Hi, Alex,
Just a clarifying question:
As for the Eastern Orthodox, is it my understanding then from your post that the EOC do not agree with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary?
On Marian apparitions, I gather you believe in them. I am not sure if you are aware of the apparition at Lourdes, France, where the BVM confirmed her Immaculate Conception to St. Bernadette.
You are right - the Orthodox do not accept the Immaculate Conception dogma simply because they have always believed that the Mother of God was sinless and was sanctified from her Conception by the Holy Spirit - which is why they celebrate her as a Saint already on the feast of her Conception.
The Orthodox do not accept the Western view of Original Sin to begin with. If the West had the same view on Original Sin as the East - the West would never have defined the Immaculate Conception either. The same is true of the bodily Assumption of our Lady to Heaven - Orthodoxy has always believed that as we may judge from the liturgical services, but never felt the need to define it dogmatically.
I do believe in Marian apparitions, to be sure. Lourdes was also venerated by Russian Orthodox emigre people in France, some of whom actually thought that the Immaculate Conception referred to our Lady’s conception of Christ.
“Immaculate Conception” can also refer to the purity and holiness of our Lady’s Conception as the East has always understood it. It need not refer to her being conceived “without the stain etc.”. She was sanctified to the nth degree by the Holy Spirit in lieu of her immensely central role in Salvation History. The East also celebrates the conception of St John the Baptist which means that, since only the feasts of Saints can be celebrated, the Forerunner was a saint at his conception. Again, without the need for dogmatization.
In fact, when St Bernadette was shown some icons of our Lady to give the authorities a sense about what our Lady looked like in her apparitions, Bernadette pointed to a Byzantine icon of Our Lady of Grace (venerated in Cambrai, France) and said, “That is exactly how she looked like!” The Roman Catholic authorities, nevertheless, issued a statue of our Lady to represent Our Lady of Lourdes - a statue Bernadette did not like and said bore no resemblance to how our Lady actually appeared to her.
FYI, I’ve written an Eastern liturgical service, an Akathist, to Our Lady of Lourdes which has been put to music and has been sung by pilgrims at Lourdes. I was recently visited by a priest who led such a pilgrimage to Lourdes and conducted the singing of my Akathist there. He brought me back a Lourdes rosary to thank me
. I’ve also done Akathists to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Rosary and Our Lady of Mt Carmel.
The UGCC also had the “Akathist to the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God” in its 1893 Akafistnyk published in Lviv by Fr. Isidore Dolnitsky.
Throughout the Ukrainian Baroque era, there were actually Orthodox Brotherhoods of the Immaculate Conception (which fully accepted the Western doctrine) way before the IC was dogmatically declared in the 19th century (Orthodox seminarians brought this back with them from Paris and Rome - there were even Greek theologians who affirmed the Western IC dogma, as Fr. Meyendorff notes in his popular book on Byzantine Theology).
These brotherhoods wore medals that were similar to the contemporary “Miraculous Medal” and said this invocation frequently, “Most Immaculate Mother of God, save us!”
They also took the “bloody vow” to defend to the death the Immaculate Conception.
Certainly, this was a Latinized devotion, but it had its place in the Kyivan Orthodox Metropolia for decades. Even the Orthodox Metropolitans of Kyiv insisted that the Immaculate Conception be taught in their Kyivan theological Academy and had all kinds of services, now largely fallen into disuse, praising the Mother of God, the Immaculate Conception.
This was because of the scholasic influence, to be sure. But both Churches affirm the total sinlessness, at all times, and the total All-Holiness of the Most Holy Mother of God.
How we arrive at that conclusion is quite secondary.
Most Holy and All-Immaculate Mother of God, save us!
(anything else?)
Alex
The first three protestant reformers. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley even stated their great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. After them later reformers merely see Mary at the nativity of Jesus’ birth. Mary is then “forgotten”.
