Eighteenth Century Theologians

Texts quoted in French by Réné Laurentin (in Maria, Ecclesia, Sacerdotium, Nouvelles Éditions Latines, Paris 1952, pp. 313-314) and translated into English by John Wijngaards.

Mary, priest and altar

“ It is necessary, adds St Epiphanius, that she presents herself at the sacrifice, that she should become at the same time both the altar which carries the victim and the priest which offers him: Sacerdos Pariter et Altare; and in acting thus, one sees that it is she who prepares herself for the fire which will eventually devour her.” Pierre Claude Frey de Neuville, provincial of the Jesuits in France, around 1790.

Mary, priestess of the new covenant

“At the purification, the Virgin was by anticipation the priestess of the new covenant.” Jean Puy, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Paris, in Dévouement du Chrétien à la Très sainte Vierge, Paris 1780, p. 9.

Mary, the sovereign priestess

“I ask you: in ancient Rome the priest only offered the sacrifice vested in white garments —- how much greater should not be our esteem for the whiteness of soul and the purity of body of Mary, this sovereign priestess [summa illa sacerdotissa Maria] while she was offering to God the sacrifice of her Son?” Juan de Cartagena OFM, Homiliae Catholicae de sacris arcanis Deiparae et Joseph, Paris 1615, col. 57C.

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