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Western Fathers:
>He was the ark formed of incorruptible wood. For by this is signified that His tabernacle was exempt from putridity and corruption.” - Hippolytus, Orations
>Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.” Ambrose, Sermon 22, 30
>“We must except the Holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was >conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin.” - Augustine, Nature and Grace 4, 36
>ome, then, and search out your sheep, not through your servants or hired men, but do it yourself. Lift me up bodily and in the flesh, which is fallen in Adam. Lift me up not from Sarah but from Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of every stain of sin - Ambrose, Commentary on Psalm 118:22-30
Eastern Fathers:
>[Jesus] became man by the Virgin so that the course that was taken by disobedience in the beginning through the agency of the serpent might be also the very course by which it would be put down. Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, for which reason the Holy One being born of her is the Son of God. And she replied, "Be it done unto me according to your word" (Luke 1:38) - Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 100
>The Word, then, visited that earth in which He was yet always present; and saw all these evils. He takes a body of our Nature, and that of a spotless Virgin, in whose womb He makes it His own, wherein to reveal Himself, conquer death, and restore life - Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word 8
>This Virgin Mother of the Only-begotten of God, is called Mary, worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one.” - Origen, Homily 1
>“As he formed her without my stain of her own, so He proceeded from her contracting no stain.” - Proclus of Constantinople, Homily 1
>“A virgin, innocent, spotless, free of all defect, untouched, unsullied, holy in soul and body, like a lily sprouting among thorns.” - Theodotus of Ancrya, Homily 6, 11
>“The very fact that God has elected her proves that none was ever holier than Mary, if any stain had disfigured her soul, if any other virgin had been purer and holier, God would have selected her and rejected Mary.” - Jacob of Sarug
>“Thou alone and thy Mother are in all things fair, there is no flaw in thee and no stain in thy Mother.” - Ephraem, Nisibene Hymns 27:8
>“She is born like the cherubim, she who is of a pure, immaculate clay.” - Theotokos of Livias, Panegyric for the feast of the Assumption 5:6
>“Today humanity, in all the radiance of her immaculate nobility, receives its ancient beauty. The shame of sin had darkened the splendour and attraction of human nature; but when the Mother of the Fair One par excellence is born, this nature regains in her person its ancient privileges and is fashioned according to a perfect model truly worthy of God…. The reform of our nature begins today and the aged world, subjected to a wholly divine transformation, receives the first fruits of the second creation.” - Andrew of Crete, Sermon 1 On the Birth of Mary
>“Truly elect, and superior to all, not by the altitude of lofty structures, but as excelling all in the greatness and purity of sublime and divine virtues, and having no affinity with sin whatever.” - Germanus of Constantinople, Marracci in S. Germani Mariali
>“O most blessed loins of Joachim from which came forth a spotless seed! Oh glorious womb of Anne in which a most holy offspring grew.” - John of Damascus, Homily 1
>And from that time forth all knew that the spotless and precious body had been transferred to paradise - John the Theologian, The Falling Asleep of Mary
>Then the tribes of Israel heard that Anna had conceived the immaculate one. So everyone took part in the rejoicing. Joachim gave a banquet, and great was the merriment in the garden. He invited the priests and Levites to prayer; then he called Mary into the center of the crowd, that she might be magnified - Romanos the Melodist, On the Birth of Mary 1
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