In her informative
volume Mary and the Art of Prayer,
Rachel Fulton Brown discusses the speculations among medieval-era theologians
as to why the Mother of Jesus was
called “Mary” (Latin: Maria). One such theologian she discusses is the French theologian
Richard of Saint-Laurent (d. 1250):
Maria: this—according to the Vulgate
tradition on which medieval European Christians depended—was the name of the
virgin to whom the angel was sent (Luke 1:27), the name given to her by God as
recorded by the evangelist. “Ave Maria”: what more needed to be said? “Your
name,” argued Richard of Saint-Laurent, citing the Song of Songs (1:2),
“is as oil poured out; therefore, the young
maidens loved you” exceedingly. Rightly is this name “Maria” compared to oil:
because above all the names of the saints this name after the name of the Son,
refreshes the tired, strengthens the weak, gives light to the blind, penetrates
the hart [of heart], restores the weary, anoints the struggling, rots the yoke
of the Devil, and floats above all names just as oil above all other liquids.
For the whole Trinity gave to her this name that is above all other names after
the name of her Son, that in her name every knee should bend . . . in heaven,
earth, and hell; and that every tongue should confess the grace, glory, and
virtue of this most holy name (cf. Philippians 2:10-11). For there is no more
powerful aid in any other name after the name of the Son, nor is thee any name
under heaven given to human beings after the sweet name of Jesus from which so
great a salvation is poured out to humankind (cf. Acts 4:12) (De laudibus, lib. 1, cap. 2, n. 3).
. . .
Why was the virgin’s
name “Maria”?
Again in Richard of Saint-Laurent’s words, because she is illuminated by the
light of the Father, the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the Son of God who is
the true son of justice. She is the illuminatrix
of the world because she bore the True Light. She is a bitter sea by reason
of her compassion at her Son’s suffering. She is the Lady offering Her Son to
the world, as in her mages. And she is the start of the sea exalted over all
the orders of the angels: because she is fixed in the firmament of heaven, that
is, the scriptures; because she illuminates the world by light of her virtues;
because she is on fire with love, especially by him whom she conceived; because
she appears little in her humility before God; because she attracts others to
her, drawing them through the curtains of the tabernacle, that is, the Church of
God; because she shines brilliantly in times of cold, as when at her Son’s
Passion the love of all others chilled; because she stands in her obedience;
because she is scintillating in the excellence of her conversation; because she
is continually moving from virtue to virtue and from activity to contemplation;
because she illuminates those whom she guards and fights against the devil for
her servants; because she was an is always at the right hand of God; because
she serves him through all eternity; because she joyfully gives her light;
because she is beautiful in the honesty of her life; because in her and through
her the Father laughs with his creatures; because she adorns the Church and
illumines the night; because she foretells future events and shows the
astrologers, that is, the prophets, to have been telling the truth; because she
excites the lazy to work and guides those sailing through the sea of the world
to the port of salvation (De laudibus,
lib. 1, cap. 3, nn. 1-3). (Rachel Fulton Brown, Mary and the Art of Prayer: The Hours of the Virgin in Medieval
Christian Life and Thought [New York: Columba Press, 2018, 2019], 94, 97-98)
Elsewhere,
Brown discusses Richard’s approach to the name of Mary in light of the
Messianic prophecy in Isa 9:6 which reads thusly:
For a child is born to us, and a son is given
to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called,
Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the
Prince of Peace. (Douay Rheims)
As Brown
writes about how Richard tries to derive from this a high Mariology:
“Note,” Richard comments almost casually, “that
just as the name of the Son is poured out in seven [sic] names, where it says (Isaiah 9:6): Admirabilis, Consiliarius, etc., thus Mary’s name can be fittingly
poured out through its interpretations.” These, according to Richard, are the
four most common meanings of Mary’s name: light-giver (illuminatrix), Lady (Domina),
bitter sea (mare amarum), and start
of the sea (stella maris). Properly
speaking, Mary was the light-giver and start of the sea at her Son’s Nativity, “when
she sent forth the ray illuminating the whole world and made manifest to the
world the true light, namely when the true sun of justice arose from her”; the
Lady in the offering of her Son, when she presented him in the temple; and the
bitter sea at his Passion, when the sword passed through her soul also. She is
the light-giver because she makes light the darkness; the Lady because she
protects Christians like a strong tower and conquers their enemies; the star of
the sea because she guides their journey through the sea of this world; and a
bitter sea because she makes bitter the harmful delights of the world. She was
illuminated by the Father of lights, from whom descends every perfect gift from
above (cf. James 1:17); by the grace of the Holy Spirit, when he sanctified her
womb and came upon her (cf. Luke 1:35); and by the Son of God, the true sun of
justice, at his conception, “whom she received and carried wholly in her heart
and wholly in her womb” (De laudibus,
lib. 1, cap. 3, n. 1). Thus she gives light to the whole Church both on earth,
like the window in Noah’s ark, and in heaven, as she says in Ecclesiasticus
24:6: “I made that in the heavens there
should rise light that never faileth, that is, I gave birth to Christ who
is the unfailing light in the heavens.” After the Son, she is the true light, which enlighteneth every man
that cometh into this world (John1:9), just as her Son, the Wisdom of God,
gave light to the one born blind when he spat on the ground and made clay of
his spittle and spread the clay on his eyes (John 9:6) (De laudibus, lib. 1, cap. 3, n. 2). (Ibid., 263)
While
interesting, it also is reflective of the unhealthy theology behind both
Medieval-era and especially present-day Roman Catholic Mariology (Richard wrote
before the dogmatising of the Immaculate Conception [1854] and Bodily
Assumption [1950]). Be sure to check out my book addressing Mariology in
detail: