The favor that she had found was
the honor and name of Theotokos, for this she was called, and in truth she
became the Theotokos. She in fact found great favor with God, for she became
the mother of his only-begotten Son. Oh favor exalted beyond all favors, which
the mind cannot fathom, which language cannot describe. (Maximus the Confessor,
The Life of the Virgin 21 [trans. Stephen J. Shoemaker; New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2012], 52)
