Mary, Mother of God: A Seal Upon the Dogma of the Incarnation 

In 428 Nestorius, a monk of Antioch, became the Bishop of Constantinople. He rejected the position that Mary was the "Mother of God," which he considered a confusion of the divine and human natures of Christ. He believed that God dwelt in Christ as in a temple and that he became God only by degrees. Thus, he taught there were two persons in Christ [instead of two natures in one divine person].

This heresy caused a tremendous stir in the faithful, who felt this dishonor of Jesus and Mary acutely. Nestorius, nonetheless, had the monks of Constantinople imprisoned and scourged for daring to protest his actions.

St. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, when he heard of this said, "I am astonished that the question should ever have been raised that the Holy Virgin should ever have been called Mother of God, for it really amounts to asking, is her Son God, or is he not?"

The Alexandrians understood that when they used terms like Theotokos that though Mary was the Mother of God, she did not bear his divinity, but because she bore the person of Christ [Christokos], it is legitimate to refer to her in this way.

Cyril rejected Nestorius' position and called for a Council to settle this at Ephesus in 431. He wrote to St. Celestine, since ancient custom, he says, persuaded him to bring the matter before the pope. The Pope empowered him as his legate. The Emperor convoked the Council of Ephesus, but Nestorius thrice refused to appear. Before Ephesus was over, 15 Bishops favoring Nestorius' position were also deposed thanks to the leadership of Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria.

As our Holy Father puts it, ". . . the dogma of the divine motherhood of Mary was for the Council of Ephesus and is for the Church like a seal upon the dogma of the Incarnation, in which the Word truly assumes human nature into the unity of his person, without canceling out that nature." The people reacted with joy to its verdict!

Elizabeth Bayley Seton was born two years before the American Revolution in 1774 and married at the age of twenty.  When her husband Will's father died, she and her husband raised his seven brothers and sisters. 

Influenced by the piety of Catholic families they lived with in Italy, where her husband died in 1803, Elizabeth converted to the Church in 1805 knowing this would be a barrier to getting help from her Protestant family in raising her children. 

Nonetheless, she founded the first U.S. Catholic school in Baltimore and with two other women formed a sisterhood

taking vows before Archbishop John Carroll in 1809. This became the Sisters of Charity which ran the school and did much work among the poor.

Her diaries and correspondence showed a soul deeply in love with God and full of zeal for souls. Although Mother Seton was now suffering with tuberculosis, she continued to guide her children. The Rule of the Sisterhood was formally ratified in 1812. It was based upon the Rule St. Vincent de Paul had written for his Daughters of Charity in France.

By 1818, in addition to their

first school, the sisters had established two orphanages and another school. She died in 1821 at the age of 46 and was canonized in 1975. Her feast day is celebrated on January 4th.