for hundreds of years. Historically, there has been enough common ground between Roman Catholics and Anglicans on Marian issues that in 2005, a joint statement called
Mary: grace and hope in Christ was produced through ecumenical meetings of Anglicans and Roman Catholic theologians. This document, informally known as the "Seattle Statement", is not formally endorsed by either the Catholic Church or the Anglican Communion, but is viewed by its authors as the beginning of a joint understanding of Mary.
Methodist Methodists do not have any additional teachings on the Virgin Mary except from what is mentioned in Scripture and the ecumenical Creeds. As such, Methodists generally accept the doctrine of the virgin birth, but reject the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.
John Wesley, the principal founder of the Methodist movement within the Church of England, believed that Mary "continued a
pure and unspotted virgin", thus upholding the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Contemporary Methodism holds that Mary was a virgin before, during, and immediately after the birth of Christ. In addition, some Methodists also hold the doctrine of the
Assumption of Mary as a pious opinion.
Nontrinitarian Nontrinitarians, such as
Unitarians,
Christadelphians,
Jehovah's Witnesses, and
Latter Day Saints also acknowledge Mary as the biological mother of Jesus Christ, but most reject any immaculate conception and do not recognize Marian titles such as "Mother of God". The
Latter Day Saint movement's view affirms the virgin birth of Jesus and Christ's divinity, but only as a separate being than
God the Father. The
Book of Mormon refers to Mary by name in prophecies and describes her as "most beautiful and fair above all other virgins" and as a "precious and chosen vessel." In nontrinitarian groups that are also
Christian mortalists, Mary is not seen as an intercessor between humankind and Jesus, whom mortalists would consider "asleep", awaiting resurrection.
Jewish The issue of the parentage of
Jesus in the Talmud also affects Jewish views of Mary. However, the Talmud does not mention Mary by name, and is considerate rather than only polemic. The story about
Panthera is also found in the , the literary origins of which can not be traced with any certainty, and given that it is unlikely to go before the 4th century, the time is too late to include authentic remembrances of Jesus.
The Blackwell Companion to Jesus states that the has no historical facts and was perhaps created as a tool for warding off conversions to Christianity. The tales from the did impart a negative picture of Mary to ordinary Jewish readers. The name Panthera may be a distortion of the term ("virgin") and
Raymond E. Brown considers the story of Panthera a fanciful explanation of the birth of Jesus that includes very little historical evidence.
Robert Van Voorst states that because is a medieval document with its lack of a fixed form and orientation towards a popular audience, it is "most unlikely" to have reliable historical information. Stacks of the copies of the Talmud were burnt upon a court order after the
1240 Disputation for allegedly containing material defaming the character of Mary.
Islamic of Mary and Jesus The Virgin Mary holds a singularly exalted place in
Islam, and she is considered by the
Quran to have been the greatest woman in the history of humankind. The Islamic scripture recounts the Divine Promise given to Mary as being: ""O Mary! Surely Allah has selected you, purified you, and chosen you over all women of the world" (). Mary is often referred to by Muslims by the honorific title ("Our Lady"). She is mentioned in the Quran as the daughter of Imran. Moreover, Mary is the only woman named in the Quran and she is mentioned or referred to in the scripture a total of 50 times. Mary holds a singularly distinguished and honored position among
women in the Quran. A (chapter) in the Quran is titled "
Maryam" (Mary), the only in the Quran named after a woman, in which the story of Mary (Maryam) and Jesus (Isa) is recounted according to the view of
Jesus in Islam.
Motherhood of Maryam in labor shaking a date palm, with Isa and hidden voice below Mary was declared (uniquely along with Jesus) to be a "Sign of God" to humanity; as one who "guarded her chastity"; cared for by (one of the prophets according to Islam)
Zakariya (Zacharias); a "Purified One"; her child conceived through "a Word from God"; and "chosen you above the women of the worlds(the material and heavenly worlds)". The account given in is nearly identical with that in the Gospel according to
Luke, and both of these (Luke, Sura 19) begin with an account of the visitation of an angel upon Zakariya (Zecharias) and "Good News of the birth of Yahya (John)", followed by the account of the annunciation. It mentions how Mary was informed by an angel that she would become the mother of Jesus through the actions of God alone. In the Islamic tradition, Mary and Jesus were the only children who could not be touched by Satan at the moment of their birth, for God imposed a veil between them and Satan. According to the author
Shabbir Akhtar, the Islamic perspective on Mary's Immaculate Conception is compatible with the Catholic doctrine of the same topic. The Quran says that Jesus was the result of a virgin birth. The most detailed account of the annunciation and birth of Jesus is provided in Suras 3 and 19 of the Quran, where it is written that God sent an angel to announce that she could shortly expect to bear a son, despite being a virgin.
Druze Faith , also known as "the Virgin of the Druze", is venerated by both the
Druze and
Christian communities in Lebanon. The
Druze faith holds the Virgin Mary, known as
Sayyida Maryam, in high regard. Although the
Druze religion is distinct from mainstream
Islam and
Christianity, it incorporates elements from both and honors many of their figures, including the Virgin Mary. Shared pilgrimage sites and mutual respect for places like the
Church of Saidet et Tallé in
Deir el Qamar, the
Our Lady of Lebanon shrine in
Harrisa, the
Our Lady of Saidnaya Monastery in
Saidnaya, and the
Stella Maris Monastery in
Haifa exemplify this. and assert that in the
Bahá'í Faith "the reality of the mystery of the Immaculacy of the Virgin Mary is confessed."
Biblical scholars The statement found in
Matthew 1:25 that
Joseph did not have sexual relations with Mary before she gave birth to Jesus has been debated among scholars, with some saying that she did not remain a virgin and some saying that she was a perpetual virgin. Other scholars contend that the Greek word ("until") denotes a state up to a point, but does not mean that the state ended after that point, and that Matthew 1:25 does not confirm or deny the virginity of Mary after the birth of Jesus. According to Biblical scholar
Bart Ehrman, the Hebrew word , meaning young woman of childbearing age, was translated into Greek as , which often, though not always, refers to a young woman who has never had sexual intercourse. In Isaiah 7:14, it is commonly believed by Christians to be the prophecy of the Virgin Mary referred to in Matthew 1:23. While Matthew and Luke give differing versions of the virgin birth, John quotes the uninitiated Philip and the disbelieving Jews gathered at Galilee referring to Joseph as Jesus' father. Other biblical verses have also been debated; for example, the reference made by Paul the Apostle that Jesus was made "of the seed of David according to the flesh" (Romans 1:3) meaning that he was a descendant of David through Joseph.
Pre-Christian Rome From the early stages of Christianity, belief in the virginity of Mary and the virgin conception of Jesus, as stated in the gospels, holy and supernatural, was used by detractors, both political and religious, as a topic for discussions, debates, and writings, specifically aimed to challenge the divinity of Jesus and thus Christians and Christianity alike. In the 2nd century, as part of his
anti-Christian polemic
The True Word, the pagan philosopher
Celsus contended that Jesus was actually the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier named
Panthera. The Church Father
Origen dismissed this assertion as a complete fabrication in his apologetic treatise
Against Celsus. How far Celsus sourced his view from Jewish sources remains a subject of discussion. ==Christian devotions==