Monday, February 12, 2018

Mary as Mediatrix in the theology of Germanus of Constantinople

I have written much on the importance of having a proper Mariology, as well as the dangers of the Mariology one finds within Eastern Orthodox and especially Roman Catholicism. While pursuing a Catholic apologetics volume, I came across the following excerpts from Germanus of Constantinople (c. 634-c. 733) which highlights the importance of this topic:

Mediatrix

[We do] not need any other mediator in God’s presence . . . No one is saved except through you, O all-Holy. No one is delivered from evils except through you, O All-Chaste. No one obtains the grace of mercy except through you, O All-Honorable. (Homily on the Cincture, as cited by Dave Armstrong, ed. Catholic Church Fathers: Patristic and Scholarly Proofs [2d ed.; Lulu Books, 2013], 240-41)

. . .

You are the mother of true life . . . You are the freedom from the shame of Eve . .. there is no limit to your help . . .  If you did not lead the way, no-one would become spiritual, no man would adore God in truth . . . No man is filled with the knowledge of God except through you, all holy-one, no man is saved except through you, Theotokos; no man is freed from dangers, except through you, virgin and mother; no man is redeemed, except through you, Mother of God. (Sermon on the Assumption, as cited by Armstrong, 241)


For more, see, for instance, Behold the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology (2017).