Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
History and Religion
Mary Did Know: Advent Reflections on Hrosvitha’s “The Maria”

Mary Did Know: Advent Reflections on Hrosvitha’s “The Maria”

Last updated on: December 3, 2024 at 2:00 am by Lynneth Renberg

0 Comments

Mary Did Know: Advent Reflections on Hrosvitha’s “The Maria” 2024-10-30T16:09:06-04:00 Lynneth Renberg

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The 1991 Christmas standard “Mary Did You Know” was an oft-repeated anthem for many of us over past Christmas seasons. With its repeated titular question, the song is one of a relative few modern songs to focus on the perspective of Mary in the Christmas story. Its emphasis, however, is characteristically Protestant: not on Mary as the mother of God or as a key part of the Christmas story, but on Mary as a figure observing the Christmas story unfolding without an understanding of the significance of what she is seeing.

In the Middle Ages, Mary was a far more popular dialogue partner in Christmas and devotional texts. Importantly, she was not just a spectator to the Christmas story, but a figure providing insight into God’s plan, into what unfolded over the Advent season, and into the nature of God more generally. Medieval mystics like Marie of Oignies or Margreth Flastrerin, both discussed in Mary Dzon’s and Theresa Kenney’s work The Christ Child in Medieval Culture, envisioned themselves as Mary, actively engaged in the Christmas story and in the childhood of Christ. Yet, because many of these texts are framed around Mary herself– in Marian odes or prayers or hagiographies– modern evangelical audiences tend to overlook them. What might these Marian odes have to say to us during the Advent season?

One such ode comes from the 9th century author Hrosvitha (c. 935-1000). Hrosvitha was a woman from the area known in our modern era as Germany. She was born to a noble and wealthy family but spent most of her life as a nun in a Benedictine convent. She wrote six comedies in Latin that embodied Christian themes as well as other narrative poems and verse chronicles. Through her writings, she sought to provide education and spiritual edification for her fellow nuns and to strengthen their understanding of Christian virtues and theology. Her name means “mighty voice,” perhaps a reference to the power of her written works, the first surviving poetic and dramatic works from a German woman and the first dramas written in the Latin West since the collapse of the Roman Empire.

One of her writings is a text called the Maria, a saint’s life of sorts focused on the Virgin Mary. Drawing on the apocryphal text the gospel of James, Hrosvitha’s Maria begins with her miraculous conception and birth before proceeding through her pious childhood, her marriage to Joseph, the angel’s announcement to Mary about her role in the Incarnation, and then the birth and early years of Christ.

Parts of this Marian ode lay out beautiful reflections on the Incarnation. For example, in the description of the birth of the Christ child, Hrosvitha describes the scene as follows:

“Here in the calm midnight hour the Virgin Mother in joy brought forth her divine Child, venerated throughout all ages, Jesus, to Whom be praise, glory, and power; Who coming to fulfil the predictions of the ancient prophets, fortelling that He was to come into the world for our salvation, established peace between the heavenly citizens and the terrestrial. As soon as the Blessed Virgin, all chaste, had brought forth her Child, there appeared a throng of heavenly citizens praising in subdued tones the Maker of the universe, celebrating the Child sent for us from the stars. But presently venerable Mother Mary wrapped the tender limbs of Christ, the Eternal King, in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a narrow manger.” (Hrotsvitha, “The Maria,” in The Non-Dramatic Works of Hrosvitha : Text, Translation, and Commentary, Translated and edited by Gonsalva Wiegand. (PhD Dissertation: Saint Louis University, 1936; p. 47)

Mary’s reactions to the events leading up to this point– to the annunciation, to the call for a census, and the trip to Bethlehem– are not those of someone surprised by the fulfillment of God’s plan, but of a knowing and willing participant in the fulfillment of promises and prophecies. She didn’t need the angels around the manger to know that the child born that night was part of something much bigger.

Earlier in the text, Hrosvitha even points to Mary’s birth and childhood as part of this revealed knowledge of God’s plan of salvation, as Mary is the first signal that the promises of old were being fulfilled. In talking about Mary’s own birth, Hrosvitha notes that even at this time, before the Annunciation and Incarnation, God’s Light was coming into the darkness:

“And thus gradually the glory of the Heavenly Father began to break forth to the world in resplendent rays, and ancient discord was brought to a definite end as soon as the celestial citizens had promised companionship with themselves to those earthborn citizens whom hitherto they had disdained by reason of the guilt of their Father, Adam. Neither did the clemency of the All-Father lie hid from the angelic host when in the fullness of time, He in His mercy decreed to send his own Son into the womb of a Virgin, in order that this Son, born of the Father before all ages, might in time assume flesh of a Virgin Mother, and thus save all mankind by His all-holy Blood, and that after this the wily enemy of man might not rejoice in holding the world in his malicious snare; but that the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and likewise of the Fostering Spirit, equal in nature, might under this triune Name, reign as is just throughout the peaceful world even unto the end of time . . .” (Hrosvitha, “The Maria,” pp. 25-27)

In pointing to Mary as not just a passive observer of the Christmas story, but as an integral part of the coming of the light of God into darkness, Hrosvitha is able to point us as readers to the fuller theological truths contained within the Nativity, including the guilt of humanity, the salvation promised through the Incarnation, and the eventual triumphant reign of the triune God over all.

In response, both Mary (and Hrosvitha and her readers) are called to two things: to recognize and know the God revealed through the manger, and to worship this triune and gracious God through praise and action. The Maria concludes with several episodes where a young Christ teaches his parents about His father and points them towards hope, not fear. In response, Hrosvitha herself breaks out into an ode not to Mary, but to Christ:

“O how praiseworthy is the grandeur of your power, O Christ! . . . You, born from the Father before all ages, did in obedience to His Will take up your abode in the womb of your mother and did take from her a human form in the fullness of time; You are able to enclose the world in the palm of your hand but did not despise to be wrapped in swaddling clothes of little worth; You, whose throne is above the starry skies, did become small enough to lie cradled in a tiny manger; You who did name the myriad constellations and are able rightly to count the drops of rain and the grains of sand on the seashore, did as a helpless babe abide in patience silence while you did dutifully take nourishment from your Virgin-Mother’s breast . . . Therefore to Your Eternal Father may glory be throughout all ages from your creatures, Who knew not how to spare His beloved Son; and likewise to You, Christ, be eternal honor, victory, and power. Who did shed Your Blood to redeem the world on its way to perdition; together with the Holy Spirit, be glory throughout all ages, through Whom all heavenly gifts are granted to us! What gifts shall I render now to the Creator, worthy of all the good He hath bestowed upon me, Who graciously in His wonted goodness hath permitted me, an unworthy servant, to render thanks, however feeble? For this, may the angelic hosts, I pray, unceasingly praise the Lord.” (Hrosvitha, “The Maria,” pp. 63-65)

Hrosvitha’s active and knowledgeable Mary ultimately responds to the events of the Nativity not through passivity or through blind holiness, as in so many modern representations, but instead through learning about God, through teaching others about Him, and then through active praise and good works. In doing so, she provides a model for all of us as we encounter the deep theological truths of the Christmas story.

The popular 1990s anthem “Mary, Did You Know?” tries to express some of these same marvels of the Incarnation, but ultimately, does not provide us with a way to respond. We are observers in the story rather than participants, men and women alike (but perhaps especially women, at least within the framework advanced by much of popular evangelical culture). The medieval Mary, at least according to authors like Hrosvitha, knew– she was no passive woman simply watching God’s plan unfold, but an active participant in it. Because this medieval Mary knew, increasingly so as her relationship with the Christ child increased, she provides us with a model of Christian action and worship in response to the wonders of the Incarnation that we are called to reflect upon during this season of Advent.

History and Religion

Advent

Christian life

Lynneth Miller Renberg

Mary

medieval Christianity

Previous Post

November 28, 2024

How America’s Late Imperial Wars Reshaped Religion At Home

Next Post

December 5, 2024 How Missionaries Built A Modern American Empire

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"The Scottish author George MacDonald integrated fairy world into his fiction in a way that ..."

Terry

Fairies, Witches, Folk Horror, and the ..."

"I like the idea that we can have different streams. The coffee analogy is genius."

Lisa Clark Diller

How Do You Take Your Evangelicalism?

"Geography lesson: Southern California is actually in North Texas. I've lived her for 40 years, ..."

Terry

How Do You Take Your Evangelicalism?

"So much Rush love going on in the 90s and Obama Antichrist in the 00s. ..."

Terry

A Casserole is Not a Counterpoint

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What prophet challenged King Ahab and Queen Jezebel over Naboth's vineyard?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Amos Nathan Elijah Elisha