Veneration of Mary and the "Infancy Gospel of James"

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In the Apocryphal Infancy Gospel of James, circa 150 AD, there’s proof that the early Catholic Church venerated Mary as mother of God and as perpetually virgin. My question is, is there any earlier written evidence of veneration (i.e. prayers on tombs or other apocryphal texts?).

Thanks.
 
Writing about A.D. 108 to the Church at Ephesus, St. Ignatius of Antioch describes the virginity of Mary as one of three mysteries of renown:
Now the virginity of Mary was hidden from the prince of this world, as was also her offspring, and the death of the Lord; three mysteries of renown, which were wrought in silence by God.
 
They were just talking about all this on the History Channel, from 8 - 9 EST tonight. Were you watching?
 
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Walburga:
They were just talking about all this on the History Channel, from 8 - 9 EST tonight. Were you watching?
Click to expand...
I was. But fell asleep when they plugged that aspect and went to a commercial break:(
Two protestant friends were watching also. I’m anxious to hear their impression.
 
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LtTony:
I was. But fell asleep when they plugged that aspect and went to a commercial break:(
Two protestant friends were watching also. I’m anxious to hear their impression.
Click to expand...
The History Channel is very anti-bible and runs programs trying to discredit the Gospel and Faith in Christ. Take what they say with a grain of salt.

I think the Infancy Gospels are questionable. They are included in the book ‘the lost books of the bible and the forgotten books of eden’.
 
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Walburga:
They were just talking about all this on the History Channel, from 8 - 9 EST tonight. Were you watching?
Click to expand...
Nope, just have basic TV unfortunately. Must have been a coincidence. If you have any idea of the name of the program that ran, maybe I can get it from Netflix…
 
The earliest example of veneration of Mary in found in Scripture itself:
“‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women’” (Lk. 1:28; cf. also 1:42, 48)
 
In J.N.D. Kelly’s Early Christian Doctrines, pub. by HarperCollins Publishers, 1978 (reprinted by Prince Press, 2004), page 492, it says:

The apocryphal literature (late first and early second century) on the fringe of the ‘great Church’ eloquently attests the pre-occupation of certain circles with the Blessed Virgin. Thus in the Ascension of Isaiah [11:8-14] we find the earliest affirmation of the belief that she was a virgin not only in conceiving Jesus but also in bearing Him (‘virginity in partu’): ‘her womb was found as it was before she became pregnant’. The same idea of a super-natural birth involving no physical travail recurs in the Odes of Solomon [19:6-10]. But the work which most richly embroidered the gospel narratives and was destined to exert a tremendous in-fluence on later Mariology was the Protoevangelium of James.

An English translation of the Ascension of Isaiah and the Odes of Solomon can be found at www.earlychristianwritings.com.
 
A little later in J.N.D. Kelly’s *Early Christian Doctrines, *page 493, it says:The real contribution of these early centuries, however, was more positively theological, and consisted in representing Mary as the antithesis of Eve and drawing out the implications of this.

Kelly then references Justin Martyr’s *Dialogue with Trypho the Jew *(chap. 100), Irenaeus of Lyon’s *Against Heresies *(3, 22, 4; cf. 5, 19, 1), Tertullian’s On the Flesh of Christ (17, 2).

Also, on page 494, Kelly says:
Irenaeus further hinted both at her [Mary’s] universal motherhood and at her cooperation in Christ’s saving work, describing [in *Against Heresies, 4, 33, 11] her womb as ‘that pure womb which regenerates men to God’.

An English translation of Justin Martyr’s *Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, *Irenaeus of Lyon’s Against Heresies, and Tertullian’s On the Flesh of Christ can be found in the Church Fathers section of www.newadvent.org

BTW, J.N.D. Kelly was a Protestant.
 
Earliest evidence of Marian veneration -
after the Annunciation as recorded by St. Luke,
the earliest evidence is the Visitation as recorded by him
(both portrayals suggesting that our Lady was honored by the Church in Luke’s time, and not just by Gabriel and Elizabeth).

“From henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Lk. 1:48; cf. also 1:42). Every generation henceforth - that is, from that first “Year of Our Lord”, onward. Luke is teaching his readers to honor our Lady.

I love the DRCV commentary on this verse: :rolleyes:
“These words are a prediction of that honour which the church in all generations should pay to the Blessed Virgin. Let Protestants examine whether they are any way concerned in this prophecy.”

More early evidence: the example of Jesus Christ, our Divine Model, who could have come among us fully grown, as Athena sprung from the mind of Zeus, but who chose rather to give himself completely to Mary, to the degree of helplessly depending upon her for his very physical existence. Thus, to the cliched query, “WWJD?”, we answer “Honor Mary His Virgin Mother - and moreover offer ourselves unto her entirely, as did He…”
 
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