Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Wâlidatallâhi in our rosary?

I accept the Dormition ceremony (as counter to Fátimism) but I missed it. So, for my sins, I'll revisit the Marian Rosary.

In Latin, we hail Mary as mater dei. This turns out to be better Latin than I'd expect. Historically, we read theotocus and deipara. Compound words are possible in Romance languages, and I assume in Vulgate Latin and in Church Latin. Mostly Latin prefers to separate the words and even to have the adjectives after the noun. deipara is a Hellenism; it is "S.A.E." (pdf).

mater dei against deipara suggests - in Arabic - a distinction between some "Umm Alahe" and straight-up "Wâlidatallâhi". The mater = umm is tribal, even honorary, as Sunnis claim Aisha for "mother of the muminîn". By contrast the Quran commands Muslims to deny that God begets nor - for our purpose - is begotten.

I found interesting back West that it was Girolamo Savonarola, no less, who insisted on mater dei. I'd have figured him more a Deipara lad. Even he couldn't quite go full Miaphysite.

No comments:

Post a Comment