Calle de la Madre de Dios

Mother of God is one of the oldest titles Christian tradition gave to the Virgin Mary. It translates the Greek Theotokos, “she who gives birth to God”, the formula the Council of Ephesus fixed in the year 431 against those who preferred to call her only mother of Christ. From there it passed into the Hail Mary, still prayed each day. Calle de la Madre de Dios belongs to Nueva España, in Chamartín, whose street map gathers a run of devotional names. The name remains, one of the most widespread Marian invocations, fixed on the plaque of a residential neighbourhood in northern Madrid.