With respect to the New Testament also many have tried to write Gospels, but not all found acceptance.^[1] You should know that not just four Gospels, but very many, were composed. The Gospels we have were chosen from among these Gospels and passed on to the churches. We know this from Luke’s own prologue, which begins this way: Because many have tried to compose an account. The words have tried imply an accusation against those who rushed into writing gospels without the grace of the Holy Spirit. Matthew, Mark, John and Luke did not try to write. They wrote their Gospels when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Hence, many have tried to compose an account of the events that are clearly known among us. . . .

Our doctrines about the person of our Lord and Savior should be drawn from these approved Gospels. I know one gospel called According to Thomas, and another According to Matthias. We have read many others, too, so that we do not appear to be ignorant of anything, because of those people who think they know something if they have examined these gospels. But in all of these questions we approve of nothing but that which the church approves, namely, only four canonical Gospels. . . .

Luke makes his intention known by the word he uses; that is, that have been clearly shown to us, a concept that the Latin language cannot express in one word. It means that Luke knew by firm faith and by careful consideration and did not waver on any point, wondering whether it should be this way or that.

The ministry of the word is greater than the hearing of it. Not the spoken word but the essential Word is meant—that which was made flesh and dwelt among us^[1]—so do not understand it as the common word but as that celestial Word to whom the apostles ministered. For one reads in Exodus that the people saw the voice^[2] of the Lord, yet truly a voice is not seen but heard. For what is a voice but a sound, which is not discerned with the eyes but perceived with the ear? Truly, with the highest genius, Moses wished to proclaim that the voice of God is seen, for it is seen with the sight of the inner mind. In the Gospel, not a voice but the Word, which is more excellent than a voice, is seen. LUKE 1:1-4

You see, therefore, that the Word of God was seen and heard by the apostles. They saw the Lord, not only according to the body but also according to the Word. For they with Moses and Elijah saw the glory of the Word.^[3] They who saw him in his glory saw Jesus. Others who could see only the body did not see him. Jesus is seen not with the eyes of the body but with the eyes of the spirit.

What the apostles received, they passed on without change, so that the doctrine of the mysteries (the sacraments) and Christ would remain correct. The divine Word—the Son of God—wants us to be their disciples. It is appropriate for them to be our teachers, and it is necessary for us to submit to their teaching alone. Only from them and from those who have faithfully taught their doctrine do we get, as Paul writes, faithful words, worthy of complete acceptance.^[1] With them we are back to ground level, because they did not become disciples as a result of what they heard from others. Rather, they were eyewitnesses and servants of God the Word, and they handed down what they heard directly from him.

They who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word did not hand on to us that he was one Son and another, as I said, but one and the same, God and man at the same time, the only-begotten and the firstborn. This came about in order that he might have the first title as God and the second as man, when he was born among many brothers,^[1] having assumed our likeness. [He had not] joined another man to himself—as it seemed good to some persons to think—but [he] really and truly [became] man and [did] not relinquish being what he was, being God by nature and impassible. For this reason he voluntarily suffered in his own flesh. He has not given the body of someone else for us. Rather, the only-begotten Word of God himself offered himself, after he became man, as an immaculate victim to God the Father.

So the Gospel was written to Theophilus, that is, to him whom God loves. If you love God, it was written to you. If it was written to you, discharge the duty of an evangelist. Diligently preserve the pledge of a friend in the secrets of the Spirit.

It seemed right for me, too, following the same course from the beginning. He makes his point and repeats it. He did not learn from rumors what he is going to write. He himself has grasped it from the beginning. Hence, the apostle Paul praises him deservedly when he says, He is praised for his Gospel throughout all the churches.^[1] Scripture says this about no one else. It uses the expression only for Luke. It seemed right for me, too, following the same course from the beginning, carefully to write down all those events for you in order, most excellent Theophilus. Someone might think that Luke addressed the Gospel to a specific man named Theophilus. But, if you are the sort of people God can love, then all of you who hear us speaking are Theophiluses, and the Gospel is addressed to you. Anyone who is a Theophilus is both excellent and very strong. This is what the Greek word ϑεοϕιλος [Theophilos] actually means. No Theophilus is weak. Scripture says of the people of Israel, when they were going out from Egypt, There was no weakling in their tribes.^[2] I could say boldly that everyone who is a Theophilus is robust. He has vigor and strength from both God and his Word. He can recognize the truth of those words, by which he has been instructed and understand the Word of the gospel in Christ—to whom is glory and power for ages of ages. Amen.

I do not know what is the most important thing that we should preach—that he [John the Baptist] was wonderfully born or more wonderfully slain—for he was born as a prophecy and murdered for truth. By his birth he announced the coming of the Savior, and by his death he condemned the incest of Herod.^[1] This holy and righteous man, who was born in an uncommon way as the result of a promise, merited from God that he should depart this world by an uncommon death—that he should by confessing the Lord lay aside his body, which he had received as a gift from the Lord. Therefore John did everything by the will of God, since he was born and died for the sake of God’s work.

Holy Scripture tells us that not only the character of those who are praiseworthy but also their parents must be praised, so that the transmitted inheritance of immaculate purity, as it were, in those whom we wish to praise, may be exalted. What other intention is there in this passage of the holy Evangelist, except that St. John the Baptist be renowned for his parents, his wonders, his duty and his passion? Thus Hannah, the mother of St. Samuel,^[1] is praised. Thus Isaac received from his parents nobility of piety, which he handed down to his descendants. Therefore the priest Zechariah is not only a priest but also of the course of Abijah, that is, a noble among his wife’s ancestors. And his wife, it says, was of the daughters of Aaron. So St. John’s nobility was handed down not only from his parents but also from his ancestors—not exalted through worldly power but venerable through the religious succession. For the forerunner of Christ ought to have such ancestors, that he be seen to preach a faith in his Lord’s advent that is not suddenly conceived but received from his ancestors and imparted by the very law of nature.

Consider why many holy women in the Scriptures are said to have been barren, as Sarah herself,^[1] and now Rebecca.^[2] Also Rachel, Israel’s beloved, was barren.^[3] Hannah also, the mother of Samuel, is recorded to have been barren.^[4] Also in the Gospels, Elizabeth is said to have been barren. In all these instances this term is used, for after sterility they all gave birth to a holy person.

We must note that the angel bore witness to the grace about which he had come to give the good news—not only by the power of the words which he brought forward but also by the point in time and the location of the place in which he appeared. He appeared at the time when the priest was making an offering to express the fact that he was proclaiming the coming of the true and eternal high priest, who would be the true sacrificial offering for the salvation of the world. He stood beside the altar of incense to teach that he had come as the herald of a new covenant. There were two altars in the temple,^[1] which expressed the two covenants in the church. The first, the altar of burnt offerings, which was plated with bronze and was situated in front of the doors of the temple,^[2] was for the offering up of victims and sacrifices. It signified the fleshly-minded worshipers of the old covenant. Then there was the altar of incense, which was covered with gold^[3] and set near the entrance of the Holy of Holies, and was used to burn fragrant gums. This signified the interior and more perfect grace of the new covenant and its worshipers.

John, herald of the Lord of the right, was announced from the right of the altar. It was at the time of worship that he was announced to show he was the end of the former worship. It was in the middle of the sanctuary that Zechariah became dumb, to show that the mysteries of the sanctuary had become silent, for he who was to fulfill these mysteries had come. Because Zechariah did not believe that his wife’s barrenness had been healed, he was bound in his speech.

I note that the mystery of Jesus’ love for humanity was first revealed to the angels and that the angels granted the gift of this knowledge to us. It was the most divine Gabriel who guided Zechariah, the chief priest, into the mystery that, contrary to all hope and by God’s favor, he would have a son. His son would be a prophet of the divine and human work of Jesus, who was beneficently about to appear for the salvation of the world. Gabriel revealed to Mary how in her would be born the divine mystery of the ineffable form of God.

Whenever the soul continues to be fearful, it is the enemy who is present. The evil spirits do not dispel the fear of their presence, as the great archangel Gabriel did for Mary and Zechariah. LIFE OF ST.

The angel Gabriel came to Zechariah, not to Elizabeth. Why? Because it was through Zechariah that John was going to be in Elizabeth. The angel, in announcing that John was going to come by being born, went not to the receptacle of the womb but to the source of the seed. He announced they would both have a son, but he made the announcement to the father. John, after all, was going to come from the marriage of male and female. And once more the same Gabriel came to Mary—not to Joseph. The angel came to the one from whom that flesh was to begin, from whom it was to take its starting point.

The priest was offering sacrifice on behalf of the people. The people were expecting the Christ. John was the one who would announce the Christ.

This man Zechariah came into the Holy of Holies, to the innermost sanctuary, upon which he alone of all men had the right to look. Consider how he was equal in importance to all the people. When he offered prayers for the whole people, when he was making the Master propitious to his servants, he was serving as a mediator between God and men.

Whenever in the Scriptures a name is imposed or changed . . . by God, it is indicative of great praise and virtue. It was good that our Redeemer’s precursor was ordered to be called John. The name John means the grace of the Lord or in whom there is grace. He received a special grace beyond other saints, that of being Christ’s precursor. He came to proclaim a previously unheard of grace to the world, that of entry into heaven. Therefore he who was full of grace himself and who brought the good news of God’s grace to the rest of humankind expressed even by his name a proclamation of grace. It was rightly foretold that there was to be cause for exultation for many persons at his birth, since it was through him that the Author of their regeneration was manifested to the world.

He here announced greatness, not of body but of soul. Greatness of soul before the Lord is greatness of virtue, and smallness of soul is childhood of virtue. . . . Thus John would be great—not through bodily virtue but through magnanimity.^[1] He did not enlarge the boundaries of an empire. He did not prefer triumphs of military contest to honors. Rather, what is more, he disparaged human pleasures and lewdness of body, preaching in the desert with great virtue of spirit. He was a child in worldliness, but great in spirit. He was not captivated by the allurements of life, nor did he change his steadfastness of purpose through a desire to live. . . .

There is no doubt that this promise of the angel came true. Before he was born—still in his mother’s womb—St. John depicted the grace of the receipt of the Spirit. Although neither his father nor his mother had performed any miracles previously, he, leaping in his mother’s womb, proclaimed the coming of the Lord. When the mother of the Lord came to Elizabeth, the latter said, For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy.^[2] She did not yet have the spirit of life,^[3] but the Spirit of grace. We find in another place that the grace of sanctification precedes that of the substance of living, where the Lord says, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.^[4] For the spirit of this life is one, and the Spirit of grace is another.

John did not merely announce the Lord in words before his coming but pointed him out for people to see. John baptized the Christ himself through whom all others are baptized.

Both Elijah and John were celibate. Both wore rough dress. Both spent their lives in the wilderness. Both were heralds of the truth. Both underwent persecution for justice’s sake at the hands of a king and queen—the former at the hands of Ahab and Jezebel,^[1] the latter at the hands of Herod and Herodias.^[2] The former, lest he be killed by the wicked, was carried up to heaven in a fiery chariot.^[3] The latter, lest he be overcome by the wicked, sought the heavenly kingdom by his martyrdom, which was accomplished in spiritual combat.

These words are well added because the spirit is never without power, nor power without the spirit. In the spirit and power of Elijah, it says, perhaps because holy Elijah had great power and grace. Power so that he turned the spirits of the people back from unbelief to faith, the power of abstinence and patience, and the Spirit of prophecy. . . . Elijah divided the Jordan,^[1] John made it the font of salvation. John walks with the Lord on earth, Elijah appears with the Lord in glory.^[2] Elijah is a herald of the first coming of the Lord, and John of the second. Elijah after three years watered the earth with rain,^[3] John after three years sprinkled the arid soil of our body with the stream of faith.

The church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred. . . . When we celebrate John’s, we also celebrate Christ’s. . . .

John is born of an old woman who is barren. Christ is born of a young woman who is a virgin. Barrenness gives birth to John, virginity to Christ. The normal and proper age of parents was lacking with the birth of John. No marital embrace occurred for the birth of Christ. The former is announced in the declaration of the angel. With the angel’s annunciation the latter is conceived. That John will be born is not believed, and his father is silenced. That Christ will be born is believed, and he is conceived by faith. First of all faith makes its entry into the heart of the virgin, and there follows fruitfulness in the mother’s womb.

And yet, Zechariah used nearly the same words, when the angel announced John: By what shall I know this? For I myself am an old man, and my wife is already advanced in her days, and by holy Mary when the angel announced that she was going to give birth: How shall this be, since I have no husband?^[1] These are practically the same words. . . .

Finally, John is born when the daylight begins to diminish and the night begins to grow longer. Christ is born when the night begins to be curtailed and the day begins to increase.

Yet . . . we ought not to be so astonished that John merited such grace in his birth. For the precursor and forerunner of Christ ought to have had something similar to the birth of the Lord, the Savior. Indeed, the Lord was begotten of a virgin and John of a sterile woman, the one of an unstained girl and the other of an already exhausted old woman. John’s birth, then, also has something of the glorious and the wondrous. Although it would seem to be less noble for a matron to give birth than for a virgin to give birth, yet as we look up to Mary for having given birth as a virgin we also wonder at Elizabeth for having done so as an old woman. Indeed, I think that this fact contains a certain mystery. John, who was a figure of the Old Testament, should have been born of the already cold blood of an old woman, while the Lord, who would preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, came forth from a woman in the flower of glowing youth. Mary, conscious of her virginity, marvels at the fruit hidden in her belly, while Elizabeth, conscious of her old age, blushes that her womb is heavy with the one she has conceived. Thus the Evangelist says, She hid herself for five months. How wonderful it is, though, that the same archangel Gabriel performs an office with respect to each birth! He comforts the unbelieving Zechariah and encourages the believing Mary. He lost his voice because he doubted. But she, because she believed immediately, conceived the saving Word.

When the priest Zechariah offers incense in the temple, he is condemned to silence and cannot speak. Or better, he speaks only with gestures. He remains unable to speak until the birth of his son, John. What does this mean? Zechariah’s silence is the silence of prophets in the people of Israel. God no longer speaks to them. His Word, which was with the Father from the beginning, and was God,^[1] has passed over to us. For us Christ is not silent. . . .

Christ ceased to be in them. The Word deserted them. What Isaiah wrote was fulfilled: The daughter of Zion will be deserted like a tent in the vineyard or like a hut in the cucumber patch. She is as desolate as a plundered city.^[2] The Jews were left behind, and salvation passed to the Gentiles.

Zechariah looked at his age, his gray hair, his body that had lost its strength. He looked at his wife’s sterility, and he refused to accept on faith what the angel revealed would come to pass.

Elizabeth hid herself because of Zechariah’s grief. Or alternatively, she hid herself because she was ashamed on account of the fact that she had resumed intercourse. So it was because of her old age that Elizabeth hid herself. But see, Moses did not write in relation to Sarah that she hid herself, when at the age of ninety she carried Isaac, nor with regard to Rebecca, who was pregnant with twins. Elizabeth hid herself for five months, until her infant would be sufficiently formed in his members to exult before his Lord,^[1] and because Mary was about to receive the annunciation.

Elizabeth, who undoubtedly desired sons, hid herself for five months. What was the reason for this concealment if not modesty? For there is a prescribed age for each duty, and what is fitting at one time is unseemly at another, and a change of age often changes the nature of every act. . . . She, who once hid because she had conceived a son, began to carry herself with confidence because she bore a prophet—she who blushed before was blessed, she who doubted before was strengthened. For, behold, she said, as soon as the voice of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.^[1] Therefore she cried out with a loud voice when she perceived the coming of the Lord, because she believed in the divine birth. There was no cause for shame when she accepted the birth of the prophet as a given, not a desired, generation.

Now Gabriel means strength of God. Rightly he shone forth with such a name, since by his testimony he bore witness to the coming birth of God in the flesh. The prophet said this in the psalm, The Lord strong and powerful, the Lord powerful in battle^[1]—that battle, undoubtedly, in which he [Christ] came to fight the powers of the air^[2] and to snatch the world from their tyranny.

Truly full of grace was she, upon whom it was conferred by divine favor that, first among women, she should offer God the most glorious gift of her virginity. Hence she who strove to imitate the life of an angel was rightfully worthy to enjoy the experience of seeing and speaking with an angel. Truly full of grace was she to whom it was granted to give birth to Jesus Christ, the very one through whom grace and truth came.^[1] And so the Lord was truly with her whom he first raised up from earthly to heavenly desires, in an unheard of love of chastity, and afterwards sanctified, by means of his human nature, with all the fullness of his divinity. Truly blessed among women was she who without precedent in the womanly state rejoiced in having the honor of parenthood along with the beauty of virginity, inasmuch as it was fitting that a virgin mother bring forth God the Son.

Holy Mary, blessed Mary, mother and virgin, virgin before giving birth, virgin after giving birth! I, for my part, marvel how a virgin is born of a virgin, and how, after the birth of a virgin, the mother is a virgin.

Would you like to know how he is born of a virgin and, after his nativity, the mother is still a virgin? The doors were closed, and Jesus entered.^[1] There is no question about that. He who entered through the closed doors was neither a ghost nor a spirit. He was a real man with a real body. Furthermore, what does he say? Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.^[2] He had flesh and bones, and the doors were closed. How do flesh and bones enter through closed doors? The doors are closed, and he enters, whom we do not see entering. Whence has he entered? Everything is closed up. There is no place through which he may enter. Nevertheless he who has entered is within, and how he entered is not evident. You do not know how his entrance was accomplished, and you attribute it to the power of God. Attribute to the power of God, then, that he was born of a virgin and the virgin herself after bringing forth was a virgin still.

And, therefore, he who had undertaken to prove the incorrupt mystery of the incarnation thought it fruitless to pursue evidence of Mary’s virginity, lest he be seen as a defender of the Virgin rather than an advocate of the mystery. Surely, when he taught that Joseph was righteous, he adequately declared that he could not violate the temple of the Holy Spirit, the mother of the Lord, the womb of the mystery. We have learned the lineage of the Truth. We have learned its counsel. Let us learn its mystery. Fittingly is she espoused, but virgin, because she prefigures the church which is undefiled^[1] yet wed. A virgin conceived us of the Spirit, a Virgin brings us forth without travail. And thus perhaps Mary, wed to one, was filled by Another, because also the separate churches are indeed filled by the Spirit and by grace and yet are joined to the appearance of a temporal Priest.

As to why he wished to be conceived and born not of a simple virgin but of one who was betrothed to a man, several of the Fathers have put forward reasonable answers. The best of these is to prevent her from being condemned as guilty of defilement if she were to bear a son when she had no husband. Then too, in the things the care of a home naturally demands, the woman in labor would be sustained by a husband’s care. Therefore blessed Mary had to have a husband who would be both a perfectly sure witness to her integrity and a completely trustworthy foster father for our Lord and Savior, who was born of her. He was a husband who would, in accordance with the law, make sacrificial offerings to the temple for him when he was an infant. He would take him, along with his mother, to Egypt when persecution threatened. He would bring him back and would minister to the many other needs consequent upon the weakness of the humanity which he had assumed. It did no great harm if, for a time, some believed that he was Joseph’s son, since from the apostles’ preaching after his ascension it would be plainly evident to all believers that he had been born of a virgin.

The angel greeted Mary with a new address, which I could not find anywhere else in Scripture. I ought to explain this expression briefly. The angel says, Hail, full of grace. . . . I do not remember having read this word elsewhere in Scripture. An expression of this kind, Hail, full of grace, is not addressed to a male. This greeting was reserved for Mary alone.

The Lord is with you. Why is the Lord with you? Because he is coming to you not merely to pay a visit, but he is coming down into you in a new mystery, that of being born. Fittingly did the angel add, You are blessed among women. Through the curse she incurred, Eve brought pains upon the wombs of women in childbirth. Now, in this very matter of motherhood, Mary, through the blessing she received, rejoices, is honored, is exalted. Now too womankind has become truly the mother of those who live through grace, just as previously by nature are subject to death. . . .

She soon realized that she was receiving within herself the heavenly judge, there in that same place where with lingering gaze she had just seen the harbinger from heaven. It was by a soothing motion and holy affection that God transformed the virgin into a mother for himself and made his handmaid into a parent. Nevertheless her bosom was disturbed, her mind recoiled, and her whole state became one of trembling when God, whom the whole of creation does not contain, placed his whole Self inside her bosom and made himself a man.

Learn of character from the Virgin. Learn of modesty from the Virgin. Learn of prophecy from the Virgin. Learn in the mystery. It is the nature of virgins to tremble at every entrance of a man and to be afraid at every address by a man. Let women learn to imitate the purpose of modesty. She was alone in the inner room which none among men may see. Only the angel found her. Alone without a companion, alone without a witness, lest she be corrupted by ignoble speech, she is greeted by the angel. Learn, virgin, to shun lewdness of words. Moreover, Mary was afraid at the angel’s greeting.

The first cause of human perdition occurred when a serpent was sent by the devil to a woman who was to be deceived by the spirit of pride. Moreover, the devil himself came in the serpent, who, once he had deceived our first parents, stripped humankind of the glory of immortality. Because death made its entrance through a woman, it was fitting that life return through a woman. The one, seduced by the devil through the serpent, brought a man the taste of death. The other, instructed by God through the angel, produced for the world the Author of salvation.

Revealing to you the pre-eternal counsel, Gabriel came and stood before you, maid, and in greeting said, Rejoice, earth that has not been sown; rejoice, burning bush that remains unconsumed; Rejoice, unsearchable depth; Rejoice, bridge that leads to heaven; Rejoice, ladder raised on high that Jacob saw; Rejoice, divine jar of manna; Rejoice, deliverance from the curse; Rejoice, restoration of Adam, the Lord is with you!

You appeared to me in the form of a man, said the undefiled maid to the chief of the heavenly hosts. How then do you speak to me of things that pass human power? For you have said that God shall be with me and shall take up his dwelling in my womb. How shall I become the spacious habitation and the holy place of him that rides upon the cherubim?^[1] Do not amuse me with deceit; for I have not known pleasure, I have not entered into wedlock. How then shall I bear a child?

Then the bodiless angel replied, When God so wills, the order of nature is overcome, and what is beyond humankind comes to pass. Believe that my sayings are true, all-holy and immaculate lady. And she cried aloud, Let it be to me according to your word, and I shall bear him that is without flesh, who shall borrow flesh from me, that through this mingling he may lead humankind up to his ancient glory, for he alone has power so to do!

A heavenly fire engenders him, not flesh

Nor blood of father, nor impure desire.^[1]

By power of God a spotless maid conceives,

As in her virgin womb the Spirit breathes.

The mystery of this birth confirms our faith

That Christ is God: a maiden by the Spirit

Is wed, unstained by love; her purity

Remains intact; with child within, untouched

Without, bright in her chaste fertility,

Mother yet virgin, mother that knew not man.

Why, doubter, do you shake your silly head?

An angel makes this known with holy lips.

Will you not hearken to angelic words?

The Virgin blest, the shining messenger

Believed, and by her faith she Christ conceived.

Christ comes to men of faith and spurns the heart

Irresolute in trust and reverence.

The Virgin’s instant faith attracted

Christ into her womb and hid him there till birth. THE ^[1]

We should carefully note the order of the words here, and the more firmly they are engrafted in our heart, the more evident it will be that the sum total of our redemption consists in them. For they proclaim with perfect clarity that the Lord Jesus, that is, our Savior, was both the true Son of God the Father and the true Son of a mother who was a human being. Behold, he says, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son—acknowledge that this true human being assumed the true substance of flesh from the flesh of the Virgin! He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High—confess too that this same Son is true God of true God, coeternal Son forever of the eternal Father!

The words in the sixth month are reckoned in relation to Elizabeth’s pregnancy. The angel was sent to a virgin, and he said to her, Behold, in your virginity you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He was speaking about him who was to appear in the body. He did not say to her, that name which is called Jesus, but you shall call his name. This shows that this name is of the economy which is through the body, since Jesus in Hebrew means Savior. For the angel said, You shall call his name Jesus, that is, Savior, for he shall save his people from sins. This name therefore refers not to his nature but to his deeds.

The captain of the angelic hosts was sent by God Almighty to the pure Virgin to announce the good tidings of a strange and secret wonder: that God as man would be born a child of her without seed, fashioning again the whole human race! Proclaim, people, the good tidings of the re-creation of the world!

Gabriel flew down from the vault of heaven and came to Nazareth; standing before the virgin Mary, he cried to her, Rejoice! You shall conceive a son more ancient than Adam, the Creator of all things and Savior of those who cry to you. Rejoice, pure virgin!

Gabriel brought from heaven good tidings to the Virgin, and he cried out to her, Rejoice! You shall conceive him whom the world cannot contain; he shall be contained within your womb. You shall bear him who shone forth from the Father before the morning star!^[1]

The coeternal Word of the Father who has no beginning, not being parted from the things on high, has now descended here below, in his boundless love taking pity on fallen humankind. He has assumed the poverty of Adam, clothing himself in a form strange to him.

From what the angel said to Mary, namely, Elizabeth, your kinswoman, it could be supposed that Mary was from the house of Levi. Nevertheless up to this, the prophecy was established within the framework of the husbands. The family of David continued as far as Joseph, who had espoused her, and the birth of her child was reckoned through the framework of the men, for the sake of the family of David. It is in Christ that the seed and family of David are brought to completion. Scripture is silent about Mary’s genealogy since it is the generations of men that it numbers and reckons. If Scripture had been accustomed to indicate the family line through the mothers, it would be in order for one to seek the family of Mary. But, lest the words Elizabeth, your kinswoman were to show that Mary was also from the house of Levi, take note that the Evangelist has said elsewhere, concerning Joseph and Mary, that they were both of the house of David.^[1] The angel did not say to Mary that Elizabeth was her sister but Elizabeth, your kinswoman.

Wonder! God is come among humanity; he who cannot be contained is contained in a womb; the timeless enters time, and great mystery: his conception is without seed, his emptying past telling! So great is this mystery! For God empties himself, takes flesh and is fashioned as a creature, when the angel tells the pure Virgin of her conception: Rejoice, you who are full of grace; the Lord who has great mercy is with you!

The time had come when, having redeemed the world through his blood, he was to be acknowledged as king not of the house of David alone but also of the whole church; moreover, that he was maker and governor of all generations. Hence the angel properly said afterwards, and the Lord God will give him the seat of David his father, and he immediately added, and he will reign in the house of Jacob forever. Now the house of Jacob refers to the universal church, which through its faith in and confession of Christ pertains to the heritage of the patriarchs—either among those who took their physical origin from the stock of the patriarchs or among those who, though brought forth with respect to the flesh from other countries, were reborn in Christ by the spiritual washing.

But the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ exceeds all understanding and goes beyond any precedent.

Indeed, her virginity was itself more beautiful and more pleasing, because Christ, in his conception, did not himself take away that which he was preserving from violation by humanity; but, before he was conceived he chose one already consecrated to God of whom he would be born.

Here Mary seems to have disbelieved, unless you pay close attention, for it is not right that she who was chosen to bear the only-begotten Son of God should seem to have been without faith. And how could this be? Although the prerogative of the Mother, on whom a greater prerogative is straightway to be conferred, is intact, how could it be that Zechariah who had not believed was condemned to silence, but Mary, if she had not believed, would be exalted by the infusion of the Holy Spirit? But with a greater prerogative, also a greater faith must be reserved for her. But Mary must both believe, and not so heedlessly usurp. She must believe the angel and not usurp divine things. Nor is it easy to know the mystery which has been hidden from eternity in God,^[1] which the higher powers could not know either. Nevertheless she did not deny the faith, she did not refuse the duty, but she conformed her will, she promised obedience. For truly when she said, How shall this be? she did not doubt concerning the outcome but sought the nature of this same outcome.

Theotokos: Make plain to me, how I, a virgin, shall bear him?

The angel: You seek to know from me the manner of your conceiving, Virgin, but this is beyond all interpretation! The Holy Spirit will overshadow you in his creative power and shall make this come to pass!

Theotokos: When she accepted the suggestion of the serpent, my mother Eve was banished from divine delight. Therefore I fear your strange greeting, for I take care that I not slip.

The angel: I am sent as God’s messenger to disclose the divine will to you. Why are you afraid of me, undefiled one? I rather am afraid of you! Why do you stand in awe of me, O lady, who stand in reverent awe of you?

He had to be redeemed: my Spirit came down

And impregnated flesh made from the dust

With the divine nature; God has assumed

Humanity, joining it with divinity,

And kindled in men’s hearts new love of me. AGAINST

Who was born from the Holy Spirit. Precisely thus is Christ born for you, in such a way that he may change your own manner of birth. . . . Formerly, death awaited you as the setting sun of your life; he wants you to have a new birth of life.

Who was born from the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. Where the Spirit is begetting, and a virgin giving birth, everything carried on is divine; nothing of it is merely human.

Each one is a partaker of this spiritual origin in regeneration. To every one, when he is reborn, the water of baptism is like the Virgin’s womb, for the same Holy Spirit fills the font, who filled the Virgin, that the sin, which that sacred conception overthrew, may be taken away by this mystical washing.

The first sinner, the first transgressor, begot sinners liable to death. To heal them, the Savior came from the Virgin; because he didn’t come to you the way you came, seeing that he did not originate from the sexual appetite of male and female, not from that chain of lust. The Holy Spirit, it says, will come upon you. That was said to the Virgin glowing with faith, not seething with carnal lust. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Being overshadowed like that, how could she be seething with the heat of sexual desire? So, because he didn’t come to you the way you came, he sets you free.

When God’s coming draws near, the angel Gabriel advances

From the Father’s high throne and enters the house of the Virgin.

Mary, he says, the Holy Spirit will render you fruitful,

And you shall give birth to the Christ, O glorious Virgin. SCENES

It was fitting that the Architect of the works of creation should come and raise up the house that had fallen and that the hovering Spirit should sanctify the buildings that were unclean. Thus, if the Progenitor entrusted the judgment that is to come to his Son, it is clear that he accomplished the creation of humanity and its restoration through him as well. He was the live coal, which had come to kindle the briars and thorns.^[1] He dwelt in the womb and cleansed it and sanctified the place of the birth pangs and the curses.^[2] The flame, which Moses saw, was moistening the bush^[3] and distilling the fat lest it be inflamed. The likeness of refined gold could be seen in the bush, entering into the fire but without being consumed. This happened so that it might make known that living fire which was to come at the end, watering and moistening the womb of the Virgin and clothing it like the fire that enveloped the bush.

The angel: Rejoice, lady; rejoice, most pure virgin! Rejoice, God-containing vessel! Rejoice, candlestick of the light, the restoration of Adam and the deliverance of Eve! Rejoice, holy mountain, shining sanctuary! Rejoice, bridal chamber of immortality!

Theotokos: The descent of the Holy Spirit has purified my soul; it has sanctified my body; it has made me a temple containing God, a divinely adorned tabernacle, a living sanctuary and the pure mother of life.

The angel: I see you as a lamp with many lights; a bridal chamber made by God! Spotless maiden, as an ark of gold, receive now the giver of the law, who through you has been pleased to deliver humankind’s corrupted nature!

And through the invocation the overshadowing power of the Holy Ghost becomes a rainfall for this new cultivation. For just as all things whatsoever God made he made by the operation of the Holy Ghost, so also it is by the operation of the Spirit that these things are done which surpass nature and cannot be discerned except by faith alone. How shall this be done to me, asked the blessed Virgin, because I know not a man? The archangel Gabriel answered, The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. And now you ask how the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine and water the blood of Christ. And I tell you that the Holy Ghost comes down and works these things which are beyond description and understanding.

Now when the mediator between God and human beings^[1] appeared in the world, it was fitting that he had his physical origin from both tribes because, in the humanity which he assumed, he would possess the roles of both priest and king.

So the Lord now manifestly came to his own. Born by his own created order that he himself bears, he by his obedience on the tree renewed and reversed what was done by disobedience in connection with a tree. The power of that seduction by which the virgin Eve, already betrothed to a man, had been wickedly seduced was broken when the angel in truth brought good tidings to the Virgin Mary, who already by her betrothal belonged to a man. For as Eve was seduced by the word of an angel to flee from God, having rebelled against his Word, so Mary by the word of an angel received the glad tidings that she would bear God by obeying his Word. The former was seduced to disobey God and so fell, but the latter was persuaded to obey God, so that the Virgin Mary might become the advocate of Eve. As the human race was subjected to death through the act of a virgin, so was it saved by a virgin was precisely balanced by the obedience of another. Then indeed the sin of the first formed man was amended by the chastisement of the First Begotten, the wisdom of the serpent was conquered by the simplicity of the dove, and the chains were broken by which we were in bondage to death.

And the story regarding the infant was spread abroad in Bethlehem. Some said: “The Virgin Mary has 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 (labor) pains”.

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.

[Jesus] became man by the Virgin so that the course that was taken by disobedience in the beginning through the agency of the serpent might also be the course by which it would be put down. Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the most high would overshadow her, for which reason the holy one being born of her is the Son of God. And she replied, “Be it done unto me according to your word” [Lk 1:38].

In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word” [Lk 1:38]. But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when she was a virgin. And even as she, having a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in paradise “they were both naked, and were not ashamed” [Gn 2:25], since they, having been created a short time previously, had no understanding of the procreation of children: for it was necessary that they should first come to adult age, and then multiply from that time onward), having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race. And on this account does the law term a woman betrothed to a man, the wife of him who had betrothed her, although she was as yet a virgin; thus indicating the reference back from Mary to Eve, because what is joined together could not otherwise be put asunder than by inversion of the process by which these bonds of union had arisen; so that the former ties be canceled by the latter, that the latter may set the former again at liberty. And it has, in fact, happened that the first compact looses from the second tie, but that the second tie takes the position of the first, which has been canceled. For this reason did the Lord declare that the first should in truth be last, and the last first [Mt 19:30; 20:16]. And the prophet, too, indicates the same, saying, “instead of fathers, children have been born unto you.” For the Lord, having been born “the first-begotten of the dead [Rv 1:5],” and receiving into his bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, he having been made the beginning of those who live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die [1 Cor 15:20–22]. Therefore Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was he who regenerated them into the gospel of life, and not they him. And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the Virgin Mary set free through faith.

That the Lord then was manifestly coming to his own things, and was sustaining them by means of that creation that is supported by himself, and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience that had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience that was [exhibited by himself when he hung] upon a tree, [the effects] also of that deception being done away with, by that virgin Eve, who was already espoused to a man, was unhappily misled—was happily announced, through means of the truth [spoken] by the angel to the Virgin Mary, who was [also espoused] to a man. For just as the former was led astray by the word of an angel, so that she fled from God when she had transgressed his word; so did the latter, by an angelic communication, receive the glad tidings that she should sustain God, being obedient to his word. And if the former did disobey God, yet the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God, in order that the Virgin Mary might become the patroness of the virgin Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a Virgin; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in the same way the sin of the first created man receives amendment by the correction of the first-begotten.

But that I may lose no opportunity of supporting my argument from the name of Adam, why is Christ called Adam by the apostle, unless it be that, as man, he was of that earthly origin? And even reason maintains the same conclusion, because it was by just the contrary operation that God recovered his own image and likeness, of which he had been robbed by the devil. For it was while Eve was yet a virgin that the ensnaring word crept into her ear, which was to build the edifice of death. Into a virgin’s soul, in like manner, must be introduced that Word of God, which was to raise the fabric of life; so that what had been reduced to ruin by this sex might by the selfsame sex be recovered to salvation. As Eve had believed the serpent, so Mary believed the angel. The delinquency that the one occasioned by believing, the other by believing effaced.

You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is no blemish in you nor any stains upon your Mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these?

Let, then, the life of Mary be as it were virginity itself, set forth in a likeness, from which, as from a mirror, the appearance of chastity and the form of virtue is reflected. From this you may take your pattern of life, showing, as an example, the clear rules of virtue: what you have to correct, to effect, and to hold fast.

The first thing that kindles ardor in learning is the greatness of the teacher. What is greater [to teach by example] than the Mother of God? What more glorious than she whom glory itself chose? What more chaste than she who bore a body without contact with another body? For why should I speak of her other virtues? She was a virgin not only in body but also in mind, who stained the sincerity of its disposition by no guile, who was humble in heart, grave in speech, prudent in mind, sparing of words, studious in reading, resting her hope not on uncertain riches, but on the prayer of the poor, intent on work, modest in discourse; wont to seek not man but God as the judge of her thoughts, to injure no one, to have goodwill towards all, to rise up before her elders, not to envy her equals, to avoid boastfulness, to follow reason, to love virtue. When did she pain her parents even by a look? When did she disagree with her neighbors? When did she despise the lowly? When did she avoid the needy?

Come, then, and search out your sheep, not through your servants or hired men, but do it yourself. Lift me up bodily and in the flesh, which is fallen in Adam. Lift me up not from Sarah but from Mary, a virgin not only undefiled, but a virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.

[T]hat one female, not only in the Spirit, but also in the flesh, is both a Mother and a virgin. And a Mother indeed in the Spirit, not of our head, which is the Savior himself, of whom rather she was born after the Spirit: for as much as all who have believed in him, among whom is herself also, are rightly called “children of the bridegroom,” but clearly the Mother of his members, which are we: in that she wrought together by charity, that faithful ones should be born in the Church, who are members of that head: but in the flesh, the Mother of the head himself.

We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honor to the Lord; for from him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear him who undoubtedly had no sin [1 Jn 3:5]. Well, then, if, with this exception of the Virgin, we could only assemble together all the forementioned holy men and women, and ask them whether they lived without sin while they were in this life, what can we suppose would be their answer?

If therefore it might come to pass by the power of your grace, it has appeared right to us your servants that, as you, having overcome death, do reign in glory, so you should raise up the body of your Mother and take her with you, rejoicing, into heaven. Then said the Savior: “Be it done according to your will”.

Therefore the Virgin is immortal to this day, seeing that he who had dwelt in her transported her to the regions of her Assumption.

[T]he Lord said to his Mother, “Let your heart rejoice and be glad, for every favor and every gift has been given to you from my Father in heaven and from me and from the Holy Spirit. Every soul that calls upon your name shall not be ashamed, but shall find mercy and comfort and support and confidence, both in the world that now is and in what is to come, in the presence of my Father in the heavens”.

And from that time forth all knew that the spotless and precious body had been transferred to paradise.

The course of this life having been completed by blessed Mary, when now she would be called from the world, all the apostles came together from their various regions to her house. And when they had heard that she was about to be taken from the world, they kept watch together with her. And behold, the Lord Jesus came with his angels, and, taking her soul, he gave it over to the angel Michael and withdrew. At daybreak, however, the apostles took up her body on a bier and placed it in a tomb, and they guarded it, expecting the Lord to come. And behold, again the Lord stood by them; the holy body having been received, he commanded that it be taken in a cloud into paradise, where now, rejoined to the soul, [Mary’s body] rejoices with the Lord’s chosen ones and is in the enjoyment of the good of an eternity that will never end.

It is our duty to present to God, like sacrifices, all the festivals and hymnal celebrations; and first of all, the Annunciation to the holy Mother of God, that is, the salutation made to her by the angel, “Hail, thou that art highly favored!”.

And the story regarding the infant was spread abroad in Bethlehem. Some said: “The Virgin Mary has 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 (labor) pains”.

And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: “Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.” And Anna said: “As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to him in holy things all the days of its life.” . . . And [from the time she was three] Mary was in the temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt there.

And when she was twelve years old a council of the priests was held, which said: “Behold, Mary has reached the age of twelve years in the temple of the Lord. What shall we do with her, lest she defile the sanctuary of the Lord?” And they said to the high priest: “You stand by the altar of the Lord; go in, and pray concerning her; and whatever the Lord shall manifest unto you, that will we do.” And the high priest went in, taking the robe with the twelve bells into the holy of holies; and he prayed about her. And behold an angel of the Lord stood by him, and said to him: “Zacharias, Zacharias, go out and assemble the widowers of the people, and let them bring each his rod; and to whomever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be.” . . . And Joseph [was chosen]. . . . And the priest said to Joseph, “You have been chosen by lot to take into your keeping the Virgin of the Lord.” But Joseph refused, saying, “I have children, and I am an old man, and she is a young girl”.

And Annas the scribe came to [Joseph] . . . and saw that Mary was with child. And he ran away to the priest and said to him, “Joseph, whom you vouched for, has committed a grievous crime.” And the priest said, “How so?” And he said, “He has defiled the virgin he received out of the temple of the Lord and has married her by stealth”.

And the priest said, “Mary, why have you done this? Why have you brought your soul low and forgotten the Lord your God?” . . . And she wept bitterly and said, “As the Lord my God lives, I am pure before him, and know not a man”.

But some say, basing it on a tradition in the Gospel according to Peter, as it is called, or “The Book [ Protoevangelium ] of James,” that the brothers of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end, so that her body, which was appointed to minister to the Word, which said, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you” [Lk 1:35], might not know intercourse with a man after the Holy Spirit came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it reasonable that Jesus was the first fruit among men of the purity that consists in chastity, and Mary among women; for it is not pious to ascribe to any other than her the first fruit of virginity.

Therefore let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by nature and proper to his essence deny also that he took true human flesh of Mary Ever-Virgin.

Now that I have cleared the rocks and shoals I must spread sail and make all speed to reach his epilogue. Feeling himself to be a smatterer, he there produces Tertullian as a witness and quotes the words of Victorinus, bishop of Petavium. Of Tertullian I say no more than that he did not belong to the Church. But as regards Victorinus, I assert what has already been proved from the Gospel—that he spoke of the brothers of the Lord not as being sons of Mary, but brethren in the sense I have explained, that is to say, in point of kinship, not by nature. We are, however, spending our strength on trifles, and, leaving the fountain of truth, are following tiny streams of opinion. Might I not array against you the whole series of ancient writers? Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, St. Justin Martyr, and many other apostolic and eloquent men, who against Ebion, Theodotus of Byzantium, and Valentinus, held these same views, and wrote volumes full of wisdom. If you read what they wrote, you would be a wiser man. But I think it better to reply briefly to each point than to linger any longer and extend my book to an undue length.

We believe that God was born of the Virgin, because we read it. That Mary was married after she brought forth, we do not believe, because we do not read it. Nor do we say this to condemn marriage, for virginity itself is the fruit of marriage; but because when we are dealing with saints we must not judge rashly. If we adopt possibility as the standard of judgment, we might maintain that Joseph had several wives because Abraham had, and so had Jacob, and that the Lord’s brothers were the issue of those wives, an invention that some hold with a rashness that springs from audacity, not piety. You say that Mary did not continue a virgin: I claim still more that Joseph himself, on account of Mary, was a virgin, so that from a virgin wedlock a virgin son was born.

Surely, we cannot deny that regarding the sons of Mary the statement is justly censured, and your holiness rightly abhors it, that from the same virginal womb from which Christ was born, another offspring was brought forth. For neither would the Lord Jesus have chosen to be born of a Virgin if he had judged she would be so incontinent, that with the seed of human copulation she would pollute the generative chamber of the Lord’s body, the palace of the eternal king.

Imitate [Mary], holy mothers, who in her only dearly beloved Son set forth so great an example of maternal virtue; for neither have you sweeter children, nor did the Virgin seek the consolation of being able to bear another son.

Thus Christ by being born of a Virgin who, before she knew who was to be born of her, had determined to continue a Virgin, chose to approve, rather than to command, holy virginity. And thus, even in the female herself, in whom he took the form of a servant, he willed that virginity should be free.

We confess, therefore, that our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Father before the ages, and in times most recent, made man of the Holy Spirit and the Ever-Virgin Mary.

The origin is different but the nature alike: not by intercourse with man but by the power of God was it brought about: for a Virgin conceived, a Virgin bore, and a Virgin she remained.

If anyone will not confess that the Word of God . . . came down from the heavens and was made flesh of holy and glorious Mary, Mother of God and Ever Virgin, and was born from her, let him be anathema.

[Jesus] became man by the Virgin so that the course that was taken by disobedience in the beginning through the agency of the serpent might also be the course by which it would be put down. Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the most high would overshadow her, for which reason the holy one being born of her is the Son of God. And she replied, “Be it done unto me according to your word” [Lk 1:38].

In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word” [Lk 1:38]. But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when she was a virgin. And even as she, having a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in paradise “they were both naked, and were not ashamed” [Gn 2:25], since they, having been created a short time previously, had no understanding of the procreation of children: for it was necessary that they should first come to adult age, and then multiply from that time onward), having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race. And on this account does the law term a woman betrothed to a man, the wife of him who had betrothed her, although she was as yet a virgin; thus indicating the reference back from Mary to Eve, because what is joined together could not otherwise be put asunder than by inversion of the process by which these bonds of union had arisen; so that the former ties be canceled by the latter, that the latter may set the former again at liberty. And it has, in fact, happened that the first compact looses from the second tie, but that the second tie takes the position of the first, which has been canceled. For this reason did the Lord declare that the first should in truth be last, and the last first [Mt 19:30; 20:16]. And the prophet, too, indicates the same, saying, “instead of fathers, children have been born unto you.” For the Lord, having been born “the first-begotten of the dead [Rv 1:5],” and receiving into his bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, he having been made the beginning of those who live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die [1 Cor 15:20–22]. Therefore Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was he who regenerated them into the gospel of life, and not they him. And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the Virgin Mary set free through faith.

That the Lord then was manifestly coming to his own things, and was sustaining them by means of that creation that is supported by himself, and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience that had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience that was [exhibited by himself when he hung] upon a tree, [the effects] also of that deception being done away with, by that virgin Eve, who was already espoused to a man, was unhappily misled—was happily announced, through means of the truth [spoken] by the angel to the Virgin Mary, who was [also espoused] to a man. For just as the former was led astray by the word of an angel, so that she fled from God when she had transgressed his word; so did the latter, by an angelic communication, receive the glad tidings that she should sustain God, being obedient to his word. And if the former did disobey God, yet the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God, in order that the Virgin Mary might become the patroness of the virgin Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a Virgin; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in the same way the sin of the first created man receives amendment by the correction of the first-begotten.

[T]hey came to the church of the most blessed Mother of God, and Ever-Virgin Mary, which, as we began to say, he had constructed in the western quarter, in a suburb, for a cemetery of the martyrs.

And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: “Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.” And Anna said: “As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to him in holy things all the days of its life.” . . . And [from the time she was three] Mary was in the temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt there.

We confess, therefore, that our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Father before the ages, and in times most recent, made man of the Holy Spirit and the Ever-Virgin Mary.

If anyone will not confess that the Word of God . . . came down from the heavens and was made flesh of holy and glorious Mary, Mother of God and Ever Virgin, and was born from her, let him be anathema.