Spouse of the Holy Spirit
And I
passed by thee, and saw thee:
and behold thy time was the time of lovers:
and I spread my garment over thee,
and covered thy ignominy. And I swore to thee,
and I entered into a covenant with thee,
saith the Lord God: and thou becamest mine.
Ezekiel 16, 8
And in
the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee,
called
Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Mary. And the
angel being come
in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee:
blessed art thou amongst
women… And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for
thou hast found grace with God.
Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and
shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his
name Jesus. He shall be great,
and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord
God shall give unto
him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of
Jacob
for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the angel:
How shall this be done, because I know not man? And the angel answering, said
to her:
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High
shall overshadow
thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of
God.
Luke 1, 26-35
The intimate union between the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary resembles a spiritual and mystical marriage, similar to the relationship between YHWH and Israel. Although God refers to Israel as His servant (Isa 41:8), the connection between YHWH and His chosen people is much more profound than that of a master and servant. It parallels the bond between God and His handmaid. In the Old Testament, the relationship between YHWH and Israel is fundamentally covenantal, which reflects the moral union between a husband and a wife. This foreshadows the espousal between Mary and the Holy Spirit, as well as the union between Christ, the Divine Bridegroom, and His virgin bride, the Church.
A type of wedding vow was established between YHWH and the Hebrews when Moses received the Divine laws on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel (Ex 19:5-8). At this pivotal moment in their history, Israel became God's virgin bride. As her husband's faithful spouse, she was committed to remaining loyal to Him. Above all, she was instructed not to have other gods before YHWH (Ex 20:1-3). Any instances of Israel’s infidelity toward her husband represented a violation of this wedding vow, and her worship of false gods was considered an act of adultery in the eyes of God.
God sent many judges and prophets to declare His word to Israel and to remind her of the covenant relationship He had established with her. Jeremiah was called to admonish the Israelites for ignoring and persecuting the prophets that God had sent because of their infidelity towards Him (Jer 24:4-6). By this time, God's patience with His people had worn thin, and He reluctantly presented Israel with a writ of divorce. This decision came after God had pleaded with His chosen people for seven centuries to heed His voice, return to Him, and be faithful and loving spouses. However, they refused to listen, disregarding their marriage covenant with God. “I saw, when for all the causes for which backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also” (Jer 3:8).
For your Maker is your husband;
the LORD of hosts is his name;
and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel;
The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
Isaiah 54, 5
The divorce decree between YHWH and Israel did not terminate the nation's covenant relationship with God, nor did it nullify the marriage covenant. Instead, the decree aimed to bring Israel back to God by withdrawing His protection from the hostile nations surrounding them. This withdrawal allowed Israel to be taken captive due to her infidelity. Consequently, the people of the Northern Kingdom, known as the House of Israel, were captured by the Assyrians, followed by the Southern Kingdom of Judah, which eventually fell to the Babylonians, leading to the destruction of the First Temple. If God's writ of divorce were still in effect, His bride could not return to Palestine or her husband's house.
The writ served as a disciplinary measure that a husband would use to help his wife understand the importance of their relationship and how much she needed him, rather than prioritizing other things over him. This behavior contradicted their unbreakable covenant. Despite Israel's shortcomings, God promised to renew His covenant with her and restore her, honoring His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God desired to bring Israel back into His embrace, despite her past unfaithfulness, on the condition that she renounced her relationships with the false gods of Assyria and Babylon and willingly returned to Him (Ezek 20:33-37; Jer 31:31-33).
And you shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy,
and have separated you from other people,
that you should be mine.
Leviticus 20, 26
The Old Testament depicts Israel as God's bride, who is expected to be loyal, loving, and pure in her relationship with Him. As the virgin bride of YHWH, Israel needs to place her complete hope (hasah) and trust (galal) in her husband, embodying a spirit of "steadfast love." This kind of love encompasses all six aspects of faith in Judaism. It is God who chooses Israel and redeems her from her lowly origins, sinful behaviors, and impurities, preparing her to be His worthy spouse.
The reason God renewed His covenant with Israel can be understood in light of the fact that Israel was chosen to be the people from whom the Divine Word would take human form. Since the people of Israel were to welcome God Incarnate among them, they needed to be made worthy through a special holiness imparted by the Old Covenant. Both Israel and Mary were privileged to bring the Messiah into the world. Due to their unique roles, both had to be specially prepared by God and consecrated to Him as His chaste and faithful bride.
Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel, and
with the house of Judah: Not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that Itook
them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; my covenant which they broke,
although I was a
husband unto them, says the LORD: But this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel; After those days, says the
LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts;
and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jeremiah 31, 31-33
And in
the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a
man whose name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said
unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art
thou amongst women.
Luke 1, 27-28
Luke 1:27 is translated differently across various versions of the Bible. Some translations describe Mary as being “betrothed” to Joseph at the time of the Annunciation, while others use the term “espoused.” Either way, it indicates that the couple was legally married, although their marriage had not yet been consummated. According to Mosaic law, the marriage ceremony consists of two parts. The first part is the betrothal or espousal, known as Kiddushin. During this ceremony, Joseph would have given Mary a marriage document and a token of monetary value, typically a ring. The Hebrew word for “betrothed” is kiddush, which signifies being “holy, consecrated, and set apart,” similar to how Israel is described in its marital relationship with God. In Jewish tradition, this moment is central to the initial wedding ceremony, when a contract is signed, officially making the couple legally married.
The first phase of the marriage process involved a wedding ceremony where the couple exchanged vows in the presence of witnesses. The second phase would occur one year later, during which the groom was expected to provide for his wife. If both partners remained happy and faithful to each other, they would then have a second and final wedding ceremony known as Nisuin. During this ceremony, the ketubah (marriage contract) was the focal point. The ketubah outlined the groom's responsibilities, which included providing his wife with food, shelter, clothing, and emotional support. The marriage was considered solemnized once the groom signed the ketubah in the presence of two witnesses and presented it to the bride. After this, the bride could move into her husband's home, and the marriage would be consummated, assuring her of her marital rights.
According to early Christian tradition, Mary and Joseph decided to have a chaste marriage before their first ceremony due to a vow of continence Mary had made to God when she was a young girl while living and serving in the temple. Although it might seem unlikely, Joseph agreed to this arrangement, which is not implausible considering Numbers 30.
Vows taken by a married woman
“And if she is married to a husband,
while under her vows or any thoughtless utterance of
her lips by which she has bound herself, and her husband hears of it, and says
nothing to
her on the day that he hears; then her vows shall stand, and her pledges by
which she has
bound herself shall stand. But if, on the day that her husband comes to hear of
it, he
expresses disapproval, then he shall make void her vow which was on her, and
the
thoughtless utterance of her lips, by which she bound herself; and the LORD
will forgive
her.”
Vows to afflict herself
“Any vow and any binding oath to
afflict herself, her husband may establish, or her
husband may make void. But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day,
then he
establishes all her vows, or all her pledges, that are upon her; he has
established them, because he
said nothing to her on the day that he heard of
them. But if he makes them null
and void after he has heard of them, then he shall bear her iniquity.”
Torah scholar Jacob Milgrom informs us that the woman’s vow “to afflict herself” meant fasting and abstaining from sexual relations with ancient Jews. Judith may have made such a vow after her encounter with God. She never remarried at a young age after her husband died and left her childless, probably because of her close nuptial type of communion with God. And the fact she never remarried presupposes that such a vow must have been permanent. Moses remained continent in his marriage for the rest of his life once God summoned him to lead the Israelites to the promised land, and so did the seventy elders abstain from their wives after receiving the call to produce the Septuagint. Eldad and Medad did likewise after the spirit of prophecy came upon them, according to ancient Jewish tradition (Midrash Exodus Rabbah 19; 46.3; Sifre to Numbers 99 sect. 11; Sifre Zutta 81-82, 203-204; Aboth Rabbi Nathan 9, 39; Tanchuman 111, 46; Tanchumah Zaw 13; 3 Petirot Moshe 72; Shabbath 87a; Pesachim 87b, Babylonian Talmud). Provisions such as these were made under Mosaic law. Vows like these taken by women were permissible since the command to propagate strictly applied to men under ordinary circumstances.
According to Mosaic law, if Joseph had agreed to a chaste marriage with his wife, Mary, he would have honored her vow before they wed. Mary had made this vow when she was a young girl, serving and residing in the Temple from an early age. No law condemned a man for honoring his intended wife’s vow. After hearing of Mary’s vow, Joseph could cancel or go through with the Kiddushin. However, he would have sinned if he had first accepted the vow and tried to nullify it after they were legally married. Similarly, Mary would have sinned if she had sprung the news on Joseph after they became betrothed. This provision in the Mosaic law helps us understand how Mary and Joseph could have wed despite her vow of chastity.
An important document supporting the teaching of Mary’s perpetual virginity is the Protoevangelium of James. It was written around A.D. 120, probably less than sixty years after Mary’s death, while memories of her life were still fresh in people’s minds. The Protoevangelium records that when Mary’s birth was prophesied, her mother, St. Anne, vowed that she would devote the child to the service of the Lord, as Samuel had been by his mother (1 Sam. 1:11). Mary would thus serve the Lord at the Temple, as women had for centuries (1 Sam. 2:22), as Anna the prophetess did at the time of Jesus’ birth (Lk 2:36–37). A continual, devoted service to the Lord at the Temple meant that Mary could not live the ordinary life of a child-rearing mother. Instead, she vowed to live a life of perpetual virginity.
Referring to Mary’s question to the angel Gabriel – “How shall this be done, since I am a virgin?” – after he announced that she would conceive and bear the Messiah in Luke 1:34, Augustine reasons that Mary must have already consecrated herself to God and vowed to remain a virgin all her life while serving in the temple as a young girl. There is testimony of temple virgins in the traditions of the Jews. In the Mishnah, it is recorded that 82 consecrated virgins wove the veil of the Temple: “The veil of the Temple was a palm-length in width. It was woven with seventy-two smooth stitches, each made of twenty-four threads. The length was forty cubits, and the width was twenty cubits. Eighty-two virgins wove it. Two veils were made yearly, and three hundred priests were needed to carry it to the pool” (Mishna Shekalim 8, 5-6). Rabbinic Jewish sources also record how when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in AD 70, the Temple virgins leaped into the flames so as not to be abducted by the heathen soldiers: “The virgins who were weaving threw themselves in flames” (Pesikta Rabbati 26, 6). This supports the claims of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, who assert that the Blessed Virgin Mary was presented to the Temple at the age of three and served there until twelve.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the LORD
appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what
is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 1, 20
We read in Matthew 1:18-25 that Joseph received reassurance from the angel Gabriel in a dream that his wife had not been unfaithful after discovering that Mary was pregnant. The angel explained that the Holy Spirit had conceived the child she was carrying. Before this, Joseph had the legal right to divorce Mary on the grounds of her apparent infidelity. He also had the right to publicly condemn her and have her stoned to death for committing adultery, according to Deuteronomy 22:22-29. But after the visit from the angel, Joseph had to reconsider whether he had any legal or moral right to go through with the second wedding ceremony, given that Mary had conceived a child by someone else. Joseph was known to be a righteous man who always followed the Mosaic law (Mt 1:14). According to Louis M. Epstein, under the Mosaic law, if a man’s wife or fiancée was found to be pregnant by another man, the husband was not allowed to have sexual relations with her anymore. Even if a woman was forced to have sex with another man, she was considered unfit to be with her husband (Gen 49:4; 2 Sam 20:3, 16:21-22).
Indeed, God did not physically come into contact with Mary in the natural sense. However, she was still physiologically impacted by the power of the Holy Spirit. As a result, Mary became pregnant and had a child through the Holy Spirit. God sanctified marriage when He created Adam and Eve and decreed that a man and woman should have children together, as stated in Genesis 2:23-24, "the two become one flesh." God’s moral law cannot be dismissed, and it is evident that Mary’s husband, Joseph, intended to take her into his home when the angel brought her the good news. Those who knew Joseph referred to Jesus as the “carpenter’s son” (Mt 13:55). But Mary belonged to God as His virgin bride, and Joseph, being a devout Jew, would have understood this in principle.
The angel reassured Joseph when he instructed him to take Mary into his home as his lawful wife, but not to normally co-habit with her: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife” (Mt 1:20). In the Greek translation of the original Hebrew, the prepositional phrase “to take home as your wife” reads paralambano gunaika. This shows that there was no need for the angel to tell Joseph that he shouldn’t be afraid to “come together” with his wife (bo-e-lei-ha imma) or “lay with” her (vai-yish-kav imma) (Gen 30:3, 16-17) since the couple had already agreed on having a chaste marriage. And since Mary didn’t commit adultery, Joseph was permitted by law to “take her home” as his lawful wife.
The original Greek phrase doesn’t refer to having sexual relations, unlike the Hebrew phrases. If Mary and Joseph had intended to have their own children by the time of the Annunciation, the angel would have told him not to fear “coming together” or “laying with” his wife in the conventional marital sense. But Joseph should be assured that their marriage was still morally valid before God because not only did Mary conceive Jesus by the Holy Spirit, but also the couple shall not have conjugal relations and any children of their own. Thus, Joseph mustn’t be afraid to formally solemnize the marriage and “take his wife into his home” for fear of violating the moral law, so long as the couple remains continent.
And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I
know not man?
And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the
Holy
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Luke 1, 34-35
God treated Mary with honor and righteousness as He did with Israel in their mystical marriage covenant. Mary’s spiritual and moral relationship with God was fully consummated when she was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, just like a husband consummates his relationship with his wife. As the embodiment of Daughter Zion, Mary was declared holy, consecrated, and set apart for God (Kiddush) when she vowed to enter into a personal marriage covenant with Him while still a young temple virgin. However, she did not realize at the time that she was prompted by the Holy Spirit to make such a vow because she was predestined to be the mother of the divine Messiah.
Mary’s nuptial covenant with God was permanently sealed when she willingly agreed to become the mother of our divine Lord. The Holy Spirit covered her nakedness by laying His cloak over her and casting His shadow upon her. Mary’s response to God’s will was, “Let it be done to me, according to your word” (Lk 1:38). The angel told Mary that she would be “overshadowed by the power of the Most High.” Rabbinic scholar and Hebrew convert to the Catholic faith, Brother Anthony Opisso, M.D., informs us that in ancient Jewish culture, a man’s “laying his power over” (resuth) a woman was a euphemism for having marital relations (Targum to Dt 21:4). Similarly, for a man to “overshadow” a woman or “spread his cloak or wing over her” was a euphemism for having conjugal relations in the holy bond of matrimony (Midrash Genesis Rabbah 39.7; ).
Ruth expressed her desire to have intimate relations with Boaz, her lord, when she said, “I am your handmaid Ruth. Spread the corner of your cloak over me, for you are my next of kin” (Ruth 3:9). According to Brother Opisso, the word “cloak” (tallith), literally means “wing” (kannaph) and is derived from the word tellal, which means “shadow” (Midrash Ruth Rabbah 3.9). When Jesus referred to Israel as his bride, he used the same imagery: “How many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her children under her wing” (Lk 13:34).
Ruth was a chaste and devout Jewish woman who refused to have intimate relations with her lord Boaz unless they were lawfully married. After they got married, God blessed them with a son named Obed. Obed later became the grandfather of King David, who is seen as a prefiguration of Christ and the royal head of God’s kingdom. Similarly, Mary was not just a servant of God when the Holy Spirit came upon her. She was morally united with God as His spouse and conceived and gave birth to Jesus Christ, our divine Lord and King.
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of
Jacob.
Psalm 87, 2
The early Greek and Latin Fathers of the Catholic Church believed that Mary was the spouse of the Holy Spirit in two fundamental ways, reflecting the unitive and procreative aspects of conjugal love. First, they saw Mary as spiritually united with the Holy Spirit and having something supernaturally in common with Him. This was due to her interior disposition, which was affected by His sanctifying grace. As a result, she was deemed worthy to be His spouse and the mother of our divine Lord. Second, the belief was that Mary had to have a perfect share in His divine nature, as she was chosen to conceive and bear the Holy Begotten of God.
St. Hippolytus refers to the Virgin Mary as “the tabernacle” of our Lord and Saviour, and being this, “she was exempt from all putridity and corruption” (Orations Inillud, Dominus pascit me). Origen pronounces this “Virgin Mother of the Only-begotten Son of God” to be “worthy of God, the immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one” (Homily 1). Indeed, as the most chaste spouse of the Holy Spirit and most worthy Mother of God, in Mary, “all things are fair” and, as St. Ephraem adds,” there is “no stain” in the Mother just as there is “no flaw” in her divine Son in his humanity (Nisibene Hymns, 27:8).
Further, St. Athanasius calls Mary the “noble Virgin” who is “greater than any other greatness” and who no human soul “could equal in greatness” since she had been chosen and prepared to be “the dwelling place of God.” He addresses the Virgin Mary as God’s “Covenant,” being “clothed with purity instead of gold”; she is “the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna … the flesh in which Divinity resides” (Homily on the Papyrus of Turin, 71:216). St. Ambrose concurs Mary was “a Virgin, not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of any stain of sin” (Sermon 22:30). So, for St. Augustine, “Mary was the only one who merited to be called the Mother as the Spouse of God” (Sermon 208).
Shall not Zion say: This man and that man is born in her?
and the Highest himself hath founded her.
Psalm 87, 5
Mary is considered the Holy Spirit’s spouse because they cooperate in bringing Jesus into the world through supernatural means. They worked together to provide spiritual life to humanity, similar to how husbands and wives collaborate to give life to their children. By giving her consent to conceive and bear Jesus through the activity of the Holy Spirit, Mary brought the living source of all grace into the world. The early Church Fathers believed Mary was the new Eve and the spiritual “mother of all the living.” St. Irenaeus wrote about the incarnation and virgin birth, stating that “the Word will become flesh, and the Son of God the son of man: The Pure One opening purely that pure womb, which generates men unto God” (Against Heresies, lV.33.12). The Holy Spirit made Mary’s womb pure because it was chosen to physically carry and nourish the holy Son of God and spiritually His brethren (Rom 8:29). When we are reborn through the baptismal water in the font, we become a new creation and children of the new Adam by being the seed of the free promised woman (Gen 3:15).
Mary, as the new Eve and spouse of the Holy Spirit, could not have had children with her legal husband, Joseph, as those children would have been born in sin and guilt. She was predestined to conceive and give birth to only one child, Jesus, the blessed fruit. Mary’s maternal role was to nourish humanity with the divine Word and the regenerating graces that only Jesus could have merited for us in his humanity. All baptized in Christ are of the Woman’s seed, in hostility with the seed of the serpent or dragon, sinful and wicked humanity. (1 Cor 11:12; Rev 12:17).
Finally, the early Church Father St. Cyril of Jerusalem believed that Mary’s chastity and purity of heart reached the culminating point of her virginity when the Holy Spirit had overshadowed her, and she carried Jesus in her womb for nine months. And so, these nine months redounded to her glory and made her the perfect model of virginity. All her children who are reborn in Christ through the cleansing and regenerating water of baptism must emulate that immaculate heart of their mother in their lives. By doing so, they emulate the purity and righteousness of her firstborn Son and their brethren, Jesus. St. Cyril writes: “It became Him who is most pure … to have come forth from a pure bridal chamber” (Catechetical Lecture 12). The Church Father implicitly taught that all those born of the Spirit are Mary’s offspring, having come forth from a pure bridal chamber together with Jesus. “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (Jn 3:6). Mary would have defiled the bridal chamber if she had marital relations with her husband Joseph. His seed, tainted by original sin, would have desecrated the holy sanctuary of her womb – the sacred dwelling place of God incarnate.
All the brethren of Jesus, who come from the same pure womb not touched by the seed of Adam and are born of the Spirit, will not perish as new creations in Christ. The Spirit gives birth to the Spirit, and new life is given to all recreated in the Spirit through Mary’s womb. All of Mary’s offspring must work with the Holy Spirit and His divine grace to weave for themselves the holy flesh of their Virgin Mother. This is all part of the creative aspect of the conjugal union between the Holy Spirit and our Blessed Mother. St. Epiphanius reminds us that “the whole human race proceeds from Eve, but it is from Mary that Life was truly born to the world, so that by giving birth to the Living One, Mary might also become the Mother of all the living” (Against Eighty Heresies 78, 9).
“And I
will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in
justice, and in love, and in mercy. I will betroth you to
me in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.”
Hosea 2,19-20
Epstein Louis M, Marriage Laws in the Bible and the Talmud: Cambridge, Mass. (Harvard University Press, 1942)
Milgrom Jacob, JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers (University of Nebraska, Jewish Publication Society, 1990).
Opisso Brother Anthony, The Perpetual Virginity of Mary (Booklet by the Association of Hebrew Catholics, 1995)
