Veneration of the Blessed Mother

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What are the first historical/traditional accounts of Christians honoring Mary?
 
IanS said:
What are the first historical/traditional accounts of Christians honoring Mary?
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Saints and Doctors of the Church in East and West have vied with one another in proclaiming Mary’s praises - we can read the beautiful and touching tribute of their devotion in a long line of witnesses to the tradition of Christendom concerning the wonder and excellence of Mary’s Motherhood, from the time of Ephrem the Syrian in dim antiquity, to St. Alphonsus Liguori; but no poet, no theologian, no Christian mystic has ever uttered the words that may approach in sublimity the simple words of the holy Gospel - “Mary, the Mother of Jesus.”

Tomster
 
Thanks for the responses. I guess what I’m looking for are extra scriptural references. I am aware of what is in the Bible, however sometimes I am challenged by others who do not believe the first century Christians honored Mary or accepted the Marian Dogmas the way Catholics do today. They believe it’s just something we made up long after the apostles.
 
IanS said:
Thanks for the responses. I guess what I’m looking for are extra scriptural references. I am aware of what is in the Bible, however sometimes I am challenged by others who do not believe the first century Christians honored Mary or accepted the Marian Dogmas the way Catholics do today. They believe it’s just something we made up long after the apostles.
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If you are talking to Christians, first ask them why the biblical evidence (as cited above) is not good enough for them. Do they rely on corroborating extra-biblical evidence for all the distinctive beliefs that they themselves might hold?

Secondly, point out to them that there is extra-biblical corroboration for many Catholic beliefs besides those concerning Mary. Do they accept this as evidence that the Church is correct in all these teachings (in which case they should become Catholics), or are they just making a special case about Mary?

Finally, point out to them there are many subjects and points of doctrine (both Catholic and Protestant) that are not addressed directly by the first century Christians. Why is that? It’s because they were worried about a great many other things; primarily keeping from being thrown to the lions, but other raging controversies, like the denial of the Divinity of Christ, which seemed to be the pre-dominant heresy in those days. If other things were not a problem or not controversial at the time, why bother writing about it? The most you have is an argument from silence, which is considered the worst type of argument.

One of the earliest written references to devotion to the Blessed Virgin is from Didymus the Blind in 386 AD:
“It helps us to understand the terms ‘first-born’ and ‘only-begotten’ when the Evangelist tells that Mary remained a virgin ‘until she brought forth her first-born son’ [Matt. 1:25]; for neither did Mary, who is to be honored and praised above all others, marry anyone else, nor did she ever become the Mother of anyone else, but even after childbirth she remained always and forever an immaculate virgin” (The Trinity 3:4 [A.D. 386]).
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Even though this quote seems to us to be quite late (actually only 280-something years after the last Apostle, John), it is quite early in Church history terms. There are two things to keep in mind here.

First, this was written at a time when the fierce persecutions of Christians had started to ease. Thus, in contrast to the early days, they were more at liberty to meditate on the more devotional aspect of the Faith. Secondly, Didymus writes, not as someone who is inventing a new doctrine, but almost mentions devotion to Mary in passing, as if it were something that everyone already acknowledges and practices. If there was a nascent heresy at this time where people were starting to wrongfully “worship” Mary (as many Protestants claim), you can bet we would have at least some writings denouncing such a heresy, as we do others. But we do not. Why not? Because obviously the teaching by this time had already long been a part of the deposit of Faith.

This may take some patience in explaining this to even sincere Protestants, but you need to get them to think about facets of the issue they may never have considered. Even so, they may just blow off you and your explanation. But at least you tried.

If you haven’t already, I’d suggest the book by Scott Hahn, “Hail, Holy Queen”:
amazon.com/Hail-Holy-Queen-Scott-Hahn/dp/0385501684/sr=8-1/qid=1164122106/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7167723-2064044?ie=UTF8&s=books
You can also recommend it to your Protestant friends, if they are open-minded enough.
 
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