Here are a few historical facts about the Marian cult.

Four hundred years after Mary’s death, Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, in a sermon at Ephesus, applied to her many of the terms fondly ascribed by the Ephesians to their Great Goddess Artemis-Diana.

Gradually, the tenderest features of Astarte, Cybele and Isis were added to those of Artemis-Diana in the worship of Mary. Honorific names that had belonged to Cybele and Isis, such as Nostra Domina (Our Lady), Stella Maris and Mater Dei were taken over by Christians and incorporated in their Marian cult.

Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople and Cyril’s rival, preached that Mary was the mother only of the human nature of Jesus. He was condemned for his teaching but his followers flourished in Syria and Mesopotamia and founded communities in Central Asia, India and China. They survive to this day, still denouncing Mariolatry.

In the Middle Ages, Christians prayed so often to Mary that popular fancy pictured Jesus as jealous. In Germany, one particular prayer was addressed to the only really popular Trinity: “Glory be to the Virgin, the Father and the Son” (Leopold Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany).

In his History of religious ideas (Volume 2), Mircea Eliade observed that “the increasing sanctification and deification of Mary are chiefly the work of popular piety”.