The Mariological Thought of John Chrysostom in the Light of "In Matthaeum Homiliae"
Abstract
The article presents the teaching of John Chrysostom about St Mary in his Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, especially the analysis of three of them among other 99 homilies (number 4, 5, and 44), due to the most important content of this subject. John Chrysostom’s teaching states that St Mary was the person by whom God’s plan of human redemption could be fulfilled. St Mary, as a virgin – conceived wondrously (without a man taking part) and gave birth to Jesus. These facts’ peculiarity is certain and indisputable, therefore all inquiries on this subject are useless. John Chrysostom while speaking about Christ’s birth – according to Christology of Antiochia – emphasizes the reality of His human nature. He considered St Mary as the mother of Jesus the man above all (which was emphasized by Chrysostom’s teacher and mentor, Diodor of Tarsus as well), which was presumably the reason for not using the term Θεοτόκος in reference to St Mary. He accented the everlasting virginity of St Mary: she was a virgin before and after giving birth to Jesus. Despite attributing some typically human imperfections to St Mary (like ignorance of the Bible, little faith, and even vanity), he presented her to his homily audience as a role model, as she knew how to fulfill God’s will in her life.
Keywords:
John Chrysostom, Preaching, Mariology, St Mary, Virginity of St Mary, Theotokos, HomilyReferences
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Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3011-3404
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