Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, is mainly known for his ardent
defence of the veneration of icons against Emperor Leo II the Isauran.
His homelies have been published in the Patrologiae Cursus. Series
Graeca (PG), Migne, Paris 1857-1866, vol. 98. In the first two
excerpts I follow the translation offered in Hilda Graeff, Mary. A history
of Doctrine and Devotion, London 1963, pp. 145 - 147. The rest is
translated by John Wijngaards.
“You are the mother of true life. You are leaven of the reformation
of Adam. You are the freedom from the shame of Eve . . . . There is no limit to
your help.” “If you did not lead the way, no one would become
spiritual, no one would adore God in truth; for then did humankind become
spiritual, when you, Theotokos, were made the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. No
human being is filled with the knowledge of God except through you, all-holy
one; no human being is saved except through you, Theotokos; no human being is
freed from dangers except through you, virgin and mother; no human being is
redeemed, except through you, Mother of God . . . . ” Homily on the
Assumption, PG 98, cols. 349A-B.
“But you, having maternal power with God, can obtain abundant
forgiveness even for the greatest sinners. For he can never fail to hear you,
because God obeys you through and in all things, as his true Mother. . . .
. You turn away the just threat and the sentence of damnation, because you love
the Christians . . . . Therefore, the Christian people trustfully turn to you,
o refuge of sinners.” Homily on the Assumption, PG 98, cols.
352A-B.
“[Holy of Holies] . . . . receive her who, in turn, will receive
the spiritual and incomprehensible fire; give hospitality to her who will give
hospitality to him who is the Son of God and Word of the Father.”
“ . . . . Today she who will receive the Holy of Holies, that is the
Christ, through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit is, through an even
greater sanctification, placed in the Holy of Holies with holiness and
majesty.” “[The Virgin is] . . . spiritual altar of the divine
victim, altar consecrated and dedicated to God.”First Homily on the
Presentation, PG 98, cols. 293C, 300, 301.
“There where only the High Priest may enter, and then rarely: only
once a year, it is there in this holy sanctuary of grace that Mary is offered
to stay there indefinitely. Who has ever heard anything similar? Who has ever
seen or heard, now or formerly, that a woman was introduced into the intimacy
of the Holy of Holies, and that it was in this place, almost inaccessible even
to men, that she lived and ate. Is this not a striking demonstration of the
strange magnificence of which her womb would be the object? Is it not a
manifest sign, a irrefutable proof?” “[The Virgin] direct the
governings of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. She vests priests with justice and
with the joy of a glorious, irreproachable and immaculate faith.”
“[Mary is] . . . the fulfilment of the Lord’s [Old Testament] laws .
. . . the seal on his Covenant . . . . the end of his plans . . . . the
achievement of his mysteries.”Second Homily on the Presentation,
PG 98, cols. 309C, 307D, 316B.
