For this was a conception pure of any
seed, and a birth completely untouched by corruption, which is why the mother
of the one born remained a virgin even after giving birth, and indeed suffered
no pain while giving birth—which is a paradox that goes far beyond every law
and principle of nature . . . (Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua to John: Ambiguum
31, in On Difficulties in the Church Fathers: The Ambigua, 2 vols.
[trans. Nicholas Constas; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library; Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 2014], 2:41)