"
Hitherto Mary had not been worshipped; all prayers had been addressed to
God and to Christ. The idea of approaching her in prayer appeared for
the first time in a pamphlet entitled "On the Death of Mary," written
about the end of the fourth century, and Gregory of Nazianz pictured
Mary in Heaven, caring for the welfare of humanity. The fourth and fifth
centuries produced the first hymns to the Virgin, written in Syriac; but
orthodox bishops objected to her deification; St. Epiphanus (end of
fourth century) said: "Let us honour Mary by all means, but let us
worship only the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost."
This was the position of the evangelical and historical Mary before the
famous and decisive Council of Ephesus.
There is a very important fact which must not be overlooked. All the
nations dwelling on the shores of the Mediterranean, Semites, and
Egyptians, as well as Greeks and Romans, had been accustomed to the
worship of female deities. In the minds of the ancient peoples, woman,
the symbol of sex, had always been endowed with qualities of magic and
mystery.
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