Danny Garland’s made another splash, this time with an essay titled The Church Fathers’ Marian Interpretation of the Old Testament. It’s worth your time.

While you’re on the subject, check the progress on Suburban Banshee’s gradual transcription of Thomas Livius’s great work The Blessed Virgin in the Fathers of the First Six Centuries. (Said Banshee has also returned to her translation of Prudentius. Gaudete et laetare.)

There’s much good work appearing on the Fathers’ Marian doctrine. The best place to begin is Luigi Gambero’s Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought. An interesting second stop is Stephen J. Shoemaker’s The Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption, which analyzes documentary and archeological material — and provides abundant documentation.

For the Love of Literature is a book about reading by my dear friend and homeschooling guru Maureen Wittmann. It’s a book for book-lovers, full of lists that provide pathways for curiosity through many fields of study, many lands, many periods of history. I love the fact that it includes the generally accepted Great Books, but also the fiercely loved Cool Books — dime novels, potboilers, and such. I’m grateful for the fact that such a lovely volume begins with a foreword by Yours Truly. In it I talk about my grandfather, my father, myself, and how the love of books passed through our generations.

And, yes, the book includes reading lists on early Christianity. And, yes, they include both Great Books and Cool Books — not to mention my books!

New papa Danny Garland (see baby photos) gives serious and extended consideration to a very important topic: The Necessity of the Study of the Fathers of the Church for Priests in light of the Second Vatican Council’s Optatam Totius. Danny’s paper examines

article 16 of Vatican II’s Decree on the Training of Priests in which it states that “students should be shown what the Fathers of the Church, both of the East and West, have contributed towards the faithful transmission and elucidation of each of the revealed truths.” I will show how the Church Fathers are exemplars of the formation that this document sets out for priests by virtue of the holiness of their lives, their loyalty to the Church, their immersion in Scripture, and the way they did theology.

Read it all.

Carl Sommer, author of We Look for a Kingdom: The Everyday Lives of the Early Christians, emailed me a few more bits on the dating of Christmas.

You’ll find a couple of interesting articles relating to the December 25 dating of Christmas here and here. I should probably make my interest in this subject clear. I do not believe it is possible to establish the precise date of Jesus’ birth; and, in
many ways, the exact date is probably unimportant. I am, however, interested in refuting the notion that Christmas is some kind of a “pagan” holiday. December 25 was chosen by Christians for Christian reasons, not as a concession to pagan culture. I have no doubt that by the middle of the fourth century December 25 received a new prominence because of the need to counter Sol Invictus, but Christian usage of December 25 clearly predates that time.

Carl’s right. It’s very clear — from Hippolytus, Julius Africanus, and Clement of Alexandria — that some Christians celebrated December 25 from very early times. Nevertheless, it seems there was a strong push at the end of the fourth century to establish the holiday universally and promote its celebration. It’s possible that this push was the Church’s way of addressing a lingering attachment to Sol Invictus. That’s perfectly compatible, of course, with Carl’s contention that Christmas predates Sol Invictus. Carl responded that he and I are in perfect agreement.

Today’s the memorial of Saints Basil and Gregory, the great Cappadocian Fathers. I’ve posted audio here, other links here. Pope Benedict has dedicated four audience talks to these two men, beginning with this one. Pope John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter, Patres Ecclesiae, on St. Basil alone — but it hasn’t been translated into English yet. Any takers?

UPDATE: Jeff Ziegler gives us these links:
— St. Basil (d. 379), traditionally reckoned among the four greatest Eastern Fathers.
— St. Gregory Nazianzen (d. 389 or 390).
— Links to their works.
— Pope Benedict devoted four of his 2007 general audiences to SS. Basil and Gregory (see July and August).
— Cardinal Newman on SS. Basil and Gregory (from his The Church of the Fathers, written in 1833, during his Anglican period).

Today is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, a feast that enshrines the doctrine of the Council of Ephesus. (For a bit of the dramatic story of that council, see my posts here and here.) Catholic Encyclopedia tells us…

Mary’s Divine motherhood is based on the teaching of the Gospels, on the writings of the Fathers, and on the express definition of the Church. St. Matthew (1:25) testifies that Mary “brought forth her first-born son” and that He was called Jesus. According to St. John (1:15) Jesus is the Word made flesh, the Word Who assumed human nature in the womb of Mary. As Mary was truly the mother of Jesus, and as Jesus was truly God from the first moment of His conception, Mary is truly the mother of God. Even the earliest Fathers did not hesitate to draw this conclusion as may be seen in the writings of St. Ignatius [Ephes 7], St. Irenaeus [Adv Haer 3.19], and Tertullian [Adv Prax 27]. The contention of Nestorius denying to Mary the title “Mother of God” [Serm 1.6.7] was followed by the teaching of the Council of Ephesus proclaiming Mary to be Theotokos in the true sense of the word. [Cf. Ambr., in Luc. II, 25, P.L., XV, 1521; St. Cyril of Alex., Apol. pro XII cap.; c. Julian., VIII; ep. ad Acac., 14; P.G., LXXVI, 320, 901; LXXVII, 97; John of Antioch, ep. ad Nestor., 4, P.G., LXXVII, 1456; Theodoret, haer. fab., IV, 2, P.G., LXXXIII, 436; St. Gregory Nazianzen, ep. ad Cledon., I, P.G., XXXVII, 177; Proclus, hom. de Matre Dei, P.G., LXV, 680; etc.]

My essay on St. John Chrysostom’s “mystagogy of marriage” is the lead article in this month’s Touchstone magazine. The issue also includes my review of Rod Whitacre’s Patristic Greek Reader. Why don’t you subscribe?

Today’s the feast of St. Sylvester, who is a delightful character in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Helena. If you haven’t read the book, please do. You owe it to yourself. It’s both beautiful and funny. I know I’ve reviewed it somewhere on this blog. Jeff Ziegler gives us these links on St. Sylvester, his life and times:

— St. Sylvester I, pope (314-35).
— The First Council of Nicaea (325), which took place during Pope St. Sylvester’s reign.
— The creed and canons promulgated at that first ecumenical council.
— The Lateran Basilica, which he dedicated in 324.

I just rediscovered this devotional site the Vatican compiled to celebrate the Jubilee. Lots of great reflections by the Fathers.

Here’s St. Cyril of Alexandria:

Therefore He became like us, that is, a human being, that we might become like Him, I mean gods and sons. On the one hand He accepts what belongs to us, taking it to Himself as His own, and on the other He gives us in exchange what belongs to Him.

I pulled the quote from Deification and Grace, by Daniel Keating, who says he pulled it from Norman Russell’s The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition.

Today is the feast of St. Stephen Protomartyr (see Acts 6-7). St. Augustine was deeply devoted to him and rejoiced in the translation of Stephen’s relics to Africa. Today, he urges us,

We should think of Stephen, called by a Greek name meaning “crown,” the first after the Lord’s resurrection to be crowned with martyrdom. We should think also of those persecutors who turned into so many thousands of believers when the Holy Spirit came.

And elsewhere he spells out the idea further, indicating how we might follow after the example of Stephen:

[Stephen] showed his love for his murderers, in that he died for them … That is the perfection of love. Love is perfect in him whom it makes ready to die for his brothers; but it is never perfect as soon as it is born. It is born that it may be perfected. Born, it is nourished: nourished, it is strengthened: strengthened, it is made perfect. And when it has reached perfection, how does it speak? “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. My desire was to be set free and to be with Christ; for that is by far the best. But to abide in the flesh is needful for your sake” (Phil 1:21-24). He was willing to live for their sakes, for whom he was ready to die.

I love the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA). It’s a papal agency for pastoral and humanitarian support, and it’s been around for more than eighty years serving people in need in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India, and Eastern Europe. CNEWA’s mandate is to support the mission and institutions of the Eastern Catholic churches; to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need, without regard to nationality or creed; to promote Christian unity and interreligious understanding and collaboration; and to educate people in the West about the history, cultures, peoples, and churches of the East. CNEWA works especially hard to promote unity of Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

Fans of the Fathers will be especially impressed with CNEWA’s magazine, One. You get it free if you give. But you can sample it online, as the editors post all content. Recent issues have featured The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church of India, tracing its origins back to the Apostle Thomas, and The Syriac Orthodox Church, often caught in the Kurdish-Turkish crossfire.

This isn’t quite a bleg. It’s mostly a patristic link — and one of my favorites. But do consider giving to CNEWA!