Adaperiens vulvam
Luke 2:23 implies that Jesus is
included in the category of “every male that opens the womb” (omne
masculinum adaperiens vulvam,) and thus that Mary’s womb was opened. Various ecclesiastical writers of the first four centuries also speak of Mary’s
womb being opened, including St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, St. Athanasius,
St. Epiphanius, and St. Ambrose. [13] Yet many of these same Fathers are known
for affirming Mary’s perpetual virginity. Only later, after Jovinian’s denial
of the virginitas in partu, do we find Fathers saying that Mary’s womb
was not opened. Arguing from such evidence, Jean Galot concludes that the primitive
doctrine of the Church was essentially the same as his Mitterer’s: the birth
was not miraculous and Mary’s womb was opened in the sense of rupturing the claustra
purdoris, but this did not make her in the sense of rupturing the claustra
purdoris, but this did not make her any less a virgin. In the 390’s, when
it became necessary to oppose Jovinian, Galot believes St. Ambrose changed his position,
since he then said that the womb was opened and spoke of a miraculous birth.
After Jovinian, it is rare to find
authors who say that Mary’s womb was opened. [14]
Notes
for the Above:
[13] Cf. St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus
haereses 4.33.11 (SChr 100/2:830); Tertullian, De carne Christi
23.2-3 (SChr 216:302); Origen, Homiliae in Lucam 14 (GCS 49:90); St.
Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 78.19.3 (GCS 37:469-479); St. Ambrose of
Milan, Expositio evangeli secundum Lucam 2.56-57 (CCL 14:55-56)
[14] Cf. Jean Galot, “La virginité de
Marie et la naissance de Jésus,” Nouvelle Revue Théologique 92 (1960):
453, 456-462; Galot, Maria, la donna nell’opera di Salvezza, 163-171.
Source:
John Lawrence M. Polis, The Virgin Shall Give Birth: The Validity of the
Traditional Doctrine and Scotist Explanations of Mary’s Cooperation with the
Miracle (New Bedford, MA: Academy of the Immaculate, 2022), 36-37