Two well-known types of the Church, according to the teaching of the Fathers, are to be found in the ark of Noah, whose inmates were saved from the prevailing destruction, and the mountain of which we read in the Prophet Isaiah : "In the last days the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." (Isaiah ii. 2.) But both are also applied to our Lady.
The ark from two different points of view is regarded as typical of Mary. For example, St. Proclus writes :
"Noe formed his ark of incorruptible woods, but Christ, the spiritual Noe, made for Himself the ark of His Body from the incorrupt Mary."
And St. Ephrem exclaims :
"O Mary, sacred ark, whereby we are saved from the deluge of sin."
With reference to " the mountain of the House of the Lord to be prepared on the top of mountains," St. Gregory the Great (or perhaps his disciple Claudius using materials collected by St. Gregory) wrote :
"Under the Dame of this mountain may also be signified the most Blessed ever-Virgin Mary Mother of God ; since a mountain was she, who by the dignity of the choice that God made of her transcended all heights of others who have been chosen. Is not Mary a lofty mountain, who, to reach the Conception of the Eternal Word, raised the summit of her merits above all the choirs of angels, even to the Throne of the Godhead. Isaiah, prophesying of the all-surpassing dignity of this mountain, says : ' In the last days the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains. She was indeed the mountain on the top of the mountains, because the height of Mary shone forth above all the Saints."
