CHAPTER II On the reverence of the faithful towards the Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary and on her holy icons and on the holy churches honored in her name

The Theotokos enjoyed such respect from the faithful, such honor and love, that to her, besides God, they attributed the secondary things of honor, respect and love. The respect of the faithful for the virgin Theotokos Mary goes back to this 1st and 2nd century, and was imposed by these Holy Scriptures mentioning her name as one who was graced and blessed and as finding grace from God alone among all women. This Theotokos in a prophetic spirit already announces her appearance among all generations, saying: “For behold, from now on all generations will be blessed with me, etc.” (Luke 1:48). And truly, from that time the beatification of the Theotokos began. The Theotokos was first blessed by Elizabeth, who, filled with the Holy Spirit, exclaimed with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken by the Lord” (Luke 1:42-45). Also, modern women who consider the Virgin to be holding the divine infant would certainly bless her. The evangelist Luke mentions the raised voice from the crowd and blessed the Mother who nursed the Lord (11:27). From Christian archaeology we learn that the icons of the Mother of God were depicted and honored from the 1st and 2nd centuries. And it could not have been otherwise, with the Gospel recommending honor to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and the Theotokos announcing that “from now on blessed is she with all generations.” Hence the Theotokos was honored and blessed by all generations from her Annunciation until today and will be blessed until the end of the ages. Those who do not offer the honor and blessedness of the Theotokos to the express commandments of the Gospel are fighting against it, because the whole Gospel is law, and the transgression of one jot or one tittle is the transgression of the law. During the third century, respect for the Theotokos was greatly manifested. Christian hymnody praises the Virgin and Theotokos Mary as the Queen of Heaven and Lady of the Angels. During this period, in some countries, where numerous Christians lived together with numerous pagans, there appeared evil spirits who elevated respect for the Theotokos to worship and bestowed on the Virgin Mary equal honor in imitation of the female deities worshipped by the pagans. This evil heresy was invoked by the Kollyridians because of the plakountas or kollyridas, which they offered as a sacrifice on a certain day for two hundred and which they then ate (Epiphanius in Heresy 78 and 79).During this same period, the diametrically opposed to the Kollyridians also appeared, the so-called Antidicomarianites, who did not tolerate the glory of the Mother of the Lord, who were so outraged that they dared to say that the Virgin, after the birth of the Savior, had intercourse with a man and bore other children. The younger Antidicomarianites, who denied perpetual virginity and the title Theotokos, also became zealous for this heresy. The Church condemned and condemned these heresies, and clearly expressed its correct and secure glory, according to which we must honor the ever-virgin Virgin as the Mother of God, and not worship her as God (Cyril). The heresies of the Kollyridians and the Anti-Dicomarians, which appeared during the Third Centenary, testify to a deviation from the true glory of the Catholic Church, which was located in the middle of two diametrically opposed heresies. Epiphanius on Heresy, chap. 23 says, “Others, again, being in a frenzy in the cause of the same holy ever-virgin, instead of God, bring this up, being learned and learned, and being carried away in a certain stupor and madness. For they relate how some women in Arabia from the parts of Thrace conceived this blasphemous idea, as if in the name of the ever-virgin some slander was committed, and they gathered together for the same, and in the name of the holy Virgin, beyond measure, that they were tempted to commit immorality and blasphemy, and in her name they actually performed rites through women.” And in the heresy, which is in the eighth chapter. 1 says “The heresy again appeared in Arabia from Thrace and the upper parts of Scythia… some women adorned a certain kurikos (i.e. a square of two-sided cloth), spreading a screen over it, on a certain day of the year, on certain days they would set out bread and recite it in the name of Mary, and all would partake of the bread.” It was not until the 4th century that the reverence and respect for the Mother of God was manifested and externally even more brilliantly through the erection of magnificent Holy Temples dedicated to the name of the Mother of God. The Theotokos was and is and will be the unfailing protector and the swift perceiver and helper of the faithful. They invoked her in dangers and in sorrow, and she was their champion in wars. Her invincible power crushed the warriors, and her maternal frankness towards her Son and God showered divine mercy upon the faithful. The devotion of the faithful to the Mother of God, from the time of the condemnation of the Nestorian heresy, was manifested throughout the Roman state through glorious festivals and spiritual feasts,and the magnificent temples erected everywhere in the name of the Mother of God were brightly decorated and beautifully adorned. And this reverence for the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mother of the Lord, established in the hearts of the faithful, began from her elevation as the Mother of the Lord, has remained unwavering throughout all ages and will remain with the faithful throughout all ages, unshaken. CHAPTER III On the Pronoun Theotokos The pronoun Theotokos, by which our Most Holy Lady and Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ is addressed, is the only appropriate epithet. Those who reject the name Theotokos say that all the important fathers of the Orthodox Eastern Church up to Epiphanius, that is, for 400 years AD, such as Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Chrysostom, Basil in their genuine writings, when mentioning the name of the Virgin Mary, for the most part call her Mary, Mother of Christ, Virgin Mary, Holy Virgin, etc., but never Theotokos. They say that this name became very frequent from the Third Ecumenical Council that met in Ephesus in 430 AD. To this we respond, bringing the evidence from these same divine Fathers and teachers of the Church. And in the prophets and in the whole of the Holy Testament, in which the virgin birth of Christ is prophesied and proclaimed, Mary is proclaimed the Mother of God, because she gave birth not to a mere man, but to God incarnate truly and primarily, and such believing confess, they join in the glory of our Orthodox Eastern Church and in general all the holy lights of the Church from the first to the last as admitting the virgin Mary the Mother of God. And in the first, by Origen first (230 AD) we first find the name of the Virgin Theotokos. He called the virgin Theotokos, interpreting the 33rd verse of the 22nd chapter. of Deuteronomy, “he calls the already betrothed woman thus, and it was said of Joseph and the Theotokos.” Origen, who was criticized for his other misbeliefs, was not criticized for the name “Theotokos,” which would have been the case if this were a new address and not an old one. And note that Origen was a student of Saint Clement of Alexandria, who flourished in the year 180 after Christ, and it is clear that from him he was initiated into the sacred custom that is known in the church and to everyone from here and was not criticized. And Dionysius of Alexandria, writing to Paul of Samosata in 250, says: “the one who was incarnate from the Holy Virgin and Theotokos Mary.” And Gregory of Neocaesarea, the miracle worker in 275 (quoting the Annunciation), says:“This is the ode of prophecy that the Holy Theotokos sent forth, saying, My soul magnifies the Lord, etc.” And the Holy Methodius, bishop of Patara and ecclesiastical writer (300-311), says: “And the Theotokos, having taken from her spotless and immaculate altar the incarnate life-giving and inexpressible coal, like a tongs…” And elsewhere: “yet the righteous one, speaking forth, and the exhortation of the one who served God to men, the Mother of God…” And elsewhere again “what do I complain of you, O virgin mother, and virgin mother? I offer you patristic hymns, daughter of David and mother of the Lord and God David… O higher than all generations and more honorable than all visible and invisible creatures, through you the Lord God of hosts has become with us. Blessed, blessed, blessed, Mother of God, and handmaid. ” And Alexander of Alexandria, who succeeded Achilles in 320, writing to Alexander of Constantinople at the First Ecumenical Holy Council, and Ammon, Bishop of Andrianopolis, call upon the Virgin Theotokos. And Eusebius of Pamphilus in 320 (in the Life of Constantine, chap. 13) says: “For the God-fearing queen (Helen), the pregnancy of the Theotokos (i.e. Bethlehem), a memorial of miraculous catechisms.” And he calls the Virgin the Mother of God, saying “for it is necessary for the Creator of His works to be buried, and since He is approaching a temporal body, He must either dwell on earth, or, since this necessity requires it, He has devised a new birth for Himself, for without the conception of marriage, and the purity of pure virginity, and the mother of God, daughter, etc.” (see ibid., p. 162). And Athanasius the Great, the illuminator of Alexandria, in 330 says, “and this Angel, acting, confesses that he was sent by the Lord, as Gabriel confessed to Zechariah, and to the Virgin Mary.” And again, “this purpose and character of the Holy Scripture, as we have often said, is the twofold promise about the Savior in it, that He is both God and Son, the Word and the emanation and wisdom of the Father, and that later, for our sake, He took flesh and became man from the virgin Mary of the Virgin Mary.” And again, “hence, being made flesh by the Virgin Mary, he is said to be born, who gives birth to others in being, and John, being made by the Virgin Mary, leaped for joy.” And again, “how much more if I tell you the boast of the Holy Virgin and God-like Mary.” And elsewhere, “Holy Mary is both a virgin and a mother as the Mother of God.” (Athanasius, loc. iii. according to Arius: vol. a, pp. 563-579-583, vol. b, pp. 824-875-1271, vol. c, pp. 1351 et seq.). And Gregory the Theologian in 370, (Epist. to Cles. vol. 1, p. 738) according to Apollinarius, says:”He assumes Mary as the Mother of God without being of the Godhead.” And again the same (discourse a’ about the Son, to the Greeks) “Where among you do you know a virgin Mother of God?” Likewise, in this passage he calls the Virgin Mary “a virgin Mother of God.” And John Chrysostom in the 400th century (quoting the Holy Virgin, vol. 5, p. 876, ed. Eton.) says: “There is no one in life like the Theotokos Mary. Consider, O man, all creation in thought, and see if there is any equal or greater than the Holy Virgin Theotokos. Walk around the earth, survey the sea, contemplate the air, search the heavens with your mind, remember all the invisible powers, and see if there is any other such miracle in creation.” And again the same: “And now God does not lack Deborah, nor does the God of Israel lack, for we also have the Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, interceding for us, for if the fortunate woman conquered, how much more will the Mother of Christ put to shame the enemies of the truth?” (Regarding the fact that the prophecies are unclear). And again the same: “If they say that Melchizedek is from heaven, or from some other village, let them hear that he also bows the knee to Christ who was incarnate from the Mother of God Mary, for the Apostle says, etc.” (John Chrysostom on Melchizedek, vol. 6, 296). And again, “God, who not only saw the flourishing piety of the Jews, but also the subsequent piety of the believers, foresaw that the Holy Virgin Theotokos would come from Judea, foresaw the choir of the Apostles, foresaw the orders of confessors, the myriads of Jews who would believe in the future, etc.” (in the fourth day of Cosmopoiesis, vol. 6, p. 475). And Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople, a disciple of John Chrysostom, and an uncle of the Church Father, says: “The Holy Theotokos and the Virgin Mary have now summoned us here, the undefiled heirloom of virginity, the rational paradise of the second Adam, the workshop of the union of natures, the festival of the salvific exchange, the feast in which the Word married the flesh, the animate bush of nature, the virgin and heaven, the only bridge of God to men, the terrible web of the economy, in which the union of the garments was inextricably woven…” (Encomium to the Theotokos, etc. 6). And Saint Augustine in 400 (on the nature and grace, chap. 16) says: “Except for the Theotokos alone, all the others sin, according to which, if we say that we have no sin, we lie, for the Theotokos alone received more grace.” And Saint Theodoret in 436 testifies stentorianly that it is apostolic tradition and teaching to call Mary the Theotokos, for he says:”The ancient and ancient preachers of the Orthodox faith, who taught according to the Apostolic tradition, call and believe the Mother of the Lord the Mother of God” (See Theod. Epist. Sporakio, vol. 4, p. 639). Gregory of Nyssa, in his On the Birth of the Lord (Vol. III, p. 460), speaks of the Mother of the Lord as “Theometrius Virgin,” and theometrius was pronounced according to theopator, which is an epithet attributed to the prophet David by the hymnographers and the Ancient Fathers of the Church because of the descent of our Lord Jesus Christ from him in the flesh. Thus Chrysostom (on false teaching, vol. 6 Parisii 478) says: “the father of God David labored much concerning such things.” And Dionysius the Areopagite (letter VIII No. 1 p. 778) says: “What makes the father of God David a lover of God?” So if the prophet David is called the father of God because he is the forefather of the virgin Mary, why should she not be called the mother of God who bore Jesus the God? And if she is called the mother of God, why not also the Theotokos? If the epithets Mother of God and Theotokos were not in use in the Church, none of the fathers and writers of the first centuries would have used this epithet in their writings, because it would have been disapproved by the Church. However, the Church not only did not disapprove, but also, in keeping with the times, ratified the sacred epithet of the Virgin “Theotokos” through the Third Ecumenical Council, by which it condemned the heretic Nestorius, who blasphemously called the Virgin Christ-bearer, but declared her primarily and truly Theotokos. Therefore, the new teachers, the Nestorians of our time, speak against the epithet Theotokos. Hippolytus, a disciple of Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, a disciple of John the Evangelist, does not use the word Theotokos, but he does use other words that are equivalent, which makes it clearer than the sun that he considers and believes in this Theotokos: “Tell me, he says, O blessed Mary, what was conceived by you in your womb and what was carried by you in your virgin womb? For the Word of God was the firstborn from heaven descending upon you, and the firstborn man being formed in your womb…” (paraphrased by Theodore. Dial. I, vol. 4, p. 27, ed. Eugen. of the Bulg.). The Ever-Virgin of her, beyond all erasures, says: “the Creator of all things from the Virgin Mary, the ever-virgin, immaculate in conception, without change, who embodied in herself a noetic soul with a sensual body, became man by nature of evil, alien to him, all God…” (According to Byron and Helicus, vol. 10, p. 840, ed. Migne). The extreme piety of Saint Hippolytus towards the Mother of God, which was transmitted by hereditary right through the apostle John, Polycarp and Irenaeus,It is also shown by his following words: “in this present time the Savior, from the Virgin of the Ark, presented his own body to the world, gilded with pure gold, on the inside with the word, and on the outside with the Holy Spirit, so that the truth is demonstrated, and the Ark is revealed” (in Daniel, vol. 10, p. 648, ed. Migne). The most wise Economos, accepting as genuine the Epistle written under the name of Saint Dionysius of Alexandria to Paul of Samosata, in which the name Theotokos is mentioned, says: “Origen (he was born in 186 AD) wrote and explained the name Theotokos, the God-given name, as had always been customary in the church. “Origen, in the first volume of the Epistle to the Romans of the Apostle, explaining how the Theotokos is called, explained it at length” (Soc. Eccl. Hist. VII, 32), and another saying of Origen is also preserved in Deut. 22, 23. “He calls the already betrothed woman, just as it was said about Joseph and the Theotokos” (in Octaple, p. 1554, Theoph.). And a sermon on Matthew 1. “Whose mother is this? The mother of the only-begotten God” and again “this virgin gave birth to God, and became a mother, but she did not abandon her virginity”, and “the mother of this only-begotten God, this virgin Mary”. The Theotokos was also said by Gregory the Wonderworker, celebrating the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos (in the Gospel, loc. a’ and b’ p., 14, 18 Paris 1632) and Dionysius the Great and Saint Methodius (loc. to Symeon, where he also says theotokos, Mother of God) and Athanasius the Great in his epistle to the monks in Egypt, and many others, and he called the Mother of the Lord Mother of God (comm. in Luke in Callandii Biblioth. Patr. TV. p. 187). Alexander of Alexandria (letter to Alexander of Constantinople). Eusebius of Pamphilus (Life of Constantine, 3′ 45) the Great Basil (on the birth of Christ). Gregory the Theologian: “in the case of the Theotokos he assumes Mary, without being of the divinity” (word on page 738 cf. and word on page 554), the divine Chrysostom (vol. 6, word on Melchizedek and in the homilies where he also praises her as Ever-Virgin). Saint Epiphanius (of the Polycarpians). Gregory of Nyssa (Epistle to Ambrose. see vol. 3, p. 660). Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechism 1). And in the Codex Alexandrinus (composed around 380 AD) the ode to the Theotokos is inscribed “Prayer of Mary the Theotokos” (vol. IV, geabe edition). The Theotokos was preached by Amphilochius of Iconium, and the Holy Antiochus, and Ammon of Adrianople, and Severian, and Theophilus of Alexandria, and Atticus of Constantinople (according to Cyril of Alexandria, vol.Fifth letter to Acacius of Verroia). Proclus of Constantinople (on the Incarnation, etc.). Saint Theodoret (vol. 4, p. 667, etc.). Saint Augustine “Deipara virgo et casta perpetuo” (on temporser 6 and elsewhere), Blessed Jerome “The Mother of God” (on Isaiah 8, 4 and elsewhere). Thus the name Theotokos was glorified in the Church even in the 2nd century by Apostolic tradition and teaching, confessed by all Christians. Hence Julian the apostate continued, saying “But you do not cease to call Mary Theotokos” (Cyrillic against Julian VIII, p. 262). And after Nestorius had also been burned, the Third Council of Ephesus was convened, in 430 AD, in which it was decreed by the council, “The ever-virgin Mother of the Lord is to be glorified in the name of the Theotokos.” Then Cyril of Alexandria, the most eloquent preacher of the Theotokos, and other of the Holy Fathers, shone forth, who, as well as all those who followed them, both the First and the Fifth and the Sixth and the Seventh Ecumenical Councils, glorify the name of the Theotokos. This, therefore, has come to those who have raised doubts about the authenticity of the above letter of Dionysius of Samosate through some slander, in one number and that it supposedly contains the name of the Theotokos, first established many years after Dionysius in the Third Council. ” Address to the Most Holy Theotokos. Rejoice, Virgin Theotokos, rejoice, gracious Mary, the Lord is with you, rejoice, you who received the kiss of the Angel, rejoice, you who were worthy to be the Mother of God. You are, O Theotokos, the source of our salvation. You are, O Mother of God, the nourisher of our life. You are, Ever-Virgin Daughter, the joy of all generations. You are, O Virgin Mother, the stone that gave them water in their thirst for life. You are, O unmarried mother, the successor of the manna. You are, O celibate bride, the minister of the holy food. You are, O life-giving one, the living table that contained the bread of life. You are, O beautiful one, the inexhaustible spring that gushed forth living water. You are, O barren one, the barren land that made the divine grain sprout. You are, O immaculate bride, the fragrant lily that perfumed the faithful. You are, O all-holy daughter, the scepter of Orthodoxy. You are, O pure Virgin, the unshakable tower of the Church. You are, O Lady of the world, the vehicle of His All-Holy One upon the Cherubim. You are, O Queen of the Angels, His most excellent dwelling upon the Seraphim. You are, O Virgin, the bride of God, the living palace of the omnipotent King. You are, O Unmarried Nymph, the spacious village of the Incomparable One. You are, O Great-Born One, who gave birth to God without foam. You are, O Mother of God, who bore the Incomparable One in your womb. You are, O Immaculate Virgin, the indestructible temple. You are, O infinite bride, the living temple of God.You are, O All-Holy Virgin, the balanced dwelling of heaven and earth. You are, O Virgin, the spacious village of the incomparable nature. You are, O immaculate Virgin, the bright morning bearing the sun of justice. You are, O blessed Virgin, the almshouse of light, from whence the light of the world has shone forth. You are, O all-pure, the bride, the dawn of the mystical day. You are, O spotless virgin, the ray of the holy moon. You are, O immaculate Virgin, the Mother of Christ according to the flesh. You are, O undefiled virgin, the truly and above all, the incarnate God the Word. You, Holy Virgin, who carried God the Word as an infant in your arms. You, All-Pure Lady, who nursed the nurturer of all as a mother. You, the sacred heirloom of the entire universe. You, the volume on which the word of the Father is inscribed with the divine finger. You, the vessel of heavenly joy. You, the guide of the faithful to sobriety. You, the desert of fragrance. You, the paradise of incorruption. You, the key to the kingdom of Heaven. You, the all-prayer of salvation for those who pray. You, the treasury of God’s providence. You, the vessel of God’s wisdom. You, the garment of light. You, the robe of virtue. You are the pride of virgins. You are the beauty of mothers. You are the treasure of purity. You are the beauty of virginity. You are the crown of continence. You are the flower of incorruption. You are the pillar of virginity. You are the gate of salvation. You are the leader of intellectual regeneration. You are the giver of divine goodness. You are the firm foundation of faith. You are the shining mark of grace. You are the unquenchable mouth of the Apostles. You are the invincible courage of athletes. You are the accepted incense of the embassy. You are the expiation of the whole world. You are God’s good pleasure to mortals. You are the boldness of mortals towards God. The goodness of God predestined the ever-virgin Theotokos to become the mother of salvation. The prophets proclaimed you centuries ago as the Virgin and Bride of God. You are the cloud of all light that covered the people of God. You are the pillar of fire that illuminated the new Israel. You are the tabernacle of the testimony that overshadowed the divine. You are the ark of the covenant in which the word of God dwelt. You are the rod of Aaron that sprouted the flower, Christ. You are the jar that held the heavenly manna. You are the ladder of Jacob through which God descended. You are the mighty mountain that Gideon foresaw. You are the unsalted mountain from which the cornerstone, Christ, was cut out. You are the sea that drowned Pharaoh the intellectual. You are the virgin and mother of Emmanuel, Isaiah foretold. You are the closed gate through which God enters. You are the secret door that spelled out the coal of Christ. You are the daughter of God,the unmarried bride, worthy to become the mother of Christ of God.