An email today enquiring what is the work of Epiphanius (d. 403) which is referred to below, by A. Liguori in the Italian edition of Le glorie di Maria (1839), p. 359:
Ma benché Maria sin dacché fu fatta madre di Gesù diede il consenso alla di lui morte, volle non però il Signore, che in questo giorno ella facesse nel tempio un solenne sacrifìcio di se stessa con offerirgli solennemente il suo figlio, sacrificando alla divina giustizia la di lui vita preziosa. Che perciò S. Epifanio la chiamò Sacerdote: Vìrgìnem appello velut Sacerdotem (Or. de Laud. Deip.). Or qui entriamo a vedere quanto le costò di dolore questo suo sacrificio, e qual eroica virtù ebb’ ella ad esercitare, in dover sottoscrivere ella stessa la sentenza della condanna del suo caro Gesù alla morte.
Yet although Mary, from the moment she became the mother of Jesus, gave her consent to his death, the Lord nonetheless willed that on this day she should make a solemn sacrifice of herself in the temple by offering him solemnly her son, sacrificing his precious life to divine justice. Therefore, St. Epiphanius called her a Priest: “I call the Virgin as a Priest.” (Or. de Laud. Deip.). Now we come to see how much this sacrifice of hers cost her in sorrow, and what heroic virtue she had to exercise in having to subscribe herself to the sentence of condemnation of her dear Jesus to death.
I also found that there is a webpage run by wokist activists here which references the English translation of Liguori as part of their campaign against the Roman Catholic church. But what is the work by Epiphanius? What does it say?
The use of unnecessary abbreviations is a vice in older literature, although it’s fairly obvious here: Or. de Laud. Deip. = Oratio de Laudibus Deiparae, “Sermon on the praises of the Theotokos/Mother of God.” But that doesn’t sound like any work by Epiphanius that most of us know, and the term “Theotokos” is itself first a rallying-cry of the 5th century, and later a mark of loyalty in the medieval Greek church.
A look at the Clavis Patrum Graecorum gives us entry CPG 3771, Homilia in laudes s. Mariae deiparae, beginning “Τὰς ἐκλαμπούσας μαρμαρυγὰς τῆς θεοτόκου” and ending “Τριάδα ἀχώριστον καὶ ὁμοούσιον δοξάζοντες εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.” It’s also in the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca as BHG 1143. The text with early modern translation into Latin can be found in the PG 43, columns 485-501.
For those unfamiliar with a CPG entry, here it is:
The CPG classes the work as spurious, and notes that it is also attributed to Hesychius of Jerusalem. For the date, it references R. Caro, La Homiletica Mariana Griega, which reviews the mass of Marian 5th century homilies, and suggests that this places the text at the end of that period; but I find that in fact he gives a date of 6th-8th century.1
Translations of the homily are widespread, into Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. There is also an entry for CPG 3771 in the supplement volume. The invaluable Pinakes database lists 21 manuscripts.
An Academia.edu article gives us a short excerpt with English translation, which gives us a flavour of the text.
Epiphanios, Sermo de vita deiparae (CPG 3771, BHG 1143) 192–193:
Τὸ δὲ ἦθος αὐτῆς ἦν τοιοῦτον· σεμνὴ κατὰ πάντα καὶ ὀλιγόλαλος, ταχυπήκοος, εὐπροσήγορος, ἀπαρρησίαστος πρὸς πάντα ἄνθρωπον, ἀγέλαστος, ἀτάραχος, ἀόργητος, εὐπροσκύνητος, τιμητική, τιμῶσα καὶ προσκυνοῦσα πάντα ἄνθρωπον, ὥστε θαυμάζειν ἅπαντας εἰς τὴν σύνεσιν καὶ τὴν λαλιὰν αὐτῆς· τὴν ἡλικίαν μέση· τινὲς δέ φασιν αὐτὴν πλέον ἔχειν τοῦ μέσου· σιτόχροος, ξανθόθριξ, ξανθόμματος, εὐόφθαλμος, μελανόφρυς, ἐπίρρινος, μακρόχειρ, μακροδάκτυλος, μακροπρόσωπος, χάριτος θείας καὶ ὡραιότητος πεπληρωμένη· ἄτυφος, ἀσχημάτιστος, ἄβλακος, ταπείνωσιν ὑπερβάουσαν ἔχουσα.
Her (the Virgin’s) character was as follows: reverend in all, short in speech, quick to obey, well-expressed, not speaking openly to all men, not laughing, undisturbed, not irascible, full of reverence and honour, honouring and revering all men, to the extent of making all wonder her for her understanding and speech, of middle stature, but some say that hers was above average, corn-coloured skin, blonde hair, with tawny and beautiful eyes, black-browned, with prominent nose, long-armed, long-fingered, long-faced, full of divine grace and beauty, not puffed up, unaffected, not lazy, exceeding all in humility.
The quote itself can be found in PG vol. 43, column 498B:
Non novit natura humana partum meum, excepto solo Deo, qui in me habitavit. O Virginem, stupendum Ecclesiae thesaurum, qui adeptus est ingens mysterium, Virginem appellat velut sacerdotem pariter, et altare; quae quidem mensam ferens, dedit nobis coelestem panem Christum in remissionem peccatorum.
“Human nature did not know my offspring, except God alone, who dwelt in me.” O Virgin, the wondrous treasure of the Church, who obtained the great mystery, He calls her Virgin as if both priest and altar equally; she who, indeed, bearing the table, gave us the heavenly bread, Christ, for the remission of sins.
Without translating the whole work, it’s hard to know the context, but it is clearly a whole series of sometimes rather strained praises of the virgin Mary. Interesting anyway.
- Maria Evangelatou, “The Theotokos as Provider of the Eucharist in Byzantine Culture”, In: Thomas Arentzen & Mary Cunningham (eds), The Reception of the Virgin in Byzantium, Cambridge (2019), p.77-119: p.88, n.62: “…(ps- ) Epiphanios, Homily 5 in Praise of the Virgin (CPG 3771, BHG 1143), PG 43, 492D, 493B, 496A/D; on the probable later date (sixth to eighth century) of this homily, see R. Caro , La Homiletica Mariana griega en el siglo V ( Dayton, OH: University of Dayton, 1971), vol. 2, 578– 91.”[↩]