XIII. Quia ergo femina (De sancta Maria)
Death Undone by a Virgin
A Marian antiphon proclaims that since a woman brought death, a glorious virgin destroyed it, and so the highest blessing rests in a womanly form because God became man in the blessed Virgin.
Antiphon: Because a woman brought death into being, a glorious virgin destroyed it. And so the highest blessing is found in a womanly form above every creature, because God became man in the sweetest and most blessed virgin.1
Read the original Latin
Antiphona: Quia ergo femina mortem instruxit, clara virgo illam interemit. Et ideo est summa benedictio in feminea forma pre omni creatura, quia deus factus est homo in dulcissima et beata virgine.
Notes
- 1 ↩feminea forma ('womanly form') carries the theological sense that the feminine nature is exalted through Mary; 'pre' is an orthographic variant of 'prae' (before/above).
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