Immaculate Conception - Mariology Resources

 Although he does not mention Mary's Immaculate Conception in those words, notice how Prudentius identifies the quarrel between the snake and the man in Genesis 3 with the fall of man into sin and death. He then contrasts this falling of man (whereby man is separated from God and thus corrupted by Original Sin), with the coming of Christ [New Adam] and Mary [New Eve]. Mary herself is not only immune to, but subdues every poison of the Serpent [Satan], and is put in a totally different category than those under Satan's dominion. The logic behind his statement here is clear: Christ as New Adam, and Mary as New Eve, are categorically distinct from those who are under the curse of death and corrupted by the fall of man; Christ and Mary trample on the serpent and the venom is harmless to them [original sin, corruption].

Here is another passage of Prudentius where he identifies the venom of the serpent closely with sin (original and actual):

whom Thou lovest and dost not suffer to perish, I am he on whom Thou in thy goodness didst take compassion when I was all defiled with the venom of serpents and stained with many a sin.

Prudentius, 348-413 A.D., CROWNS OF MARTYRDOM, XIII

The wicked serpent, too, that devised the guile, was condemned to have its three-tongued head bruised by the woman's heel ; so the serpent was under the woman's foot, as the woman under the man. Following their lead, succeeding generations are corrupted and rush into sin, and through copying their primitive ancestors, lumping right and wrong together, pay with death for their rebellious deeds. But lo! there comes a new scion a Second Man sent forth from heaven, not of clay as was that one before, but God Himself putting on man without the body's faults. The Word of the Father becomes living flesh; pregnant by the shining Godhead, not by wedlock nor espousal nor allurement of marriage, a maid inviolate bears it. This was the meaning of that age-long hate, that quarrel to the death between snake and man, that now the serpent on his belly is crushed by a woman's feet. For the virgin who proved worthy to give birth to God subdues all its poisons, and the snake, its length twisted in coils it cannot unravel, feebly spews its harmless venom on the green grass whose hue it matches.

Prudentius [d. 413 A.D.], Liber cathemerinon, 3

If anyone, affirming that the one our Lord Jesus Christ is perceived in two natures, does not acknowledge that he is one of the Trinity, God the Word eternally begotten from the Father, the same incarnate in the last times of this age and born from our Lady, the all-holy and immaculate Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary,

Seventh Chapter of Cyrus, former Bishop of Alexandria, Session III of the Lateran Synod of 649

She, who is from clean and spotless clay, has come into existence in the mode of cherubim. For while still in the loins of her father Joachim, her mother Anna received a message from a holy angel, who said to her, ―Your seed shall be spoken of throughout all the world.

Theoteknos of Livias, An Eucomium on the Assumption of the Mother of God, Section 2

I am also mother/ For I bore thee in my womb. I am also thy bride...

(Hymn on the Nativity, 16, 9-10, Graef, 57-58)

The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, Chapter 12:

“But he who combines knowledge with fear, and seeks after life, plants in hope, looking for fruit. Let your heart be your wisdom; and let your life be true knowledge inwardly received. Bearing this tree and displaying its fruit, you shall always gather in those things which are desired by God, which the Serpent cannot reach, and to which deception does not approach; nor is Eve then corrupted, but is trusted as a virgin; and salvation is manifested, and the Apostles are filled with understanding, and the Passover of the Lord advances, and the choirs are gathered together, and are arranged in proper order, and the Word rejoices in teaching the saints — by whom the Father is glorified: to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

1. Pope St. Leo the Great on Mary’s Ontological Holiness: For the uncorrupt nature of Him that was born had to guard the primal virginity of the Mother, and the infused power of the Divine Spirit had to preserve in spotlessness and holiness that sanctuary which He had chosen for Himself . . .

   “(Sermon XXII: On the Feast of the Nativity, Part II; NPNF 2, Vol. XII)

 

But on hearing this the martyr replies: " In your spite you threaten our mystic writings with fire, but you yourself will burn with fire more merited, for the sword of God will avenge our heaven-inspired books, consuming with its lightning-flash the tongue that gives expression to such venom. You see the glowing embers that tell of Gomorrah's sins, and the ashes of Sodom are a plain witness of everlasting death. This is the pattern of you, serpent; one day sulphurous soot and mingled bitumen and pitch will enwrap you deep in hell."

Prudentius, 348-413 A.D., Crowns of Martyrdom V