🚀 go-pugleaf

Tom G <tgei@NOSPAMcybernex.net> wrote:

>the artist spidie wrote:

>> The veneration of Mary is a tradition established by God.

[Snip]

What are the historical origins of the adoration of Mary?

Says Catholic priest Andrew Greeley:  "Mary is one of the most
powerful religious symbols in the history of the Western world...
The Mary symbol links Christianity directly to the ancient religions
of mother goddesses." - The Making of the Popes 1978 (U.S.A., 1979)
p.227.

Of interest is the location where the teaching that Mary is the Mother
of God was confirmed.  "The Council of Ephesus assembled in the
basilica of the Theotokos in 431.  There, if anywhere, in the city so
notorious for its devotion to Artemis, or Diana as the Romans called
her, where her image was said to have fallen from heaven, under the
shadow of the great temple dedicated to the Magna Mater since 330 B.C.
and containing, according to tradition, a temporary residence of Mary,
the title 'God-bearer' hardly could fail to be upheld."  - The Cult of
the Mother-Goddess (New York, 1959), E.O.James, p.207.

Mary was  not specially honoured in the first-century Christian
congregation.  The apostle Peter makes no mention of her at all in his
inspired writings.  The apostle Paul did not use her name in his
inspired letters but spoke of her only as "a woman." - Gal.4:4.

Suzanne.