Getting an earful with the Virgin Mary... [View all]

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Has anyone else ever heard this? I sure hadn't. Mysterious ways, indeed...

Possible mechanisms by which Mary could have remained virgo intacta have exercised the minds of theologians since the fourth century. During the Middle Ages, it was widely believed that Mary had conceived by being inseminated by the Holy Ghost through her ear, a belief that resulted in female ears being treated with the utmost modesty for a time.

An ear would hardly serve for the delivery. One possibility was that Jesus had exited Mary's womb through a sort of door in her abdomen. Statues of Mary with the whole Trinity snuggled behind an opening door in her belly were once popular objects of devotion. Characterised in this way Mary was known as the vierge ouvrante ("Opening Virgin&quot .

http://www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com/de0_mary.htm



Her EAR?

The "door in her abdomen" is pretty funny too. But that ear thing is really amazing. How could anyone have preached that with a straight face?