Letter 488

To Valerius the Chamberlain [cubicularius, a high officer of the imperial bedchamber]. You inquired of us how Mary the Theotokos [God-bearer] is called a prophetess in Isaiah. Read in the Gospel that "He looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid; for behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed." And if you do not see holy Mary called blessed in every nation and in every tongue, because she conceived and bore -- without corruption and without any defilement -- God made flesh from the Holy Spirit and from herself, then do not believe Isaiah. But if throughout the whole world she is called blessed and praised, kept pure and blessed -- both she, the unsown and untilled earth, and her all-blessed and eternal fruit -- why do you contend that Mary the Theotokos has been shown to be a prophetess?

Πῶς προφῆτις παρὰ τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ κέκληται Μαρία ἡ θεοτόκος, ἐπύθου ἡμῶν. Ἀνάγνωθι ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ, ὅτι «Ἐπέβλεψεν ἐπὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν τῆς δούλης αὐτοῦ· ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν μακαριοῦσί με πᾶσαι αἱ γενεαί.» Καὶ ἐὰν μὴ ἰδῇς μακαριζομένην τὴν ἁγίαν Μαρίαν ἐν παντὶ ἔθνει, καὶ ἐν πάσῃ γλώσσῃ, διότι Θεὸν σαρκωθέντα ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου, καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς, κεχυοφόρηκέν τε καὶ ἔτεκε δίχα φθορᾶς καὶ μολυσμοῦ παντοίου, μὴ πείθου τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ· εἰ δ᾽ ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ μακαρίζεται καὶ εὐφημείται, ἀγνεύεται καὶ εὐλογεῖται, αὕτη τε ἡ ἄσπορος καὶ ἀγέωργητος γῆ, καὶ ὁ ταύτης παμμακάριστος καὶ αἰώνιος καρπός, διατί ζυγομαχεῖς προφῆτιν δεδεῖχθαι τὴν θεοτόκον Μαρίαν·