Do the Greek Orthodox Worship Mary?
Today is the day we celebrate the Dormition (or Assumption) of the Virgin Mary, the day she was taken to heaven. I say “we” because according to Wikipedia, the Lutheran church, which I grew up in, recognizes the Assumption of Mary, although I was never aware of it, as so little attention is paid it. In the Orthodox world, by contrast, the Dormition of Mary on August 15 is a hugely important, major religious festival, and even a public holiday in many countries, including Greece.
The Orthodox believe that Mary died a natural death and that her soul was received by Christ in heaven, same as will happen to all Christians upon death. But three days later, Mary was physically resurrected and taken physically to heaven. So far this has happened only to Mary and Christ, everybody else has to wait until the Final Judgment. Thus the Dormition of Mary represents the hope of Resurrection and Eternal Life. (By the way, most Catholics believe that Mary went straight to heaven without dying first. I don’t know what Lutheran doctrine says.)
Yesterday I was watching the beautiful services on Greek TV (yesterday here was today in Greece, if you know what I mean) and the huge crowds in attendance, and I thought of how often I’ve heard Protestants claim that Catholics and Orthodox “worship” Mary. Understand, to worship any being other than God is considered idolatrous at worst, misguided and superstitious at best. A church that “worships” Mary must be deeply flawed, tainted with the scent of idolatry.
But really, this is all just a misunderstanding. Mary is venerated, not worshipped as a goddess. Venerate: To regard with respect, reverence, or heartfelt deference. Worship: The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object. Ardent devotion; adoration. Two different things.
I suspect the root of the misunderstanding is the business of praying to Mary. Whenever I ask, “Why do you think they worship Mary?” the answer is “Well, they pray to her.” But I was always taught that praying to God simply means talking to Him. So praying to Mary would simply be talking to her. More historically, the word “pray” in English just means to make a request, to ask earnestly. You might remember all the “prithee’s” in Shakespeare addressed to human beings. So praying to Mary does not indicate worship of Mary. What then does it indicate? It indicates a belief, or at least a hope, that she can hear and respond.
As far as Mary hearing prayers (requests), who knows? Does God allow souls of the deceased awareness of earthly goings on? Might Mary have been given the ability to hear prayers (requests) addressed to her? Again, who knows? The fact that the Bible doesn’t mention this doesn’t mean it’s not true. At any rate, the belief that God has given Mary the ability to hear prayers falls far short of Mary-worship.
What about a belief that Mary can respond to any prayers she hears with miracles such as healing? The Bible contains many instances of humans performing miracles in both testaments. A couple of examples from the New Testament of the apostles performing miracles:
Mark 6:13 And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. (RSV)
Acts 19:11 And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul (RSV)
Maybe God still allows the apostles to perform these miracles from Heaven. Who knows? Again, the Bible doesn’t say one way or the other, but if they could perform miracles while on earth, and if they are now living even more gloriously in heaven, why not conclude that they may well still be able to perform miracles? And the same applies to Mary.
So, my fellow Protestants, let’s not be Mary-phobes, but respect and even revere Mary as the mother of Christ. It doesn’t mean we worship her, and neither do our fellow Christians in Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The Reverend Billy Graham once said, “We evangelical Christians do not give Mary her proper due.” You’re not going to argue with Billy Graham, are you?
Comment by Paula
Ah Lulu, you did a WONDERFUL thing here … as a Catholic girl, I thank you. Personally, I think you’ve just made the world a bit nicer! As for Mary, I have the utmost respect for her … as I do my own mother. Hope you’ve had a wonderful summer!
Comment by Lulu
Hey Paula! I’m always up for making the world a nicer place (except for when I’m in a grumpy mood). I had a good but busy summer, and I hope you had a good one too!
Comment by maria v
the most often used ‘help’ phrase used in greek is ‘panayia mou’ (my holy lady), which is why not only maria’s celebrate their nameday on this day, but also people who are named panayiotis or panayiota - the all holy one - and despoina (the unmarried woman)
Comment by Lulu
Interesting! Thanks, Maria!
Comment by jessica
I recently discovered you and I am so glad I found you! I just posted a link to your recipe (and again the whole site) for stafyli gliko which I made yesterday. (I skipped the cloves and added crushed rose geranium leaves) Thank you so much for all the marvelous recipes. I love your website.
Jessica
Comment by Lulu
Thanks, Jessica!
Comment by Anonymous
History:
Mariolatry is probably the most serious poison of the Roman system and it is a very important question about where Mary worship came from. Basically, it came out of the Counsel of Ephesus in 431 AD. It didn’t come out of scripture because it isn’t in scripture.
You see, the Catholic church teaches that there are two sources of truth, two sources of divine revelation. One is the holy scripture; two is the holy Catholic church. So, if the church says something is revelatory, it is. If the pope speaks ex cathedra, that’s like the voice of God and has equal weight with scripture. If a church counsel says this is revelation, it is. So, you’ll read a Catholic theology like Ott’s Theology, which I was reading this week, and you’ll read in there and it will say, “Such and such and such is true” and instead of giving you a scripture reference, it will just say “The Counsel of Ephesus, 431.” Or it will say, “Such and such and such and such,” and then it will give you “Pope Pius XII” because that’s equal revelation. Therein lies the conflict.
Now, this is what the Counsel of Ephesus in 431 declared (and I’m quoting from the Counsel): “If anyone does not confess that the Immanuel Christ in truth is God, and the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (theoticas), he is to be judged,” essentially, is what it says. Serious. Anybody who denied that she was the mother of God! Now, that’s a heavy statement, folks. She was the mother of the human Jesus, but it is not accurate to say she is the mother of God for that indicates that God was born.
Now, subsequent counsels repeated and refined this particular statement of Ephesus. Ott in his book, on page 197, says that “Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit and she is to be honored as the wife of the Holy Spirit.” Now, again, you see this is pushing her into deistic identity. In fact, the Catholic church has made the Song of Solomon refer to Mary and the Holy Spirit.
There is no scripture for Mary worship. Pope Pius IX, in one of his—I think it was called “bull, Ineffabilus”—promulgated the following doctrine: “The most holy virgin Mary was preserved free from all stain of original sin.” So said Pope Pius IX, so it became divine revelation; she was sinless. Ott says that—he’s the Catholic theologian—“the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary is not explicitly revealed in scripture.” But it is believed by the Catholic church because of the counsel. The Counsel of Trent said no justified person can, for his whole life, avoid all sins, except on the ground of special privilege from God such as the church holds was granted to the blessed virgin; she was born sinless and she stayed sinless.
Now this whole confusion goes back, really, to the amalgamation of the Babylonian cultism and the early Christian church. The founder of Babylon was Nimrod. Nimrod was an apostate of the patriarchal age. Remember reading about Nimrod in Genesis? He persuaded his followers he was to build a tower to heaven and thus began pagan worship. Nimrod was the grandson of Ham. He had a wife who was really bad news, her name was Simeramus I. With Nimrod and Simeramus I, there was a beginning of Babylonian idolatry. Simeramus became the mother of the cults. She became the famous mother whose name is different in different cultures; sometimes she’s Diana, sometimes she’s Ashtaroth—it just depends on where you are. Sometimes she’s Osiris, connected with Isis… Various different names as the Babylonian mystery cult spread.
When Babylon was finally destroyed, the high priest of Babylon with all of his cultism (that went back to Simeramus) fled to Rome, and Rome became the center of the Babylonian cults. Interestingly enough, it also became the center of the Roman church. The cult of Simeramus, the high priestess, was mixed with Christianity and gave birth to modern Mariolatry.
The interesting thing to note is that the worship of Mary today as the mother and the virgin is not really Christianity, but it is an acquiescence to Babylonian cultism. For Simeramus was impregnated by a sunbeam and gave virgin birth to a son. Her son is known in the Old Testament as Baal. The son was killed by a wild boar. For 40 days, he was dead—according to the legend—at the end of 40 days, he rose from the dead because his mother spent 40 days in mourning and fasting and therein is the basis of Lent! It isn’t scriptural; it’s Babylonian.
So, you see, the whole thing was mashed together in Rome. Incidentally, you can read about the Queen of Heaven—that’s the Catholic church term for Mary—you read about it in Jeremiah 44 and Ezekiel 8 and it’s talking there about Ashteroth and Simeramus, the high priestess of Babylonian cultism and it calls her the “Queen of Heaven.”
So, you can see where the problem came. So the worship of Mary is not scriptural; in fact, Mary had to be redeemed just like anybody else. She was a wonderful woman. Mostly they got this thing going because they took the statement from Elizabeth, you know, “Blessed art thou among women” and so forth and so on, and they made that the center of the whole Mariolatry.
Comment by min-bee
Your entry is very commendable–neither Catholics or Orthodox worship Mary, as you correctly observe. However, your statement that most Catholics believe Our Lady didn’t die is incorrect. The Church teaches that Our Lady died; Mary’s Dormition is not the same as her Assumption; “dormition” means that Mary “fell asleep in the Lord,” which is a term used in the New Testament for dying. “Assumption” indicates that she was “taken up” to heaven after death, so that she did not undergo physical corruption. Thank you and God bless you for looking so understandingly at Our Lady.
Comment by Jacob Van Halteren
Your comment that Mary is able to hear prayers and intercede on behalf of the prayer falls contrary to what God says in scripture. If, say at any one time, 5 or 10 million people world wide are asking her to pray on their behalf, she would have to be God to be able to hear them all and intercede for them all simultaneously. As God says in 1 Timothy 2:5. “For there is one GOD, and one Mediator between GOD and men, Himself man, Christ Jesus.”, that would mean what it says - that only Jesus Christ does this.
Comment by arun
its okay.bible says no one is came from the heaven except the son of god.as scripture says moses and eliah went to third sky.it mens ascended.and jesus also ascended.but it reveals first he went to paradise.in hebrews till now our father abraham waiting to enter in to heaven.till then no one can go to heaven.so in psalms and job says no one can praise god in paradise and they dont know who is jehovah.so
if mary assumption but she went to paradise coz she is good as the follower of jesus.remeber she cant hear our prayers and she cant reply for them too.so please read bible as it is.
Comment by Anonymous
I agree with Comment #9. Thank you Mr. Van Halteren for your humble yet powerful answer.
To the one who states “Mary is venerated, not worshipped as a goddess. Venerate: To regard with respect, reverence, or heartfelt deference. Worship: The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object. Ardent devotion; adoration. Two different things.” Don’t kid yourself. If you pray to her, you are according her the power to hear and grant prayer requests, how is this not assuming the role of a deity?
As far as her being sinless goes, Romans 3:23 states “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God;” It does not state an exception for Mary. God doesn’t make mistakes when he authors something through man, but that man has to first be submitted to God in Christ Jesus in order to be correct. Here’s a measuring tool with which you can use to test the truth of a belief: If it lifts up anything other than Jesus, it is not from God. (See 1 John 1-6) Furthermore, Mary herself confessed she needed a savior in her magnificat (Luke 1:47), “My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” There are many lessons in the New Testament warning against the praise of Mary. In Luke 11:27-28 Jesus Himself corrected a woman who fell into this thinking when she shouted to Him “Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But Jesus said, “Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it.’”
My parents left the Catholic church for this very reason: They started to see for themselves that ONLY God’s Word is the truth and that “the church” much of the time contradicts God’s holy scriptures, this Maryology being a perfect exapmle. For “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for DOCTRINE, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.” Truly did Paul speak only verses later in 2 Timothy 4:3 when he said, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers, having itchy ears; And they shall turn away from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Isn’t this exactly what we’re talking about- fables vs. God’s Word? Jesus spoke to the Pharisees about how they regarded their traditions to be higher than God’s calling, saying, “Thus you have made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition” (see Mat 15:6 and Mk 7:13)
Please, see for yourself the depth of God’s Love for us by sending Jesus alone - God incarnate, to be the propitiation for our sins, the “justifier of him that believes in Jesus” (Rom.3:25-26) Don’t let the enemy steal the truth from you. Things don’t need to have an upside down star or horns on it to be from Satan. He wants to keep as many people in the dark about God’s Truth and Love for us. Because God’s truth sets us free from the bondage of sin and death. His truth brings life to us. Satan knows it and hates it. Don’t let Satan steal what is rightfully yours: Belief in the man Jesus Christ, that you may inherit life and life abundantly. I challenge you to read 1 John. The epistle not the gospel (although the gospel of John ain’t too shabby either!) and see what God reveals to you by His Spirit. “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” Psalm 34:8