Thursday, February 11, 2021

John Chrysostom: "sinners receive pardon by the intercession of Mary alone"

I recently came across the following quote attributed to the early church father,  John Chrysostom: "sinners receive pardon by the intercession of Mary alone."  This Chrysostom snippet was part of a pro-Roman Catholic cumulative case of quotes from church history alleging to prove, "devotion to Mary is necessary for salvation." Without any disposition in looking up any of the quotes, I picked this Chrysostom quote from the list at random and decided to search out the original context. 

I don't claim to have any in-depth knowledge of Chrysostom's Mariology.  However, reading a quote from the actual source it came from as opposed to seeing it isolated surrounded by other out-of-context snippets often determines how much trust a particular web-page should be given.

My expedition to find the primary source determined that the context actually doesn't matter: it strongly appears this Chrysostom quote has a spurious pedigree. If he wrote it, the extant primary sources available today don't verify its authenticity.    

Documentation

This is a popular quote: simply do a basic Google "all" search to see the numerous hits it receives. It's not simply excessively Pro-Marian Roman Catholics utilizing it, a number of Rome's cyber-detractors find it an obvious example of blatant Mariolatry. A Google Books search reveals the obvious source of this quote and how it gained it's notoriety.  The majority of book usages point to one ultimate source,  Alfonso Maria de' Liguori, The Glories of Mary:

On these words St. Bernard encourages sinners, saying, 'Go to this Mother of Mercy, and show her the wounds which thy sins have left on thy soul ; then will she certainly entreat her Son, by the breasts that gave him suck, to pardon thee all. And this Divine Son, who loves her so tenderly, will most certainly grant her petition.'  In this sense it is that the holy Church, in her almost daily prayer calls upon us to beg our Lord to grant us the powerful help of the intercession of Mary to rise from our sins: Grant thy help to our weakness, O most merciful God; and that we, who are mindful of the holy Mother of God, may by the help of her intercession rise from our iniquities. With reason then does St. Lawrence Justinian call her the hope of malefactors;' since she alone is the one who obtains them pardon from God. With reason does St. Bernard call her the sinners' ladder;' since she, the most compassionate Queen, extending her hand to them, draws them from an abyss of sin, and enables them to ascend to God. With reason does an ancient writer call her the only hope of sinners;' for by her help alone can we hope for the remission of our sins. St. John Chrysostom also says 'that sinners receive pardon by the intercession of Mary alone (Per hanc et peccatorum veniam consequimur.---S. Joan. Chrysost. ap. Metaph. Brev. Rom. In Off. Nat. B. M. die 5.).
de' Liguori originally wrote this in Italian:



The Reference given in both the Italian and English share basic similarities, though the English has more information. This is because the English translator tried to check all the quotes and references (and also mentions a number of errors due to "the negligence of printers and editors"). 

What the reference actually shows is that it is not to a primary source from John Chrysostom. Rather, "Metaph" refers to the author Symeon Metaphrastes (tenth century). The old Catholic Encyclopedia refers to him as "The principal compiler of the legends of saints in the Menologia of the Byzantine Church." "Brev." refers to "Breviary" which is a book corresponding to chronological dates and readings, so in this case, it would be a chronological sampling utilizing the material of  Symeon Metaphrastes alleges to have collected of Chrysostom. 

The section from Metaphrastes citing Chrysostom appears in a number of sources. Let's utilize this one here. Basically, three small excerpts from Chrysostom from Symeon Metaphrastes are presented (Lectio IV, V, VI). The quote in question is found in Lectio VI.
  

Context


She is the mother of him, who was begotten of the Father before the beginning of all things; whom Angels and men acknowledge to be the Lord of all things. Would you know how much greater is this Virgin than any of the heavenly powers? They stand in his presence with fear and trembling, and veiled faces; she offers human nature to him whom she brought forth. Through her we obtain the forgiveness of our sins. Hail, then, O mother, heaven, maiden, virgin, throne, ornament, glory and foundation of the Church: pray without ceasing for us to Jesus, your Son and our Lord, that through you we may find mercy in the day of judgment, and may be able to obtain those good things which are prepared for those who love God, through the grace and loving-kindness of Jesus Christ our Lord: to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, and honour, and dominion, now and forever, world without end. Amen.

Conclusion
In fairness to Rome's defenders, the reference found in de' Liguori's The Glories of Mary is indeed found in "ap. Metaph. Brev. Rom. In Off. Nat. B. M. die 5." It is true that Symeon Metaphrastes did present this quote from John Chrysostom "Per hanc et peccatorum veniam consequimur" (through her is the remission of sins) and de' Liguori translated it more forcefully: "che solo per l'intercessione di Maria i peccatori rivcevono il perdono" ("sinners receive forgiveness only through Mary's intercession"). This forcefulness was retained in the English translation.

The major problem with the quote is that it doesn't appear to be found in the extant writings of John Chrysostom. Note the following: 
"In the Roman Breviary, Festa Setembris die xii., there is the following extract from Metaphrastes. Vainly have we endeavored to find it in the Benedictine edition of Chrysostom's works, and there can be little doubt that it was not written by Chrysostom" (source).
"The passage is found in the Breviary, in Off. Nat. B. M. Die. 5, infra Oct. Lect. vi. The heading to Lect. iv. derives that and the two following Lessons from Sermo Sancti Joannis Chrysostomi apud Metaphrasten. It is sufficient to say that they do not occur in any discourse, published as genuine or spurious, in the great editions of S. Chrysostom. The authority of Symeon Metaphrastes is really worth less than nothing in such a case as this; for a genuine work of S. Chrysostom would have had little attraction for a writer who took upon himself to remodel and embellish the unadorned Lives of the Saints, with which the earlier Church had been contented, that they might be more agreeable to the false taste and corrupted religious sentiment of the tenth century" (source). 

I have vainly endeavored to find this extract in the Benedictine edition of Chrysostom; and have little doubt that it is taken from some spurious work (source).

 Theoretically, Symeon Metaphrastes could have had access to a primary source in the tenth century from Chrysostom that is no longer extant today. The Old Catholic Encyclopedia does their best to defend his reputation. They do though point out, "It is certain, that a number of these legends were written by Symeon from such sources as he found (partly oral tradition)." And also:

At one time his name was a byword for absurd fabrications. Ehrhard, Dobschütz and others have now shown him to be a conscientious compiler who made the best use of his material that he could. The often absurd stories in his lives were already contained in the sources from which he wrote them; he is not responsible for these, since his object was simply to collect and arrange the legends of the saints as they existed in his time.

 

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