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St. Albert the Great (1200 - 1280 AD)
From Mariale Super Missus Est (written at ca.
1245 AD), published in Alberti Magni Opera Omnia, ed. Borgnet, Paris
1890-1899, vol. 37, pp. 62 - 246. Here Questions 119-122, pp. 173-175.
Translated especially for www.womenpriests.org
from the original Latin
by Dr. Mary Ann Rossi
Note. Questions 119 - 122 in St. Albert’s work are based
on Ephesians 4,11-12: “His gifts were that he made some apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipment of the
saints, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” St.
Albert’s question is: ‘Did Mary receive these special gifts?’
- Qu. 119. Mary was an Apostle
- Qu. 120. Mary was a Prophetess
- Qu. 121. Mary was an Evangelist
- Qu. 122. Mary was a Pastor
Whether it is fitting that the Blessed Virgin should
be an Apostle?
Next there is a
question about those graces which are found in the letter to the Ephesians
IV,11: And he
made certain people Apostles.
It
seems at first that it would not be fitting for the most blessed Virgin to be
an Apostle:
1.
For this work is ministerial, as it is added in the same place, v.12: for
the work of ministry; but ministry does not fall in the operations of all
people; therefore neither the apostolate.
2.
Also, regarding a passage of Dionysius: “Hierarchy is divine order,
knowledge, and action [S.dionysius, Lib. de Caelesti hierarchia, cap.3]”,
the commentator says, that having an office without its operation is
negligence; but the most blessed Virgin did not practice the action of
preaching; therefore she ought not to have had the office.
3.
Also, Luc. VI, 13: He chose twelve from those, that is, his disciples, whom he
called Apostles : therefore the gift of the apostolate is not appropriate for the most
blessed Virgin.
On the contrary, this is what I say:
1.
John [the Baptist] said about himself, John I, 23: I am the voice of one
crying, etc. As
if he should say: I preach not so much with the voice of my mouth, but
my whole self is my voice; thus all of me—my life, my food, my
clothing, my place—preaches penitence. But just as everything John was
preached penitence, so did everything the blessed virgin Mary was preach
innocence. If therefore John has grace and the gift of preaching, who is the
voice of one
crying out in the desert, therefore more emphatically by far does the
blessed Virgin have the gift of the apostolate; therefore she is the voice of
one crying out in the heaven.
2.
Also, the special property of the Apostles is that they are the light of the
world; but the most blessed Virgin illuminated the world the most; therefore
she practiced the office of preaching the most.
3.
Also, the duty of Apostles or preachers is to reconcile sinners; but this is
fitting for the blessed Virgin to the extreme; therefore she possessed the
apostolic office to the extreme.
4.
Also, the Lord says, Joan. VI,16: My teaching is not mine, attributing it to the one [=God]
from whom he had his being. But just as he had divine nature from the Father,
so did he have a human nature from his mother. Therefore just as his teaching
inasmuch as he was God was from the Father, so was his teaching inasmuch as he
was human, from the mother. Therefore the mother preached to us everything that
the Son taught.
5.
Also, the Lord says about the Holy Spirit, Joan. xvi, 13: For he will not speak from
himself ;
therefore just as the Spirit speaks from the one from whom he comes, so the Son
will speak from the mother insofar as he is human. Other things as above in the
section on preachers. [For the solution to objections, see below after Quest.
CXXII.]
Whether it is proper for her that she should be a
Prophetess?
It
follows: Others he made prophets [Ad Ephes. IV, 11]. Gloss:
“Explicators of Scripture”; but note:
1
Mary herself is the explicator of the whole Old Testament; therefore she is the
prophet or prophetess to the highest degree.
2.
Also, John [the Baptist] is called a prophet, and more than a prophet
[Matth.,XI, 9 and Luc., VII, 26], because he pointed to God with his finger;
but she herself bore him and thus pointed out with her body that she was his
Mother and the Virgin; and thus she pointed him out as the Son of the Virgin
promised in the prophets and scriptures by her body and work, and thus she was
the greatest prophetess.
3.
Also, it is clear that sex is non obstacle here, because there were
prophetesses in the Old and New Testaments. Whence, Luc. II, 36 mentions the
prophetess Anna. The Acts of the Apostles, XXI, 9, mentions Philip who had
daughters who were prophesying. Other things as above on prophecy.
Whether it is proper for her that she is an
Evangelist?
It
follows: Others he made Evangelists [Ephes. IV, 11].
Luke,
II, 51 says: And
his mother, that is Mary, preserved, etc. So that when the time came for preaching
or for describing the incarnation, she was able to explain all events just as
they had occurred.
Other
things as above in the passage on preaching.
Whether she had the gift of being a Pastor?
It
follows: But others he made pastors [Ephes. IV, 11]
In
what way the most blessed Virgin had this gift, seek in the treatise on the
Sacrament of Orders, and in what way she fills us with wonder, in the treatise
on the Beatitudes regarding the degrees of poverty.
Thus,
then, the most blessed Virgin also had this quaternary of graces [=of being an
Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist and Pastor].
Overall Response to questions about gratuitous graces and freely
given graces.
From
these it is clear that the most blessed Mistress had the universality of
gratuitous and given graces; we believe this to be true in every way.
Solution to objections
To
solve the objections to the contrary, we say in such a way ass to distinguish
among the gifts that are freely given and not sanctifying:
- certain gifts
are given for the ministry, and not for one’s own benefit, as the prophecy
of Balaam and Caiphas;
- certain gifts
are given for one’s own benefit, and not for others, as the gifts of
instruction of the most blessed Lady.
- And of these
last gifts, certain ones are given to bring out a need,
- certain gifts
for embellishing power,
- and certain
girfts for ennobling the creature and honouring the person.
- And thus the
most blessed Virgin had gifts of this kind not for ministry, but for the
increase of decoration, for the augmenting of perfection and delight, for the
enlargement of praise and honor, and the crowning of all spiritual
goods.
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