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House of Goths by Maria Bernard5/26/2023 The Virgin is the subject of important liturgical hymns, such as the Akathistos Hymn, sung at the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) and during Lent. As the mediator between suffering mankind and Christ and the protectress of Constantinople, she was widely venerated. The Virgin Mary, known as the Theotokos in Greek terminology, was central to Byzantine spirituality as one of its most important religious figures. The Virgin Mary in Byzantine Representations The Council of Ephesus in 431 sanctioned the cult of the Virgin as Mother of God the dissemination of images of the Virgin and Child, which came to embody church doctrine, soon followed. Theologians established a parallel between Christ’s Passion and the Virgin’s compassion: while he suffered physically on the cross, she was crucified in spirit. The life of the mother of Christ was exceptional: she was born free of original sin (21.168), through the Immaculate Conception she was taken to heaven after her death ( 17.190.132) and, just as Saint Thomas doubted Christ’s Resurrection, so he doubted Mary’s Assumption. Embellishments to her legend seem to have taken form in the fifth century in Syria. The history of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, depends on the texts of the Gospels. A mother figure is a central object of worship in several religions (for example, images of the Virgin and Child call to mind Egyptian representations of Isis nursing her son Horus).
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