Basil the Great and the Non-Essential Nature of Mary’s Perpetual Virginity

J. Neil Daniels 

The belief in Mary's perpetual virginity, while central to later Roman Catholic dogma, wasn’t universally held or considered essential by all the early Church Fathers. In fact, Basil the Great (+379 AD), a revered saint and Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church, didn’t view this doctrine as being of the substance of the faith. He acknowledged that one may believe Mary had other children and that Jesus had siblings (cf. Matt 13:55–56; Mark 6:3) without compromising Christian orthodoxy.

As seen in Homilia in Sanctam Christi Generationem (PG 31:1468), Basil writes:

“[The opinion that Mary bore several children after Christ]... does not run counter to faith; for, virginity was imposed on Mary as a necessity, only up to the time that she served as an instrument for the Incarnation, while, on the other hand, her subsequent virginity had no great importance with regard to the mystery of the Incarnation.”

Basil’s historical witness highlights that Protestant concerns about Marian dogma aren’t innovations of the Reformation, but recoveries of early Christian perspectives. Far from being a modern novelty, the idea that Mary’s perpetual virginity is not essential to the faith can be traced to voices like Basil’s within the pre-schism Church.

Postscript 

Interestingly, the homily is not available in a free, complete English translation online. Most English-language collections (such as those at CCEL) do not include this particular homily.

For Greek: CatholicLibrary.org, “Basil of Caesarea, In sanctam Christi generationem”.

For Latin: TurretinFan’s resource index on Basil’s works.