Mary is the Mother of God. That’s her most important title, and it tells you everything about who she is and why Orthodox Christians honor her so highly.
We call her Theotokos in Greek, which means “God-bearer.” The Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431 confirmed this title, not to make a statement about Mary herself but to protect the truth about her Son. If Mary is the Mother of God, then the child she carried and nursed and raised is truly God. Fully divine. Not adopted later, not partly divine, but God from the moment of conception. The title guards the Incarnation itself.
But here’s what trips up a lot of folks coming from Baptist or non-denominational backgrounds in Southeast Texas: we don’t just call her that in theological discussions. We pray to her. We ask her intercession. We have icons of her in every Orthodox church, and we celebrate multiple feast days in her honor throughout the year. If you walk into St. Michael’s, you’ll see her image prominently displayed, often holding her Son.
This isn’t worship. That’s the line we can’t cross and won’t cross. Worship belongs to the Holy Trinity alone. What we offer Mary is veneration, honor, love. Think of it this way: if your mom asked a friend to pray for you, you wouldn’t accuse her of worshipping that friend. We ask Mary to pray for us because she’s alive in Christ, closer to Him than any other human being, and her prayers carry weight. She’s the first and greatest of the saints.
Why “Ever-Virgin”?
We also call her Ever-Virgin, and this confuses people who read in the Gospels about Jesus’s brothers and sisters. The Orthodox Church has always taught that Mary remained a virgin before, during, and after Christ’s birth. Those “brothers” mentioned in Scripture? The Church understands them as stepbrothers (Joseph’s children from a previous marriage) or cousins. Ancient languages didn’t always distinguish.
But the perpetual virginity isn’t just about biology. It’s about her unique calling. She was set apart, consecrated, the living temple in which God took flesh. Her whole life was oriented toward this singular purpose. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her, she said yes to something no other human being has ever been asked to do. That obedience, that cooperation with God’s will, changed everything.
We call her Panagia too. All-Holy. Most-Blessed. These aren’t just pretty words. They reflect what the Church has always believed about her purity and her role in salvation history. She’s the New Eve. Where Eve said no to God and brought death, Mary said yes and became the doorway through which Life Himself entered the world.
How We Relate to Her
If you come to an Orthodox service, you’ll hear Mary mentioned constantly. We sing to her, we ask her protection, we celebrate her major life events. The Annunciation, when Gabriel appeared to her. Her birth (the Nativity of the Theotokos). Her presentation in the Temple as a child. Her Dormition, when she fell asleep in death and was taken up to be with her Son.
Fr. Thomas Hopko used to say that you can’t understand Orthodoxy without understanding the place of the Theotokos. She’s woven into our liturgical life in a way that has no parallel in most Protestant churches and differs even from Catholic practice in emphasis and approach. We don’t have the Immaculate Conception as a dogma the way Rome does. We honor Mary’s purity differently, seeing her holiness as her cooperation with grace rather than as exemption from original sin in the Western legal framework.
When Orthodox Christians pray the Jesus Prayer or stand before an icon of the Theotokos, we’re not replacing Christ. We’re coming to Him through the one who brought Him to us. She points to her Son. Always. Every icon of her holding the Christ child shows her gesturing toward Him, directing our attention where it belongs.
What This Means for You
If you’re inquiring into Orthodoxy and you’re uncomfortable with Marian devotion, you’re not alone. Most people from Protestant backgrounds feel that way at first. It seems like too much. But give it time. Attend the services. Listen to the hymns. Read the Gospels again and notice how often Mary appears at crucial moments: at the wedding in Cana, at the foot of the Cross, in the upper room at Pentecost.
She’s not an add-on to the faith. She’s the human being who made the Incarnation possible by her yes. And she’s still saying yes, still interceding, still pointing us to her Son. When you learn to love the Theotokos, you’ll find you love Christ more, not less. That’s how it works. That’s how it’s always worked in the Church.
