The Holy Spirit as Mother (3)

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The archaic tradition of the Holy Spirit as Mother did not entirely disappear from the Syriac tradition after the fifth century CE, for one can find occasional relics of it, albeit reducted to a simile, in much later Syriac writers. The monastic writer Martyrius, who frequently retains the archaic usage, treating the Spirit as grammatically feminine, writes in the first half of the seventh century, speaking of the person “who has been held worthy of the hovering of the all-holy Spirit, who, like a mother, hovers over us as she gives sanctification; and through her hovering over us, we are made worthy of sonship” (Book of Perfection 1.3.13).

The term ‘hovering’ here will immediately have provided Syriac readers with three resonances, of which Genesis 1:2 is the primary one; more important in the Martyrius’ context are the resonances of the baptismal rite, where the Spirit ‘hovers over’ the font, and the eucharistic epiclesis, where the Spirit is invited to come and ‘hover over’ the Bread and the Wine and thus transform them into the Body and the Blood of Christ.

Another example of the imagery can be found in the writings of the Syrian Orthodox theologian and scholar, Moses bar Kepha (died 903): “the Holy Spirit hovered over John the Baptist and brought him up like a compassionate mother”. For the most part, however, in later Syriac literature it will be found that ‘Grace’ has taken over the Spirit’s place as mother.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Martyrius, Book of Perfection 1.3.13

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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