On the Dormition of the Virgin Mary
http://catholicadultfaith.com/documents/Anaphoneo.pdf
St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 430 AD): For a union of two natures was made, and therefore
we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. And it is with this notion of a union that we
proclaim the Virgin to be the mother of God, because God the Word was made flesh and
became man, and by the act of conception united to himself the temple that he received
from her. [Commentary on Luke, Homily 1]
St. John Damascus (725 AD): Moreover we proclaim the holy Virgin to be in strict truth
the Mother of God. For inasmuch as He who was born of her was true God, she who bares the true God incarnate is the true Mother of God. For we hold that God was born of her, not implying that the divinity of the Word received from her the beginning of its being, but meaning that God the Word Himself, Who was begotten of the Father timelessly before the ages, and was with the Father and the Spirit without beginning and through eternity, took up His abode in these last days for the sake of our salvation in the Virgin's womb and was without change made flesh and born of her. For the holy Virgin did not bear mere man but true God: and not mere God but God incarnate, Who did not bring down His body from Heaven, not simply passed through the Virgin as channel, but received from her flesh of like essence to our own and subsisting in Himself. For if the body had come down from heaven and had not partaken of our nature, what would have been the use of His becoming man? For the purpose of God the Word becoming man was that the very same nature, which had sinned and fallen and become corrupted, should triumph over the deceiving tyrant and so be freed from corruption. [Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 3, 12]
St. John Cassian (429 AD): And so you say, O heretic, whoever you may be, who deny that God was born of the Virgin, that Mary the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ ought not to be called Theotokos, Mother of God, but Christotokos, only the Mother of Christ, not of God. For no one, you say, brings forth what is anterior in time. And of this utterly foolish argument whereby you think that the birth of God can be understood by carnal minds, and fancy that the mystery of His Majesty can be accounted for human reasoning, we will, if God permits, say something later on. In the meanwhile we will now prove by Divine testimonies that Christ is God, and that Mary is the Mother of God. [Seven Books on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 2, 2]
St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 430 AD): Some argue that if he were brought forth in the flesh, the Virgin was corrupted. If she were not corrupted, then he was brought forth only in appearance. We reply, "the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered in and gone out, and the gate remains closed." If, moreover, the Word was made flesh without sexual intercourse, being conceived altogether without seed, then he was born without injury to her virginity. [Commentary on Luke, Homily 1]
St. John Chrysostom (370 AD): And when Joseph had taken her, "he had no relations with her until she had borne a son." Matthew has here used the word until not that you should suspect that afterward Joseph did know her but to inform you that before the birth the Virgin was wholly untouched by man. But why then, it may be said, has he used the word until? Because it is common in Scripture that this expression is used without reference to specific, limited times. [The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 5, 3]
St. John of Damascus (725 AD): (Quoting from the Euthymian History, Book 3 Chapter 20) “The apostles were present there when Thomas, the only one who had been absent, arrived after the third day; since he wanted to worship the body that had been the tabernacle of God, they opened the coffin. And they were unable anywhere to find her most lauded body. When they found only here grave wrappings there, and the indescribable perfume which was borne aloft from them, they sealed the coffin. Struck by the wonder of the mystery they could think that He who had been pleased to become incarnate from her in His own Person and to become Man and to be born in the flesh, God the Word, the Lord of Glory, who preserved her virginity intact after her parturition; He was pleased even after her departure from life to honor her immaculate and undefiled body with incorruption and with translation prior to the common and universal resurrection.” [Second Homily on the Dormition of Mary 10, 18]
