Life of the Virgin (Maximus)

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Icon of Maximus the Confessor.

The Life of the Virgin is the earliest known biographical work on the

Virgin Mary. Its only extant copy is in a Georgian translation attributed to the seventh-century saint, Maximus the Confessor, although the attribution remains less than certain.[1][2]

Maximus (or Pseudo-Maximus[a]) states that he compiled the biography by merging information from multiple sources available to him.[1][3]

Maximus presents Mary as a constant companion in Jesus' mission, and as a leader of the early Christian Church after the death of Jesus.[3] He also states that Mary was the source of many of the accounts of the life of Jesus in the Gospels.[3]

Maximus also portrays Mary as the counselor and guide to the many women disciples who followed Jesus during his life and as their source of spiritual guidance after the death of Jesus.[3]

Authenticity

It is doubted that this work is by Maximus the Confessor.

"In a series of recent articles
Photius, Anastasius Bibliothecarius) show no knowledge of the 'Life'; and fifth, there is no witness to the existence of the entire 'Life' before the second half of the tenth century. For the arguments in more detail see Booth (forthcoming)."[4][5]

A recent theory suggests that the Life of the Virgin was actually composed by the monk Euthymius the Athonite, who in turn made a paraphrased translation of an earlier Life written by John Geometres.[6]

Editions

  • Maximus the Confessor, The Life of the Virgin: Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, Stephen J. Shoemaker, trans. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012) (
    ISBN 0300175043
    )
  • Vie de la Vierge by Michel von Esbroeck. This edition is based on the oldest surviving manuscript, Tbilissi A-40.

Notes

  1. ^ The conventional designation given to the anonymous author of a work misattributed to a Maximus.

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-927156-6
    page 527
  2. ISBN 90-04-16715-3
    page 507
  3. ^ a b c d Stephen J. Shoemaker, “The Virgin Mary in the Ministry of Jesus and the Early Church according to the Earliest Life of the Virgin.” Harvard Theological Review 98 (2005): 441-67; Maximus's Mary, by Sally Cuneen, Commonweal Magazine, December 04, 2009
  4. ISBN 978-0-19-967383-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  5. doi:10.1093/jts/flw053
    .
  6. ISSN 0070-7546
    .
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