Homily on the Nativity of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos
By St. Theodore the Studite
By St. Theodore the Studite
1. Today creation celebrates with splendor, receiving the Virgin as a new heaven. A maiden has been born upon the earth, the living chamber of the King of heaven. A young woman has come into the light, shining more brightly than a ray of the sun. An infant has shone forth from a barren womb, the most holy sanctuary of virginity.
Who will not hasten to the festival? Who will not bring festal gifts, dear and beloved to the Virgin?
The most beautiful gift for those living in virginity is incorruption; for those who are married, temperance; for the rich, generosity; for the poor, thanksgiving; for rulers, meekness; for kings, justice; for priests, holiness; for all, good order in all things.
Since, then, such are the gifts, and with such gifts comes this splendid celebration, come, let us leap for joy in gladness. Let us sing songs of thanksgiving with David: “Let us rejoice in the Lord; let us shout aloud to God our Savior.”
For the Creator of all things, a temple has been prepared for His reception; for the creative Word, a dwelling place for His sojourn has been prepared; for the Sun of righteousness, a cloud of light has been spread forth; for Him who encompasses the heavens in clouds, the fabric of a God-woven garment is being raised up; for Him who mingles the seasons and gathers together times and years, a bridal gathering-place has been revealed.
2. Dance, young women, for the birth is virginal. Leap for joy, mothers, for she who remains a virgin is a maternal fruit. Barren women, be full of good hope as you look toward her who was formerly barren and afterward gave birth to a divine child. Nor should maidens be absent from the dance, as they celebrate together the Nativity of the one unique crown of maidens and Queen.
Sound the trumpet upon the mountains; let your voices resound upon the heights; proclaim in Jerusalem, through Hosea, what is commanded to us here as well. David, the forefather of God, rejoice! Isaiah, master of the prophets, be glad!
You, David, because from your loins, according to the oath, the Queen proceeds, from whom God promised that He would set your fruit upon your throne; and you, Isaiah, because your prophecy has received its fulfillment: “A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from the root.” The Virgin is the rod, from whom the ever-flowering and everlasting Christ rises, born without wedlock.
3. But why should I, such and such, merely describe the rejoicing, rather than proclaim the exultation with an all-encompassing voice? "Let heaven rejoice from above, and let the clouds sprinkle righteousness. Let the earth bring forth, and let it sprout mercy; let it bring forth righteousness at the same time." Why? Because a tabernacle for the God of Jacob has been revealed; because a holy place has been shown forth for the All-holy Word.
“How awesome is this place!” let Jacob, that most patriarchal of men, cry out: “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
O things heard that are ineffable! O wondrous results! What is this new account? What is this strange and ineffable comparison?
If even the heaven of heavens is not sufficient for You, O Word, then what natural habitation could be sufficient for You? “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord. And where could there be such a thing, so great and transcendent, surpassing every conception accessible to the mind? For the infinite is not contained by quantity, nor can an encompassing place be found for it.
“Heaven is My throne, and the earth the footstool of My feet.” What house, then, will be built for Him who asks? Or what place could be found for His repose? Yet it has been found, and it has been revealed.
How, and in what manner? Here, then, is what is being sought. Wait a little, beloved, and you will receive the resolution of what you desire.
4. As the man was about to be brought from non-being into being, through the infinite goodness of God, first heaven was stretched out, the earth was spread beneath, the sea was bounded, and all that completes both were brought forth at the same time as part of the ordering of the whole.
Then, afterward, man was royally placed in Paradise as a training ground of virtue; but if the transgression had not occurred, he would not have been banished from that life-giving place. Having been cast out from the garment, however, if he had not been upheld by the divine providences, he would have been brought down into the most grievous alteration, worshiping many gods instead of God the one Sovereign.
For these reasons, then, to speak in summary, when all things had been subjected to corruption, and God, taking pity, would not permit the creation fashioned by His own hands to pass into complete non-being, there was made another new creation of heaven, earth, and sea, in which the Uncontainable One wills to be contained for the renewal of the race. And these are the blessed and much-hymned Virgin.
O wonder! Heaven indeed, because she brings forth the Sun of righteousness as from inaccessible treasures; earth, because she causes the ear of life to sprout as from the undefiled womb of incorruption; sea, because she brings forth the noetic Pearl as from the depths of the womb.
Now, therefore, the newly manifested creation of the Uncontainable One has come forth. The royal court of the King of all has been prepared. The rational dwelling place of the Incomprehensible One has been made ready. How magnificent is this world! How wondrous is creation, made beautiful with the plants of virtues, perfumed with the flowers of purity, adorned with the splendor of contemplation, possessing without lack every other rich and manifold good, worthy, as it is said, of God’s dwelling among human beings!
And yet the former world was also exceedingly wondrous; for when, it says, the stars were made, “all My angels praised Me with a loud voice, and they sang hymns.” But it was not yet so God-befitting as this blessed and all-wondrous Virgin. And that this is true, hear the much-suffering Job saying: “Heaven is not pure, and the stars are not blameless before Him.” What, then, is purer than she? What is more blameless? She whom God so loved, He who is the highest and purest Light, that through the coming upon her of the Holy Spirit He might be substantially united to her, and from her there might come forth a perfect man, with the properties of each nature established unaltered and without confusion.
O wonder! The Most Philanthropic One was not ashamed to have His own handmaid as His mother. O the condescension! The All-Good One did not refuse to become the offspring of His own creation, having loved her, that is, the one more beautiful than all creation, having taken hold of her who was more worthy than the heavenly powers.
Concerning her, therefore, the most wondrous Zechariah says: “Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Zion, for behold, I come, and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord.” Concerning her also, as it seems to me, the most blessed Joel appears to have cried out in these words: “Take courage, earth; rejoice and be glad, for the Lord has done great things for you.”
For she is earth upon which Moses, most holy, was commanded to remove the sandal of the shadowy Law in exchange for grace. She is earth upon which it is sung that He who establishes the earth upon its foundations was established in the flesh by the Spirit. She is earth that is incapable of receiving seed, yet brings forth as fruit the Nourisher of all. She is earth upon which the thorn of sin did not spring up. Rather, through this shoot, it has been plucked up by the roots. She is earth, not like that which was formerly cursed, whose fruits are full of thorns and thistles, but earth upon which is the blessing of the Lord, and blessed is the fruit of her womb, as the sacred word says.
5. But since these things are so, come, let us see from where the ever-living shoot of virginity has run its straight course: who was the father, and who the mother. Joachim and Anna—the radiant and most renowned pair of the Word, the most wondrous harmony of all married unions. For if her branch is exalted above all, surely her root could not be less noble. Yet here was a deeply rooted stock, so noble and exceptional, but for a time barren of fruit. A most pure spring, yet yielding no stream. An unwelcome misfortune. Grievous and painful were the circumstances that presented themselves.
What, then? “The righteous cried out, and the Lord heard them, and delivered them from all their afflictions.” From afar, David, most divinely inspired, indicated something of this kind: “The righteous cried out,” he says. This pair, I perceive, represents for me the whole of humanity. For I beheld humanity bereft of the knowledge of God, and the world widowed through unbelief, since, as it is sung, “They have all turned aside; together they have become worthless.” Painful was the disorder, grievous the barrenness. “The righteous cried out,” that is, in their own Paradise. Why? Because sorrowful sin had come forth from Paradise, and there, the God of all says to the mother of us all: “Multiplying, I will multiply your sorrows and your groaning. In sorrows you shall give birth to children, and your turning shall be toward your husband.”
What did they cry out for? They sought the fruit of the womb, that is, fruitfulness in the knowledge of God, and it is likely that they prayed in words such as these: “Adonai, Lord, Eloi, Sabaoth, You know the reproach of childlessness. You know the sorrow of barrenness. If You will indeed look upon the humiliation of Your servants and give Your servants the seed of a child, we will give it before You as a gift.”
And the Lord heard them, He who is quick to show mercy and slow to anger, giving Mary, whose name bears the Lordship, as a radiant and noble ransom in place of Eve.
A daughter has become a healing for her mother; the new lump of dough of the divine renewal; the all-holy firstfruits of the race; the root of the divinely flourishing branch; the joy of the forefather.
O beneficence! O great generosity! Surely even the sun itself now sends forth brighter rays, somehow sensing the exceeding joy? Surely all creation itself, as though rejoicing in its splendor, exults in hope of liberation from corruption, at the birth of her who, incorruptibly conceiving, gives birth to the Liberator of the world?
Consider what follows as well. Be eager to listen, beloved, and do not shrink from the investigation. “Milk the milk, and it will become butter.” The place is fitting for the prayer of the righteous. Having prayed in Paradise, they have brought forth a Paradise, far more blessed than the former one.
There, the serpent, whispering, deceived Eve, who was easily overcome. Here, Gabriel the Archangel, speaking with Mary words of joy, disturbed her, but did not deceive her. There, obedience to the serpent brought about death, that joyless death. Here, obedience to the angel introduced into humanity life, ever joyful. There, the sentence was painful for her who gave birth in disobedience; here, the visitation of the Holy Spirit was joyful for her who had escaped, prophetically, the pains of childbirth.
O the transformation of what has been accomplished! O the newness of what has been fulfilled! “The old things have passed away”—let it be said here as well—“behold, all things have become new.” Here begins the household, according to the most exact contemplation, and the present festival shines forth beforehand as the herald of the coming of God among mankind.
6. You have, O beloved, the resolution of what was being sought. The debt of the promise has been paid. Come, you too, with Isaiah, speak the words of Isaiah:
“O Lord my God, I will glorify You; I will hymn Your name, for You have done wondrous things, an ancient counsel; so be it.”
In a little while, then, you will see the blessed one entering into the Holy of Holies, already dedicated to the Most Holy God; and afterward conceiving in her womb the Uncontainable One.
O wonder! That He who holds all things in the hollow of His hand should dwell within the smallness of a body. And how is He not circumscribed, O Christ-fighter—if I may make a brief aside? Because, as He says, “though according to us, yet beyond us.” And what does this mean? The difference and distinction do not lie according to the human form, but according to the nature of the divinity. Thus, He was nourished at His mother’s breasts in a manner proper to us, as a man; yet He gave life to His mother in a manner befitting God and beyond us.
He spoke with an articulate voice, in a manner proper to us, yet He commanded with divine authority, beyond us, through the things by which He worked the miracles. He walked with earthly feet, as one of us, yet walked upon the back of the sea, beyond us. He was crucified in the flesh, in a manner proper to us, yet on the Cross He overthrew the opposing powers, beyond us.
Of these things, some belong to a circumscribed nature, namely, that which is according to us; others belong to an uncircumscribed nature, that which is beyond us. Neither impaired the natural properties of the other through their substantial union, but each remained within its own proper boundary.
But you, while fleeing from circumscribing, that is, from depicting—for the two are one and the same—confuse the natures together with the Acephali and discard the divine economy together with the Manichaeans. To speak the truth, it would be less absurd for you to Judaize, while bearing the name of Christian, than to act against Christ. For the one, not accepting that God became incarnate, does not depict Him either, acting consistently with himself; but you, having accepted the Incarnation while refusing to depict Him, become inconsistent with yourself, making yourself a laughingstock, together with the one who Judaizes.
And I do not yet speak of the insult. But concerning them, this much is enough, since we have gathered together not for a doctrinal disputation, but for a festival.
As for us, after addressing a few more words to the Virgin, and unfolding them from the names by which she has been called in divinely inspired Scripture, we shall bring our discourse to its conclusion with these words, even if unworthily.
7. Rejoice, Mary—or rather, Myriad, because of the boundless multitude of your praises. For even if someone were to speak of you in a myriad of ways, he would not attain to your worth.
Rejoice, Lady, for you have received, in a manner befitting a mother, the lordship of the Lord of all; so that if someone were to say that all things are your servants, he would not be speaking without reason. Rejoice, sea myrrh, you who, amid the salty ebb and flow of life, bear the flesh as dead to sin, from whom comes sweetness and, altogether, desire, as he who speaks in the Song of Songs says: “I gathered myrrh with my spices.”
Rejoice, bush, the wonder entwined with fire, inaccessible to sin through deprivation; for you have shown to those born of earth both an untouchable plant and an accessible heaven through your divine birth. Rejoice, ark, the dwelling built by God, the steward of the newly created world, from whom Christ, the new Noah, comes forth, filling the world above with incorruption.
Rejoice, rod, the shoot planted by God, the only childbearing one among all virgins, blossoming without seed with the Son, the God and High Priest of all. Rejoice, urn, the golden-wrought vessel, you who have been set apart from every vessel, from whom the whole world receives manna, the bread of life baked in the fire of the Godhead.
Rejoice, tabernacle, the firmament of divinity, more exalted than the arches of heaven, from whom God Himself spoke with human beings, and from whom eternal propitiation came into the world. Rejoice, censer, the golden vessel, you who bear within yourself the divine Coal, from whom the fragrance of the Spirit breathed forth, driving the corruption that had grown rank from the world.
Rejoice, table, the God-appointed mixture, the participation filled with every good and every virtue, as he says in the Song of Songs: “Your navel is a turned bowl, never lacking mixed wine.” Rejoice, temple, the house of the Lord wrought in perfect purity, concerning which David says: “Holy is Your temple, wondrous in righteousness.” From you Christ, fashioning a temple for Himself, reveals mortals as temples of the living God.
Rejoice, sanctuary, the God-gushing fountain, filled with every sanctification, from whom the Holy of Holies comes forth, He who cleanses the world from defilement. Rejoice, place of the Lord, the God-trodden earth, you who through the Incarnation have given bodily locality to Him whom, in His divinity, nothing can contain; from you came forth the simple as composite, the eternal as temporal, and the circumscribed as the uncircumscribed.
Rejoice, house of God, the chamber radiant with divine splendors, whose lintel is unremovable because of its purity; full of the glory of the Lord and, in spirit, more luminous than the fiery Seraphim. Rejoice, gate, facing toward the East, from which the rising of life has come forth to human beings, diminishing the setting of death; the bush led by God, and bearing the keys of virginity.
Rejoice, heaven, a dwelling place more honorable than all cosmic space, star-strewn with the radiance of the virtues, from whom the Sun of righteousness has risen, creating for human beings a day of salvation that knows no evening. Rejoice, throne, borne aloft in glory, the living seat that manifests within itself the throne of God and gives repose to God above the noetic powers.
Rejoice, Cherubim, the fiery intellect, you who, like eyes, are filled with divine thoughts, flash forth manifold graces, and through whom the unsetting Light is conveyed to human beings. Rejoice, Mother without a husband, you who alone among mothers remain pure, and possess the things of mothers in the manner of virgins, the newest wonder of all wonders.
Rejoice, Virgin who have given birth, you who alone among virgins give birth, and possess the things of virgins in the manner of mothers, the most fearsome proclamation of all wonders. Rejoice, royal seal, you who impress upon a body like that of a mother the King of all, who received His being from you; for surely, as is she who gives birth, so is the offspring.
Rejoice, sealed book, untouched by every corruption-producing device, from whom the Lord of the divinely engraved law is read in a virginal manner by Him alone. Rejoice, scroll of the new mystery, altogether untouched in your incorruption, in which the bodiless Word has been depicted by the stylus of human form—or rather, has been embodied—the One who became in all things like us except for sin.
Rejoice, sealed fountain, the spring of incorruption, you who have poured forth Christ, the stream of life, with the seals of virginity in no way violated. Through participation in Him, having been freed from suffering, we turn back to the ageless Paradise.
Rejoice, enclosed garden, the fruitful abundance inaccessible to virginity, whose fragrance is like that of a field full of flowers, which the Lord who came forth from you has blessed. Rejoice, unfading rose, you who give forth unfailing fragrance, at whose fragrance the Lord rested, and through whom, blossoming forth, He caused the fragrance of the world to wither away.
Rejoice, fragrant apple, the fruit sprung from a barren root and divinely beautiful, you who say in the Song of Songs: “Sustain me with apples, for I am wounded with love.” When Christ harvested your purity, He spread an undefiled fragrance of sweetness throughout the world.
Rejoice, lily, whose offspring is Jesus, with whom He clothes Himself, as with the lilies of the field; the sweet-smelling rose garden of the Spirit, from which Christ, without seed, clothed Himself with a garment concealing the Solomonic vesture. Rejoice, flower, more varied than every hue produced by flowers, the sweetness of every virtue, from whom a flower rises like itself, according to the likeness of the mother, upon whom, as the Word says, the seven spirits rest.
Rejoice, blossoming nard, flourishing and irrigating with the perfumes of purity according to the art of the perfumer, whose diffusion is a sweet fragrance to Him who says in the Song of Songs: “My nard gave forth its fragrance.” Rejoice, liquid myrrh, distilled from a virginal preparation for Christ, the liquid myrrh of sanctification, that is, of milk, who sings in the Song of Songs: “A bundle of liquid myrrh is my Beloved to me; between my breasts He shall lodge.”
Rejoice, cinnamon, the fragrance that comes forth from the noetic paradise of purity, whose fragrance is sweet to Him who says in the Song of Songs: “Your branches are a paradise of pomegranates, with fruits of orchard trees; cane and cinnamon, with all the trees of Lebanon.” Rejoice, daughter, the incense-bearing maiden, whose undefiled loveliness and wondrous beauty are celebrated by him who says in the Song of Songs: “How beautiful are your steps in sandals, daughter of Aminadab! Your belly is a heap of wheat, enclosed with lilies.”
Rejoice, sister, sharing the name of the good Brother and altogether beloved, whose voice is such in the Song of Songs: “You have ravished our hearts, my sister, bride; you have ravished our hearts.” Rejoice, bride, whose bridal escort is the Holy Spirit and whose Bridegroom is Christ, who says in the Song of Songs: “You are altogether beautiful, my companion, and there is no blemish in you; come from Lebanon, bride.”
Rejoice, myrrh, the exceedingly precious emblem of the virtues, you who are fragrant with the myrrhs of perfect purity, from whom, sharing your name, the Lord has come forth. “Your name,” he says, “is myrrh poured forth,” from which the royal priesthood has been anointed. Rejoice, incense, the prayer-offering directed before the Lord on behalf of the whole world, you who have been filled with the fragrance of the Spirit, concerning whom it has been wondrously cried out: “Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, perfumed like pillars of smoke?”
Rejoice, pure gold, you who were tested in the furnace of God by the fire of the Spirit and bear nowhere a wrinkle of evil; from you, by allegorical correspondence, the lampstand, the table, and all the golden things prescribed according to the Law are understood, as referring to you, the gold-named and many-named one. Rejoice, incorruptible wood, you who did not receive the worm of sinful corruption, from whom comes the noetic altar, built not of incorruptible wood, but formed for God from undefiled loins.
Rejoice, royal purple, you who from your virginal blood wove the purple robe for Him who says in the Song of Songs: “The locks of your head are like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses. How beautiful you are, and how delightful!”
Rejoice, spun fine linen, you who spun the depth of divine thoughts within the mind and were not left empty by opposing enticements. For you say: “How shall this be for me, since I do not know man?” Through you comes the ephod woven with purple and gold for Him who is high priest of the Powers above. Rejoice, hyacinth, the flame-bright wool of virginity, from which, mystically, a vestment of embodiment has been fashioned for God.
Rejoice, light cloud, you who possess the earthy and heavy body in a manner somehow light, like air, and cover the bread of life as upon an altar, in whom Isaiah proclaimed that the Lord would sit. Rejoice, immaculate one, the untouched treasure of virginity, you who gave birth to the immaculate Word, from whom virginity has shone forth, shortening the world.
Rejoice, pure one, you who alone possess a pure heart as your boast. Truly you are the God-receiving mountain, from whom the new Israel is purified, more precious and more enduring than the Israel of old. Rejoice, unwedded one, bearing at your breast the nursing proper to a mother, from whom He who nourishes all things suckles virgin milk.
Rejoice, unblemished one, you who alone are readily accessible to God as His dwelling place, and who possess from birth the dignity belonging to God; therefore you are worthy of worship even by all the heavenly Powers. Rejoice, fleece, the sign of victory concerning Gideon, from which the dew, the immortal one, flowed forth figuratively, the One who said in His own words: “Take courage; I have conquered the world.”
Rejoice, dwelling place of God, you who contained in your womb Him who is uncontainable in all things; Him who holds all things in the hollow of His hand, while You are present in His hands; that which, when spoken of, is incomprehensible, and when conceived in the mind, is incomparable.
Rejoice, Mother of God, you who alone are the handmaid of your own Son, and both according to nature, after whom there is no virgin mother like you, whose blessed virginity has returned to the incorruption that existed formerly in Paradise. Rejoice, God-bearer, luminous element of the divine infinity, in whose womb, measured only by a foot, the Infinite was contained, while Himself containing the bounds of all things.
Rejoice, truly and properly Theotokos, the awe-inspiring bond joining human beings to God, through whom heavenly things have been united to those on earth, while you join the things of God with those of man and the things of man with those of God.
Rejoice, bridal chamber, raised up in the beauties of virginity, as he says in the Song of Songs: “I entered into my garden, my sister, bride.” To this, in reference to union with the flesh, the following words are applied: “Go forth and see King Solomon, wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding and on the day of the gladness of his heart.”
Rejoice, ewe-lamb, childless according to marital union, yet mother according to divine conception. From you the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, has come into the world.
Rejoice, cloud of light, you who in the wilderness of this life overshadow the new Israel through your intercession; from you the decrees of grace have been heard, and from you the Sun of righteousness has risen, illuminating all things with flashes of incorruption.
Rejoice, lampstand, the golden and deeply rooted vessel of virginity, whose wick is the grace of the Spirit and whose oil is the holy body taken from undefiled flesh, from which Christ is the unsetting Light, who has kindled eternal life for those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.
Rejoice, one who is full of grace, the reality and name more gracious than every joy, from whom Christ, unceasing Joy, has been born into the world, the healing of Adam’s sorrow.
Rejoice, Paradise, a place more blessed than Eden, in which every plant of virtue has sprouted and in which the tree of life has appeared; through participation in it we hasten back to the ancient way of life, as the flaming sword gives way, as it is written.
Rejoice, city, the renown of the great King, to speak in David’s manner, in which the kingdoms of heaven have been opened and those born of earth, being enrolled as citizens, rejoice. Its accounts are extraordinary and wondrous to every tongue and every mind. In Christ Jesus, who through you has been made propitious to me, for which I, the pitiable and senseless one, am indebted, I proclaim your boundless praises, because to Him is due all glory, honor, and worship, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
