Dear List Members,
This may very well be a naive or silly question, but it has never
occurred to me before. I was reading recently a passage of Bede
where he mentions Mary as "the Mother of God", period. He doesn't
even mention her name. This, I believe, was always the practice in
the Greek east and still is in the Orthodox churches and undoubtedly
springs from the declaration of Mary as the Theotokos at the Council
of Ephesus in 431. My question is, when did she begin to be called
"the Virgin Mary"? And were there other appelations used during the
Middle Ages? Other names that spring to mind are "Notre Dame" and
"Madonna".
Curiously,
Jim Bugslag
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