Women priests website

Christopher of Avendaño

died in 1628 AD

in Marial de las Fiestas, Valladolid 1629; French edition, Paris 1657.

Christopher of Avendaño in Spain was a Carmelite who also functioned as ‘preacher of his Catholic Majesty’, which meant that he occasionally celebrated Mass at the court in Madrid.

Text quoted in French by Réné Laurentin (in Maria, Ecclesia, Sacerdotium, Nouvelles Éditions Latines, Paris 1952, pp. 317-318) and translated into English by John Wijngaards.

Mary is truly a priest, even without the sacramental character

‘Let us now pay attention to the title of our discourse which says “that the virgin has possessed the dignity of the priesthood without its [sacramental] character .... ” The most knowledgeable Raymond Jordan said that all privileges and all dignities of the Church can be found in Mary to the extent they are compatible. That is why I say that the dignity of being a priest is in her without its [sacramental] character.
St Epiphanius calls her both “a priest and an altar” . . . Let us pay attention to this word “priest”, for it is not without reflection that he calls her such, but with all the more reason because the Virgin’s words: “see the handmaid of the Lord, let it happen to me according to your word”, became as the words of consecration by means of which she consecrated the divine Word to become flesh and blood.
Just as the priest, through means of the words of consecration: “this is my body” consecrates the body of Jesus Christ under the species of bread, and by the words over the chalice, his blood under the species of wine, and just as the priest produces him in the host, in the same way the Virgin has conceived him, achieving in this way that he who was God’s natural Son became a son [=her son] once more, there where the Bible says: “Let us make man according to our image” (Gen 1, 26).’ Marial, French edition, p. 209.

Overview of documents in this section

Tradition

Mary - why a priest?

Theologians and writers

Picture gallery

Mary and Holy Orders

Mary as sacrificial priest

Mary, the model of priests

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The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church. Unmasking a Cuckoo's Egg Tradition

This book by John Wijngaards, published by Darton, Longman & Todd (UK), Continuum (USA), Media House (India), as well as in Italy, France, Holland and Japan, is a classic on the topic.

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Women Deacons in the Early Church. Historical Texts and Contemporary Debates

Another classic by John Wijngaards published by Canterbury Press (UK), Crossroad (USA), and Berne (Netherlands).

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