Pope Leo the Great (d. 461), Sermo
22,
De nativitate Domini, 2, 1: PL 54, 194A.
For the mystery of our salvation is recalled by the
annual cycle—the mystery
that was promised from the beginning, that was given in
the end, and that
remains without end, . . . For God who is all-powerful
and merciful, whose
very nature is goodness, and whose will is power and
whose work is mercy,
designated, in the very beginning of the world, as soon
as the diabolic malice
killed us by the poison of his envy, the remedies of
His mercy, prepared for
us mortal men who had to be redeemed. He announced to
the serpent that
a Seed of a woman would come who would crush by His
power the
haughtiness of the guilty head. By that He signified that
Christ, who would
come in the flesh,
to be God and Man, who, born of the Virgin, would by
His incorrupt birth
condemn the violator of the human race.
Pope Leo the Great, Tome to Flavian, DS 291
She brought Him forth without the loss of virginity even as she conceived
Him without its loss.
.
r. 440-61