How the Church has honoured Mary and the saints — Mary as Mother of God (Theotokos) and ever-virgin, and the veneration and invocation of the saints, on which the Reformation divided. East and West confess Mary as Theotokos together; they differ on invoking the saints, and the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption are defined in the West. Sources span the Fathers to 1854; traditions are badged, never refereed.
4 Patristic · 1 Orthodox · 1 Lutheran · 1 Reformed · 1 Anglican · 2 Catholic
“And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”
“And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
“Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”
“And thus also it was that the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.”
“You say that Mary did not continue a virgin: I claim still more, that Joseph himself on account of Mary was a virgin, so that from a virgin wedlock a virgin son was born.”
“This was the sentiment of the holy Fathers; therefore they ventured to call the Holy Virgin, the Mother of God, not as if the nature of the Word or his divinity had its beginning from the Holy Virgin, but because of her was born that holy body with a rational soul, to which the Word being personally united is said to be born according to the flesh.”
Ephesus declares Mary Theotokos — Mother of God — in defining the personal unity of Christ.
“To the saints honour must be paid as friends of Christ, as sons and heirs of God.”
Nicaea II regulates the veneration of holy images.
“We, therefore, following the royal pathway and the divinely inspired authority of our Holy Fathers and the traditions of the Catholic Church (for, as we all know , the Holy Spirit indwells her), define with all certitude and accuracy that just as the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross, so also the venerable and holy images, as well in painting and mosaic as of other fit materials, should be set forth in the holy churches of God , and on the sacred vessels and on the vestments and on hangings and in pictures both in houses and by the wayside, to wit, the figure of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ , of our spotless Lady, the Mother of God , of the honourable Angels, of all Saints and of all pious people. For by so much more frequently as they are seen in artistic representation, by so much more readily are men lifted up to the memory of their prototypes, and to a longing after them; and to these should be given due salutation and honourable reverence , not indeed that true worship of faith which pertains alone to the divine nature; but to these, as to the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross and to the Book of the Gospels and to the other holy objects, incense and lights may be offered according to ancient pious custom. For the honour which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents, and he who reveres the image reveres in it the subject represented.”
“And therefore she says, all generations, not only Elisabeth, but also every nation that believed.”
“Of the Worship of Saints they teach that the memory of saints may be set before us, that we may follow their faith and good works… But the Scripture teaches not the invocation of saints or to ask help of saints, since it sets before us the one Christ as the Mediator, Propitiation, High Priest, and Intercessor.”
Trent opens. Over eighteen years and five popes it answers the Reformers point by point — on Scripture and tradition, justification, the sacraments, the Eucharist, purgatory and the saints.
“this honour is there claimed for God alone. With respect to the office of intercession, we have also seen, that it is peculiar to Christ, and that no prayer is acceptable to God, unless it be sanctified by this Mediator.”
“The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping, and Adoration, as well of Images as of Reliques, and also invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.”
“the saints, who reign together with Christ, offer up their own prayers to God for men; that it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, aid, (and) help for obtaining benefits from God, through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our alone Redeemer and Saviour.”
“We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.”
Pope Pius XII defined the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven as a dogma of the Catholic Church. The Eastern churches had long kept the feast of her Dormition — her "falling asleep" — without defining it in the same way; the text of the 1950 definition is under copyright.
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.