Mother of God
How can God have a mother?
Main teaching: De fide
The big question
God is eternal; he has no beginning. Mary was a young Jewish woman of the first century. So how can Catholics call her “Mother of God”? Doesn’t that make her greater than God, or suggest that God began in her?
What the Church teaches
Mary is truly the Mother of God (in Greek, Theotokos, “God-bearer”), because the one she conceived and bore is the eternal Son of God made man (Council of Ephesus, 431; DH 251–252; CCC 495).
How sure is this? De fide. It is the first and foundational Marian dogma. See CCC 484–507.
Where it comes from
Scripture. The angel tells Mary that “the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). When Mary visits her cousin, Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, greets her: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:42–43). “Lord” here is the title of God. St Paul says that “God sent forth his Son, born of woman” (Galatians 4:4).
Mary herself foresees the honour: “henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48).
The early Church. The oldest known prayer to Mary, preserved on an Egyptian papyrus perhaps from the third century, already addresses her as Theotokos. In English it is known as “We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God”. When Nestorius objected to the title in the early fifth century, he was overturning something Christians already said in their prayers. The Council of Ephesus defined it in 431, and the crowds of the city are said to have escorted the bishops home with torches in celebration.
St Justin Martyr and St Irenaeus, in the second century, already called Mary the “new Eve”. Irenaeus wrote that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience (Against Heresies 3.22.4).
How theologians explain it
A title about Christ. The dogma of Ephesus is really a statement about Jesus. A mother is not mother of a nature but of a person. No mother says, “I am the mother of this baby’s human nature”; she is the mother of her child. The Person Mary conceived and bore is the eternal Son, who took his human nature from her. So she is truly his mother, and he is truly God. To deny that she is Mother of God would be to split Christ into two subjects, which was Nestorius’s error (Lesson 5.3).
What the title does not mean. Mary is not the source of Christ’s divinity. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father; from Mary he received his human nature. She is not the mother of the Trinity, nor of the divine nature, but of the Son, in his human birth.
The highest dignity of any creature. Because she is the mother of God, Mary has a dignity no other creature has. St Thomas Aquinas says the divine motherhood has a kind of infinite dignity, from its relation to God himself (Summa I, q. 25, a. 6, ad 4). Every other Marian privilege flows from this one: God prepared her to be a fitting mother for his Son (Lesson 7.2), and honoured her body as the body that bore him (Lesson 7.3).
Mary’s consent. God did not simply use Mary. He asked, and she freely answered: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). The Fathers saw this as the reversal of Eve’s disobedience. Through one woman’s distrust came death; through another woman’s faith came the Saviour.
| Eve | Mary | |
|---|---|---|
| Listened to | A fallen angel | God’s angel, Gabriel |
| Response | Disbelief and disobedience | Faith and obedience |
| Result | Death came into the world | The Author of life came into the world |
| Called | ”Mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20) | Mother of all the living in grace |
Philosophy bridge
Units 3 and 5 used the distinction between nature (what) and person (who). This lesson rests entirely on it. Motherhood is a relation between persons, so Mary is the mother of the Person of the Son, who is God.
What the Church does not claim
- Not that Mary is divine. She is a creature, a human being, though the greatest of creatures.
- Not that God began in Mary. The Son exists eternally. In Mary he began his human life.
- Not that Mary is mother of the Trinity. She is mother of the Son, in his human birth.
- Not that honouring Mary takes anything from Christ. The title exists to protect the truth about Christ.
Check your understanding
- Why is Mary called Mother of God?
Show answer
Because a mother is the mother of a person, and the Person she conceived and bore is the eternal Son of God made man.
- Which council defined the title, and against whose teaching?
Show answer
The Council of Ephesus in 431, against Nestorius, who split Christ into two subjects and refused to call Mary Mother of God.
- What does Elizabeth’s greeting in Luke 1:43 show?
Show answer
That Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognised Mary as “the mother of my Lord”, using the title of God for the child she carried.
- Does calling Mary Mother of God mean she existed before God or gave Christ his divinity? Explain.
Show answer
No. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father and has his divinity from the Father. From Mary he received his human nature. She is mother of the divine Person in his human birth.
- Why did the Fathers call Mary the “new Eve”?
Show answer
Because where Eve listened to a fallen angel and disobeyed, bringing death, Mary listened to God’s angel and obeyed in faith, bringing the Saviour. Her obedience undid Eve’s disobedience.