Ο βίος της υπερευλογημένης Δεσποίνης ημών Θεοτόκου και αειπαρθένου Μαρίας

by Maximus the Confessor

Η πρόνοια του Τριαδικού Θεού για τους πιστούς της εποχής μας αλλά και για την δόξα της Αειπαρθένου Μαρίας οδήγησε στη γνωστοποίηση του αρχαιότερου και θεολογικότερου γραπτού βίου της υπεραγίας Θεοτόκου, της μοναδικής Παρθένου μεταξύ των μητέρων. Ο γνώστης των κειμένων αλλά και της θεολογικής σκέψεως του αγίου Μαξίμου δεν έχει καμία δυσκολία ν' αναγνωρίσει στην όντως επιτυχημένη νεοελληνική απόδοση του Βίου της Θεομήτορος τον κορυφαίο χαρισματικό θεολόγο του Ζ' αιώνα, άγιο Μάξιμο τον Ομολογητή.

Το κείμενο του Βίου αποτυπώνει πλήρως την παραδοσιακή δογματική διδασκαλία για το πρόσωπο της Μητέρας του Θεανθρώπου. Δια του Βίου μας παραδίδεται ένα λαμπρό μνημείο πολιτισμού της Εκκλησίας με έντονο νηπτικό και φιλοκαλικό περιεχόμενο. Η χαρισματικώς εμπλουτισμένη θεοτοκολογία του εκφερόμενη συχνά σε υμνητική και ποιητική γλώσσα πανηγυρικού θεολογικού λόγου συμπλέκεται ευφυώς με τη Χριστολογία, όπως υπαγορεύεται άλλωστε από την Παράδοση της Εκκλησίας.


Προλογικό σημείωμα ~ Πρόλογος ~ Εισαγωγή ~ Ο εκλεκτός καρπός του γένους μας. Προσφορά εις τον Θεόν ~ Ευαγγελισμός ~ Γέννησις ~ Παρουσίασις εις τον Ναόν ~ Η Φανέρωσις (Θεοφάνεια) ~ Περί του Πάθους ~ Τα κατά την Ανάστασιν ~ Η Κοίμησις ~ Η Κληρονομία της Αγίας Εσθήτος της ~ Επίμετρον

Genres: Religion, Theology, Christianity, Nonfiction, Christian, Biography, Catholic

245 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 650

About the author

Maximus the Confessor (Greek: Μάξιμος ὁ Ὁμολογητής) also known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople (c. 580 – 13 August 662) was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar.

In his early life, Maximus was a civil servant, and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. However, he gave up this life in the political sphere to enter into the monastic life. Maximus had studied diverse schools of philosophy, and certainly what was common for his time, the Platonic dialogues, the works of Aristotle, and numerous later Platonic commentators on Aristotle and Plato, like Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus. When one of his friends began espousing the Christological position known as Monothelitism, Maximus was drawn into the controversy, in which he supported an interpretation of the Chalcedonian formula on the basis of which it was asserted that Jesus had both a human and a divine will. Maximus is venerated in both Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity. His Christological positions eventually resulted in the mutilation of his tongue and right hand, after which he was exiled and died on August 13, 662 in Tsageri, Georgia. However, his theology was upheld by the Third Council of Constantinople and he was venerated as a saint soon after his death. He is almost unique among saints in that he has two feast days: the 13th of August and the 21st of January. His title of Confessor means that he suffered for the Christian faith, but was not directly martyred. The Life of the Virgin is commonly, albeit mistakenly, attributed to him, and is considered to be one of the earliest complete biographies of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Reviews

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, this book may or may not have been written by Maximus the Confessor. Second, it's really old, around the 7th century. It's all about the Virgin Mary although people like Mary Magdalene do appear. As with many works of that time a great deal of the book is spent in praising her, Jesus, God and whoever else he wants to praise.

As to the rest of the book that is not involved in praise, some of the highlights include:

Mary (Jesus' mother) was involved in every aspect of his ministry.
She was the leader of the women who followed Christ.
She continued being a leader after the death of Jesus.
She was beautiful.
She loved learning and was an excellent student.
When she got to be 12 she was made to get married.
She was rich.
Childbirth is painful due to what Eve did.
The birth of Jesus was painless. It seems somehow the baby was teleported or something out of her so she remained a virgin.
The origin of the Devil is told.
There's quite a few times when he refers to Jews as the murderers of Jesus.
He did not perform miracles of any nature until he grew up.
Mary Magdalene died as a martyr in Rome.
He also refers to the Jews as malevolent, wicked and godless.
He goes into details of what happened to her and her body upon her death.

The part that surprised me was Mary Magdalene dying in Rome which disagrees with the other books I have read about her.

[Peter Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Life of the Virgin by St. Maximus the Confessor

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I was in the middle of an internet discussion with a Baptist philosophy professor when I came across this book. My interest in getting this book was to get a sense of relatively early church teachings on Marian doctrine. This book is rather late for the purpose of documenting the earliest church teachings since his period of teaching was in the seventh century. On the other hand, there has been something of a St. Maximus revival recently, although we should probably bracket the provenance of this book with some scepticism. The translator, Stephen J. Shoemaker, and others seem convinced that this text was written by the saint, but I get the feeling that this attribution remains controversial.

Nonetheless, as a survey of seventh-century Marian teaching, this is a valuable text in many ways. St. Maximus affirms the accepted Marian doctrines, but his writings go much further in exalting Mary's position than people who think that such an exalted view is a medieval invention. There is this passage for example:

"And childbirth was established with pain and affliction because of the original disobedience (cf. Gen 3.16a):1 as the prophet bears witness, “as when the pain of childbirth arrives at the time of birth, she cries out from the pain” (Isa 26.17). In this way, then, there was no end to the servitude and pain and affliction of women. But when the archangel said to the holy Virgin, “the Lord is with you,” all the debts of affliction were erased. “The lord is with you,” and there is no longer the lordship of man over you, nor the pain of childbirth, for truly she alone is a virgin exalted above all virgins, a virgin ever immaculate: before birth, in birth, and after birth. And not only was the grace of perpetual virginity given to her, but from that time forward she became the foundation of virginity for other women, and by her the ability was given to women who wish to be virgins. Before this, women were not able to be virgins, but the beloved and most-blessed, ever-virgin Theotokos Mary became the foundation and cause of virginity for women who desire it, for in fact she also became the cause and source of every good thing for men and women, the glorious and all-holy mother of the Lord and God and our savior Jesus Christ, the ornament of human nature, the song and joy of the angels, intercessor for humanity and aid to all the faithful."

Saying that the Theotokos was the "foundation and cause of virginity" would be an anathema to most modern Christians.

In the tradition that St. Maximus followed, Joseph was 70 years old with children from a prior marriage who had been entrusted with the care of a young woman who had taken a vow of perpetual virginity:

"23But consider the wisdom of the blessed and all-holy Virgin and her excessive love of virginity. She believed the archangel's message but was astonished by the matter. That is why she answered and said, “How can this be, for I have not known a man (Luke 1.34), nor is this possible, because I have been consecrated immaculately to God, and without a man conception is not possible.”

St. Maximus also held to the often-forgotten belief that Mary was spared birthing pains:

"Behold the economy of divine activities and the transformation of natures, for the wondrous son did not make known to the immaculate mother the knowledge of his birth, and in an instant he was inexplicably found outside her womb and settled in her lap, so that just as her conception took place without seed and without awareness, so also the birth took place without corruption and without awareness. The dew on the fleece (cf. Judg 6.36–40) was a symbol of the glorious and wondrous Nativity,12 but the reality was more exalted than the symbol, for although the dew came upon the fleece silently and of its own, it was not of its own squeezed out from the fleece but only by hand. But the divine dew, which gives life to all, just as he entered into the Virgin's holy womb silently and painlessly, so he did not make known his ineffable coming forth to the immaculate mother, but he put on human flesh from her, and so he went forth easily and supernaturally, the one who did not make his birth known, not only to others but even to his own mother."

These beliefs were based on scripture:

"And not only was the holy womb opened by his birth, but it remained closed, as Ezekiel, the seer of invisible things, said, “This gate will be closed, and it will not be opened, and no one will go forth through it, but the Lord God of Israel alone will enter in and come out through it, and the gate will be closed” (Ezek 44.2). Truly, then, in both cases it remained closed and sealed, before the conception and at the conception, and after the conception and after the birth."

St. Maximus depicts Mary as Christ's chief disciple:

"From that time on the holy mother was a disciple of her sweet son, truly the mother of Wisdom and a daughter of Wisdom, for she no longer saw him as a human or as a mere human being, but32 she served him reverently as God and received his words as the words of God. That is why she did not forget any of his words or deeds, as the evangelist says, “And his mother kept all these sayings in her heart” (Luke 2.51), and she awaited the time33 of their clear manifestation."

And:

"76This solitary virgin woman was unaccustomed to a throng of people, especially of such people as thieves and troops of armed soldiers, but she went everywhere fearlessly. And she was not separated from her beloved Lord and dear son, not even for a single moment, because she was bound to him in soul and body. Thus from the beginning of the arrest until the end of the Passion she remained near him. She saw everything and heard his words."

And:

"74But let us return to the beginning of this topic. As we said, she was always inseparable from her Lord and king and son. And she held authority: as the Lord did over the twelve disciples and then the seventy, so did the holy mother over the other women who accompanied him. As the holy gospel says, “There were many women who followed Jesus from Galilee and provided for him” (Matt 27.55). The holy Theotokos was the leader and director of them all. For this reason, when the mysterious and glorious supper took place, and he sacrificed himself as a priest and was sacrificed, he offered and was offered,1 at that time the Lord Jesus took care of the twelve disciples and whomever else he wished, and he gave them the exalted mysteries, the signs of the divine Passover.


After the Resurrection, Mary is the field marshall of the disciples:

"96She sent forth the other disciples to preach to those far and near. Nevertheless, while she herself remained in the royal city of Zion, she once again endured alone more afflictions and attacks on account of her son. For his sake she opposed and fought against the adversaries, the wicked Jews, and once again she was an intercessor and mediator with him on behalf of all, not only on behalf of the believers, but also on behalf of the enemies, that he might have mercy on them and they would be brought to knowledge and repentance, for this she had also learned from her gracious son, when he said on the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23.34). And she herself was also gracious and merciful, and she desired that all humanity would be saved and arrive at knowledge of the truth."

Feminists often appeal Mary Magdelene as their feminist hero - the "apostle to the apostles." They couldn't find a more dominating feminist icon than the Mother of God.

St. Maximus contends that Mary was the first witness ot the resurrection. He also holds to a belief in the "dormition" and the assumption. In the dormition, Just as Mary was spared pain the birth of her son, she was also spared pain in her death:

"As she escaped the pains of childbirth in the ineffable Nativity, so the pains of death did not come upon her at the time of her Dormition, for both then and now the king and Lord of natures altered the course of nature. Then the host of angels invisibly applauded the sendoff of her holy soul. The house and the surrounding area were filled by a waft of indescribable perfume, and unapproachable light (cf. 1 Tim 6.16) spread forth over the holy body. And in this way the master and the disciples, and heaven and earth led forth20 the holy Virgin: the gracious and glorious Lord and master led away the holy soul of his immaculate mother to heaven; the disciples took care of her immaculate body on earth, anointing it with myrrh and tending to the things that she had planned. And after a little while, her son and God wished to translate the body to Paradise or somewhere.21 The holy apostles encircled22 the bed on which lay the holy Theotokos’ body, wider than heaven."

According to St. Maximus, Mary's body was entombed, but it was subsequently taken to Heaven:

"117Nevertheless, we have learned something else from truthful and reliable informants, and it has been written about before us and is trustworthy and reliable: that in the assembly of the holy apostles for the Dormition of the queen, one of the apostles was providentially not able to arrive with the others. And the holy apostles were expecting him, so that he perchance would also receive a blessing from the blessed and beloved body. Nevertheless, on the third day that apostle also arrived, and he found his other comrades singing in front of the holy tomb, and he also heard the clear and sweet sound of the angels singing. And he besought the holy apostles to open the venerable tomb so that he could embrace the all-holy body of the glorious Theotokos. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the blessed apostles heard their brother's plea and opened the holy tomb with fear. But when they opened it, they did not find the glorious body of the holy mother of Christ, for it had been translated wherever32 her son and God wished. For as he himself was placed in a tomb when he endured death in the flesh for the sake of our salvation and gloriously arose on the third day, so it also seemed fitting to place the immaculate body of his mother in a tomb and likewise to translate it into eternal incorruptibility as he wished, either so that both elements were again united with each other, for so the creator of all things was pleased to honor the one who gave him birth, or in some other way that the king of glory and the lord of life and death alone knows.33 So then the tomb was found empty. They found only the burial wrappings and the shroud in which they had laid her to rest, and the body of the immaculate Virgin was not there, but it had been raised up to her son and God so that she will live and reign with him completely, and thus our nature was raised up to heaven in the eternal kingdom not only by her son but also by the immaculate mother."

This is not an overly long text. It is historically significant in outlining Christian beliefs during the lifetime of St. Maximus.

[Mikhail · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work by St. Maximos the confessor, the earliest complete biography of the Theotokos known to scholars is a good source of information about what the Christian tradition teaches of her. It is, admittedly, a bit dull to read. Nonetheless, its hagiographical and historical significance leads me to recommend it still. For students of religious history or the Medieval period, this work is a crucial chain in the development of the Christian narrative of the Theotokos' life. The additional gem, located in the appendix, of a schedule of readings from the book to be read at various points of the liturgical year is also a great insight into Medieval Christian piety and the development of the cult of the Theotokos. For devout Christian readers, this schedule can be a good supplement to their devotional life that deepens both their connection to past Christians and their connection to the liturgical cycles of the Church.

[Pedro Machado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ótima obra de São Máximo, o Confessor, e também ótima edição do Minha Biblioteca Católica.
Impecável, e com uma quantidade boa de notas de rodapé.

O livro não somente mostra a Virgem Maria tal qual escrita nos Evangelhos, mas também todo aquele universo não abarcado por esse e somente presente na Sagrada Tradição da Igreja, perpetuando os ensinamentos dos Apóstolos e Santos que não estão nas Sagradas Escrituras.

É santificante ver a Santíssima Virgem não como uma mulher impassível e estática, sobre tudo e todos, tal como uma esfinge, imagem normal no meio católico; mas, que teve, ao contrário, um vida de dificuldades desde a infância até a terceira idade, e durante seu tempo na Terra sofreu (e se alegrou!) por um sem-número da razões, sem nunca deixar de produzir milagres e fortificar a fé da Cristandade, que então estava ainda engatinhando - longe de ser "apenas" uma mulher.

Interessante ver também o contexto histórico dado pela MBC do próprio autor, o São Máximo. Foi enriquecedor ver o ponto de vista de um religioso propriamente oriental - e antes do Grande Cisma. Mesmo que o autor tenha vivido muitos anos antes da ruptura entre o Ocidente e o Oriente, salta os olhos o tamanho das tensões entre ambos os lados; o que terminaria tragicamente por respingar no próprio São Máximo, causando-lhe grandes dores e também a qualquer cristão empatizante.

É um ótimo livro, não tenho dúvidas de que vale a pena a leitura. Creio que seja a única versão traduzida para português, ademais, aumentando ainda mais seu valor para o público brasileiro.

[Rob Chappell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly amazing book -- the earliest known complete biography of the Virgin Mary, written in the 7th century by St. Maximus Confessor. The original Greek text of the book is lost, but a Georgian translation, made on Mount Athos in Greece during the Middle Ages, has survived ans has been translated into English for the first time by one of my favorite scholars of early Christianity, Dr. Shoemaker. Weaving together evidence from Scripture, early Christian writings, hymn texts, and (presumably) the living oral tradition of the Byzantine Church, Maximus portrays the Blessed Virgin as a courageous leader within the early Christian movement, precisely because she was the first and foremost follower of Christ, her Son.

Dr. Shoemaker provides extensive notes and commentary on this rediscovered gem of early Christian literature. It would be of special interest to people who want to listen, with an open mind and an open heart, to a tale well told from the ancient Christian world, for the Blessed Virgin belongs to all of Christendom, not just to one particular branch of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

[Sarah Maguire]

I appreciated the prominence given to the ministry and apostolate of Mary and other women who followed Jesus, in particular, the respect accorded Mary Magdalene in contrast to the baseless trashing of her reputation in the western tradition.
The depiction of Mary, I felt, removed her too far from the ordinariness of human life rather than lending it her sanctification. She wasn't really imaginable as having once been a real, human girl.
The story of the theft of her relics from the old Jewish woman by two men was highly morally dubious, though the emphasis that the thieves left a generous donation suggests the author was also conscious that this wasn't a good look. This was of a piece with the casual anti-Judaism that pervaded the book.
There seems to be debate as to whether Maximus is actually the author of this work. Nonetheless, I shall consider myself to have dipped my toe, and be ready to encounter his more philosophical work.

[Fr. Ambrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

St. Maximus the Confessor's text takes the varied traditions associated with the Blessed Virgin from the Fathers, expecially from the Protoevangelium of James, and weaves them into a single story filled with profound theological insight. St. Maximus is one of the greatest theologians of the East, and so his insight into the role Mary had in redemption and in the early Church is deep and beautiful. His mariology is incredibly high. A great read for lovers of the Blessed Virgin.

I have a few quibbles with the edition and the publication. The editor/translator has a severe case of theology grad student brain worms, and consequently misses a lot of the point of the book. This becomes evident in several points of his translation, and as a result the translation is less than it could have been. St. Maximus' vision still comes through, though, and so it's still worth a read.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 7th century biography of Mary ....recently translated from Georgian. A beautiful account of Mary's life, her role in Christ's ministry, her sorrows during Christ's Passion, her guidance establishing the foundation of the Catholic Church and her glorious Dormition. If you have a devotion....tears will flow reading this account...if you do not, it may spur you on to re-think that. This is not a quick read as each sentence is filled with meaning and asks for reflection.

[Ricardo Portella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este é o primeiro relato escrito sobre a Vida de Nossa Senhora que chegou até nosso tempo. É uma tradução do inglês que por sua vez traduziu do original georgiano. A tradução é excelente e repleta de notas de rodapé com detalhes do texto. O livro também conta com um prefácio muito bom que discorre sobre a origem do texto. O texto original é fortemente baseado na Bíblia como não podia deixar de ser, sendo que a vida inicial e a final da Mãe de Deus conta com a ajuda de outras fontes. Um livro fundamental para todo cristão ler, em particular os católicos.

[Sam Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a long book. Interesting historical book. Gives some insight into traditions but not sure about full reliability. States that Joseph was much older than Mary and had other children.

[Sam]

good