Studia Humanitatis No. II (XXII) / 2026
Early forms of Marian devotion in the first half of the first millennium
Associate Professor, PhD Ioan Lazăr The study traces the origins and development of the cult of the Mother of God in the early Christian centuries, beginning with the pre-Christian mystery religions (Phrygian, Egyptian, Iranian) and the cult of the Great Goddess, right up to the establishment of Mariological dogma at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431, with references to apocryphal texts and the perspectives of Mircea Eliade and the theologian Alexis Kniazev.
