I'm replying to myself - just found the Collyridian Church w/ a strictly female deity and a seeming desire to make men female....am a bit confused by all that.

By collyridian I mean simply some kind of spiritual continuation of the early collyridians who I have (rightly or not) assumed to have been Christian - a sense of Mary as the co-redemtrix with Jesus...worship of Mary as divine.

Anyone else like this out there? roes4mary

It is my understanding that the original Collyridians were devotees of the Goddess who worshiped Her under the guise of Mary the mother of Jesus. They baked cakes "collyrid" to the Queen of Heaven, just as their ancestors had done.

The Roman Catholic church could not displace The Great Mother in the hearts of the people, so they made up stories about Mary of Nazareth: from 1) her immaculate conception by her mother, Saint Ann, to 2) her perpetual virginity, to 3) her bodily assent-ion into Heaven to 4) her being crowned as Queen of Heaven, to 5) Her being given the authority of co-redemptrix. There is nothing in Christian or Hebrew Scriptures that would substantiate any of these claims.

In this way the Collyridians (and other devotees of the Goddess) were absorbed into the Christian church.

Devotees of Dea who are associated with The Collyridian Filianic Communion do not worship Mary the Mother of Jesus. We worship Our Mother God, one of whose many names is Maria. Our Mother God is like the Dao (Tao), the Mother of ten thousand things. She created both women and men. We are not trying to turn men into women.

Traditional peoples in many ancient cultures have understood that the Seven Planetary Powers (symbolized by the sun and moon and five planets) are expressions of the multifaceted nature of the Divine. That is why it is said that Women are "from Venus" and Men are "from Mars". The designation "from Venus" and "from Mars" does not mean that they came from those planets in the sky but that their natures are closely patterned after the Archetype of the Archangel Guardian of Venus and the Archetype of the Archangel Guardian of Mars.

The CFC is made up of both feminine and masculine members. However there is a group of devotees of Dea known as Aristasia whose members are all feminine. Within the Aristasian community, there are two types of femini. Some are "from" i.e. like Venus (known as Sai Sushuri) and some are "from" i.e. like Jupiter (known as Sai Thame).


Rt. Rev. Georgia B. Cobb,CFC

Dear Rose4Mary,
What a beautiful title! I’ve thought of myself as a Collyridian for a great many years. I’ve found a home with the Collyridian group you bumped into. We see Mary as Dea, or God. (Don’t worry, no one wants to make men into women - I for one like men just as they are). However, I am not in the least uncomfortable with a Collyridianism which is Christian based. I call you sister! Gladly and with great rejoicing at having found one who loves Mary as I love Her, I call you sister!

Need you abandon your Christianity to be Collyridian? I don’t see why you should need to! Many Collyridians, like myself, have found that Mary truly is the whole of our spiritual life, but the long history of the Collyridians, what they brought to the Church, the deep Mariology which has been at times, all that saved the Church (often from itself!), is yours! It’s yours! It is a gift from those ancient Collyridians who knew Mary with the absolute love that you share with them. They are your spiritual ancestors!

Call Mary, Our Blessed Mother, Queen of the Universe, Mystical Rose. Be as you must be; utterly in love with Her. And don’t be afraid of the different ways people see their love for Mary. The nature of Collyridianism must be expansive, huge! How could it be otherwise since Mary is infinite Love. There is room for all of us in Her Arms! We must be careful not to let our vastly limited language and intellect define Mary. She has given us no dogmas. There are several groups using the name Collyridian. The word expresses our deep longing for a profound Marian spirituality. Perhaps we are branches of each other. We are all just finding our way with our hand held tightly in Mary’s hand.

Your lonely question has been echoing in my mind over and over. No dear sister, you are not alone! I feel that I understand your longing very deeply. I found Mary as a child, but not as a Catholic, which has no doubt colored my vision of Mary.

As an adult I tried very hard to fit my Mary into the different branches of Christianity, including the Catholic Church. But found that She either wasn’t important to them or She’d shrunk! They didn’t seem to know my Mary who was and is Infinite Love and utterly personal, a true Mother, who’s arms are ever around me and mine. And so I kept looking for those who loved Mary as I did. I learned their name from a wonderful book.

Geoffrey Ashe’s book, The Virgin, is a stunning piece of scholarship in which he tries to figure out who the Collyridians might have been. He concludes that they were likely not so much a part of Christianity as we think of it, but a parallel religion which grew more in the image of the local Goddess centered religions, whereas what became Christianity grew more in the image of the Mythric religion which in fact competed with Christianity for several hundred years. (Nothing comes from nothing!) What became Christianity was not clearly defined for at least 500 - 600 years. So it shouldn’t shock us that there was more than one template on which budding Christianity grew. But Ashe is a humble man and never lets us forget that he presents an educated hypothesis, nothing more. Yet I think, if you’ve not read this gem of a book, you will find it deeply affirming.

What happened to these Collyridians? They were persecuted by the rising Church, as were many other types of Christianity and parallel religions. But they could not get rid of those pesky Collyridians!

But, something dramatic happened to the Collyridians after the Council of Ephesus declared Her the Mother of God. It seems as though they suddenly vanished. Nothing could be further from the truth. During the Council the people chanted in the streets, begging the Council to keep their beloved Mary. They chanted “the Goddess, the Goddess, of course She’s the Goddess (Joseph Campbell).” Well that belief in Mary as Goddess was the very reason many within the Council wanted to all but get rid of Mary! “Mother of God” was the title of nearly every Goddess of the Middle East since the concept of the dying/resurrecting Goddess or God was essential to many of the surrounding religions. But the council was not made up of stupid men, they knew that they stood at a turning point for Christianity and without Mary, it was a doomed ship. But they were not all political men concerned about keeping their power, many were deeply devoted to Mary. They knew at a spiritual level that Mary had to be at the center of their religion for it to be spiritually viable. So the Council of Ephesus declared Mary the Mother of God and in doing so, opened it’s arms to these Collyridians who loved Mary so very deeply. The Church tried to keep Marianism within “decent” bounds, but as we know, the history of Marian devotion has been so deep and profound it has, at some periods, eclipsed the very Church itself.

To see this utter, undeniable love for Mary that existed within the Church and still is at the heart of the Church (I do not believe that modern often shallow Marianism is the last word - it can’t be - we all need our Mother!) look to The Glories of Mary by St Alphonsus de Liguori. Get the whole large book (703 glorious pages),not that little blue book of snippets going by the same name. She has never been praised, loved and understood more magnificently than in this 18th century book which has never been out of publication! I’ve worn one copy out and am working on a second! And this Saint of the Church is, obviously Christian, yet I’ve encountered no deeper love of Mary as supreme Mother.

So wether you find your spiritual birthright as a Collyridian among those who worship Mary as Dea (the feminine form of the latin word for God) or if you find Her within the walls of the Church, or wether you are part of a yet unnoticed branch of Collyridianism, the Collyridian legacy is your spiritual birthright. It can’t be taken from you. You are home! You are Mary’s dear Collyridian daughter. And I call you sister.

With Her and in Her everlasting love, Sister Francis (Little Sisters of our Beloved Mother Mary: Collyridian)