Did St. John Chrysostom say St. Mary sinned?

By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10

Yes, St. John Chrysostom is one of the few Church Fathers who suggested that the Virgin Mary was subject to human frailties or "vainglory" at specific moments in the Gospels.

In his Homily 44 on the Gospel of Matthew and Homily 21 on the Gospel of John, he interprets the moment when St. Mary and the brothers of the Lord came to speak to Him (Matthew 12:46-49) and the Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11) as instances where she may have exhibited a degree of human pride or an untimely desire to show her influence over her Son.

The Coptic Orthodox Perspective

It is vital to distinguish between the personal opinion of a Church Father and the established Dogma of the Coptic Orthodox Church. While we honor St. John Chrysostom as a "mouth of gold" and a great teacher, we do not accept his specific view regarding the Mother of God sinning.

1. Fullness of Grace: The Coptic Orthodox Church teaches that the Holy Spirit came upon her and purified her completely at the moment of the Annunciation. As we pray in the Theotokia, she is the "undefiled" and "pure" one.
2. St. Cyril of Alexandria’s Defense: Our great father, St. Cyril the Pillar of Faith, stood firmly against any view that diminished the holiness of the Theotokos. The Coptic tradition emphasizes that while she was a human being who required the salvation of Christ (as she said, "my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior"), she was preserved from actual sin by her unique grace and her own will to remain in perfect obedience to God.
3. The Context of the Fathers: In the early centuries, before the Church fully crystallized its mariological language at the Council of Ephesus, some Fathers (like Chrysostom or Origen) occasionally speculated on her human nature in ways that the Church later clarified.

In the Coptic Church, we view St. Mary as the "Second Heaven" and the "Pure Censer." We believe she is the highest of all created beings—higher than the Cherubim and Seraphim. Therefore, the suggestion that she acted out of "vainglory" is rejected by Coptic theology in favor of her perpetual holiness and purity.