Theoteknos of Livias
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Theoteknos (ca. 550-650) was a Bishop of Livias in the later part of the 6th century. Very little is known of him except for his writing concerning the Assumption of Mary. Sometime between 550 and 650, Theoteknos wrote a Dormition narrative similar in its content to that of John of Thessalonica titled Encomium on the Assumption of the Holy Mother of God. Although the first Christian century may be silent, but anonymous traditions concerning the dormition began circulating as early as the third century and perhaps “even earlier,” such as the “Book of Mary’s Repose”. Even with the lack of written historical and archaeological records from the first three centuries, the mainstream Catholic and Orthodox teaching is that Church Tradition preserved a more ubiquitous oral tradition.
The book, Early Patristic Homilies On the Dormition of Mary published by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press (1997) contains a collection of texts referring to early ecclesiastical sources of this tradition. It contains English translations of texts referring to the Falling Asleep in the Lord of the Blessed Virgin Theotokos by John of Thessalonica, Theoteknos of Livias, Modestus of Jerusalem, Andrew of Crete, Germanus of Constantinople, John the Monk of the Old Lavra, John Damascene and Theodore the Studite. The translator, one of the great patristic scholars in this country, Professor Brian E. Daily, S.J., has provided a good discussion of these texts by way of introduction. In addition to these texts as well as the vast tradition of the Catholic Church, one could go on and add several Orthodox traditions from the later Byzantine fathers and ecclesiastical authors of the second millennium, such as Leo the Emperor, John of Euchaita, Isidore of Thessalonica, Philotheos of Constantinople, Gregory Palamas of Thessalonica, Nicholas Cabasilas, Damaskenos Stoudites, etc.
Quotes & Excerpts:
On Mary as Immaculate and Ever-Virgin
“For if he has blessed his saints with the whole kingdom of heaven, if he opened Paradise to a thief with a single word, how much more [would he have been eager to welcome] the one who made him a home in her womb—the one whom he had created, whom he had formed, from whom he became flesh, as [he willed]. His purpose was that the power of the Prince of Evil should be destroyed through her by whom he had deceived us, and that through her all women should find freedom from the curse that bound them.” –Encomium, Section 1
“She has found what Eve had lost; she has found what Adam was deprived of, because of his disobedience. She has entered, saying, ‘Breathe on my garden’ (Cant 4:10). God the Word has entered, has dwelt in her, and Paradise is opened.” –Encomium, Section 7
Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant
“For she is ark and vase and throne and heaven. She was judged worthy to be entrusted with ineffable mysteries; she was judged worthy to reveal things hidden and sealed in the Book of Daniel, and through her ‘all of us, with faces unveiled, will gaze on the glory of the Lord’ (2 Cor 3:18).” –Encomium, Section 7
“The assumption of the body of the holy one, and her ascension to heaven, took place on the fifteenth day of August, which is the sixth day of the month of Mesore… For if, when he saw his disciples discouraged by his passion, Jesus said to them, ‘I go to prepare a place for you’ (Jn 14:2), how much more will he have prepared a place for the one who begot him…” –Encomium, Section 5
“She has free access to God, and so bestows on us spiritual gifts; she gives grace to our words, and teaches us wisdom, for she is the mother of wisdom.” –Encomium, Section 9
On Mary’s Perpetual Virginity:
“Wisdom cries out in the streets, and moves with assurance in the open squares… The Lord Jesus Christ, our God, the incomprehensible Wisdom, the ever-flowing spring, was made flesh of the Virgin, and when her womb bore its fruit, her virginity was not destroyed.” –Encomium, Section 9
“The ever-virgin Mother of God. While she lived on earth, she watched over us all, and was a kind of universal providence for her subjects. Now that she has been taken up into heaven, she is an unassailable fortification for the human race, and intercedes for us with God the Son.” –Encomium, Section 10
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