Father Dumitru Stăniloae’s Understanding of Mariology through Liturgy
Father Dumitru Stăniloae’s Understanding of Mariology through Liturgy

Summary/Abstract: Orthodox Mariology, like Eastern theology in general, has long been influenced by Western scholastic thought, which sought to articulate the great Mysteries of the faith and the Church through purely rational concepts. Father Dumitru Stăniloae, the foremost Orthodox theologian of the 20th century, was recently canonized by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church for his steadfast confession of the true faith, rooted in the Patristic Tradition, during the challenging years of the communist era. Through his extensive theological work, Stăniloae succeeded in bringing Orthodox theology back into the matrix of Patristic thought, thereby restoring its depth and relevance. In the field of Mariology, this saint confessor, relying on the Patristic Tradition, underscored that the Mother of God has always been venerated by the Church as Theotokos, ever-Virgin, eternally more honourable than all creatures, and especially as one who is not merely an intercessor and mediator, but as one who is full of grace, who imparts the gifts of her ineffable love to the entire Church. This spiritual reality is particularly manifest in the liturgical life of the Church, especially within the Divine Liturgy. In his liturgical commentary, “Spirituality and Communion in the Orthodox Liturgy”, Father Dumitru Stăniloae frequently references the unseen presence and role of the Mother of God in the Eucharistic Synax, concluding that Orthodox Mariology cannot be defined through arid rationalism and abstract theological concepts, but through the living and personal experience of the presence of God and His Mother within the worship of the Church.

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