“Nor is it to be wondered at, that our Lord, about to 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝, commenced His mighty works with His mother, that she, through whom 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝, should herself be the first to reap the fruit of salvation from her pledge.”—Venerable Bede,  quoted in Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Luke, ed. John Henry Newman (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1843), 41.