Mary, Mother of God

The early Church summed up Mary’s maternity in a single Greek word… Theotokos. St. Cyril and a great number of bishops believed that Mary should be called  Theotokos, “Birth-giver to God” (also translated as “God-bearer” or “Mother of God”). This terminology affirmed that Jesus is “one person in two natures which are united.”
It was determined by an overwhelming majority that  Theotokos was the correct title for Mary, and Nestorius was subsequently removed from his position as bishop of Constantinople.

The title “Mother of God” does not mean Mary somehow existed before God or created God, but that Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is fully God and fully human.

The  Catechism puts it like this, “In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly ‘Mother of God’ (Theotokos)” (CCC 495).

Listen to O Sanctissima, ” O Most Holy One” here.