The Holy Spirit in the Texts About the Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary of Medieval Poland

Katarzyna Janus

Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa , Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4897-3621

Abstract

The paper presents some of medieval works in which the Holy Spirit’s motif connected with the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is emphasized. They are prayer books, liturgical sequences, sermons, liturgical documents , poetry written in Latin and in Polish. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was a matter of dispute in the Middle Ages. In the first part of this article an attempt is made to show the fragments of the works of the Church Fathers, divided in two factions, maculists and immaculists. The paper presents fragments relating to the mystery of the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary from treaties of St Bernard and St Thomas Aquinas, who did not see any theological justification for the idea of immaculate conception and Eadmer of Canterbury secretary to St Anselm, presenting an argument from congruity that Mary was free from original sin. In the second part the literary works are analyzed. In the article special attention is paid to the explanation of theological contexts of presented works and to the showing of literary skill, biblical erudition and religious consciousness of medieval authors.

Keywords:

Conception of the Blessed Virgin, Middle Ages, Holy Spirit, Old-Polish Literature