Question:
Answer:
In early Christian tradition St. Athanasius, Didymus the Blind, St. Epiphanius of Salamis, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, Leoporius, St. Cyril of Alexandria all famously referred to Mary as ever virgin or perpetual virgin without controversy.
The Council of the Lateran (649) declared that Mary conceived “without any detriment to her virginity, which remained inviolate even after his birth.”
The Second Council of Constantinople II (553-554) referred to Mary as “ever virgin” in Anathemas 2 and 6.
And Pope Pius XII’s infallible definition of the Assumption of Mary refers to Mary as “ever virgin.”
Mary as ever virgin has a long tradition that extends back to the earliest Church fathers up to this very day. This teaching was never controversial throughout the centuries.
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