Biography of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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It was dedicated on November 21, AD but was destroyed by the Persians within a century. He Who is all-holy rests among the holy. In thee, the Lord will manifest His redemption to the sons of Israel. Without looking back, Mary climbed the stairs of the temple. It was there that she was nurtured and her parents returned glorifying the Almighty.

What can we learn from Mary the Mother of Jesus?

This shows that even in her childhood Mary was completely dedicated to God. After the birth of Jesus, she was present at the visit of the Magi Matthew 2: Mark simply refers to Jesus as the son of Mary Mark 6: Even if one takes these scenes as literal historical accounts, they do not add up to an integrated portrait of Mary.

The Gospel of Luke and the Acts however give us the essential framework for the beginning of an authentic study of Mary. The first mention of Mary is in the story of the Annunciation, which reports that she was living in Nazareth and was betrothed to Joseph Luke 1: She appears in the following incidents in the Gospels: Her role, quietly in the background gave support and encouragement to the work of Jesus. The Annunciation Account 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.

The Lord is with you. The Birth of Jesus 1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This is a very well known account, but what of the conception and birth of Mary? Her entry into this world is no less miraculous and her childhood equally reflects the power and presence of the divine all pervading power of God Almighty. The medieval representation of this shows Mary wearing a sash whose both ends are knotted in such a way that they are hanging loose and low.

The sash is also attributed to the Immaculata. His scarf is tied to the end or her gown or sari. Again the importance of chastity and purity is reaffirmed. It is quite evident that the Gospels of Luke and James give us good grounding for the beginnings of an in depth study of Mary and her true identity. As early as the 2nd century, Christians venerated Mary by calling her Mother of God.

This suggests the divine nature of Mary and her true place within the Holy Trinity. Closely related to the title Mother of God is the title Virgin Mary, affirming the virginal conception of Jesus Luke 1: God, not Joseph, was the true father of Jesus. In the Marian devotion that developed in the East in the 4th century, Mary was venerated not only in the conception but also in the birth of Jesus.

This conviction was expressed clearly in the 4th century, baptismal creeds of Cyprus, Syria, Palestine, and Armenia. The title used was Aieiparthenos ever-virgin , and by the middle of the 7th century the understanding of the title came to include the conviction that Mary remained a virgin for the whole of her life. This notion reinforces the idea that Mary was not touched by this world, indeed her purity of spirit, body and mind signaled her attachment to the realms of the Gods. The passages in the New Testament referring to the brothers of Jesus for instance, Mark 6: In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, various Christian writers began to express the belief that, because of her intimate union with God through the Holy Spirit in the conception of Jesus, Mary was completely free from any taint of sin.

Who else could have born the Son of God on earth? During the late Middle Ages 13th century to 15th century , devotion to Mary grew dramatically. Mary came to be depicted as the one who interceded for sinners. As the fear of death and the Last Judgment intensified following the Black Plague in the 14th century, Mary was increasingly venerated in popular piety as mediator of the mercy of Christ.

Her prayers and pleas were seen as the agency that tempered the stern justice of Christ. Let us look then at the life of Mary. According to the histories of the twelve tribes of Israel, Joachim was a very wealthy man. Anna wept to see her husband go. All alone, she went into the garden and sat down beneath the laurel tree.

Looking toward the heavens, she saw a nest of sparrows in the tree. Fresh tears welled up in her eyes. How she longed to have a child of her own.

To what am I likened? I am not likened to this earth, for even the earth brings forth her fruit in its season and blesses you, O Lord. When she was six months old her mother stood her on the ground to see if she could stand. Then she made a sanctuary in her bedroom and prohibited everything common and unclean from passing through it. Thus they did, until they had gone up into the Temple. He set her on the third step of the alter, and the Lord God gave grace to her, and she danced with her feet, and all the house of Israel loved her.

At last it was time for Mary to climb the steps to the Temple. A halo of light encircled the blessed child and filled with joy, she began to dance. Her parents returned marvelling and giving praise and glorifying the Lord God that the child did not turn back. Irenaeus did not argue the point; he seems rather to have taken the parallel for granted, and this may indicate that it was not his own invention but belonged to tradition, for which he had a high respect.

The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

In any case, the parallel did ascribe to Mary and to her obedience an active share in the redemption of the human race: Perhaps, as the 19th-century English theologian John Henry Cardinal Newman supposed, the determination of the Council of Nicaea in that Christ was not merely the highest of creatures but belonged on the divine side of the line between Creator and creature was even responsible for the rapid growth of devotion and speculation attached to Mary as the highest of creatures. By the end of the 4th century, the Theotokos had successfully established itself in various sections of the church.

The growth of the ascetic ideal in the church helped to give support to this view of Mary as the model of the ever virgin. The doctrine is neither asserted nor denied but is simply ignored in the New Testament , and Old Testament passages adduced in support of it by Church Fathers such as Ezekiel As the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary implied an integral purity of body and soul, so, in the opinion of many theologians, she was also free of other sins.

Attempting to prove the universality of sin against Pelagius whose teaching was condemned as heretical by the Christian church but who did maintain the sinlessness of Mary , Augustine , the great theologian and bishop from northern Africa, spoke for the Western church when he wrote:. We must except the holy Virgin Mary. Out of respect for the Lord, I do not intend to raise a single question on the subject of sin. After all, how do we know what abundance of grace was granted to her who had the merit to conceive and bring forth him who was unquestionably without sin?

It was, however, the distinction between original sin i. Certain Eastern theologians in the 4th and 5th centuries were willing to attribute actual sins to her, but most theologians in both East and West came to accept the view that she never did anything sinful, a view that found expression even among the 16th-century reformers.

Mary, mother of Jesus

But was she free from original sin as well? And if so, how? Thomas Aquinas , the most important medieval theologian in the West, took a representative position when he taught that her conception was tarnished, as was that of all humans, but that God suppressed and ultimately extinguished original sin in her, apparently before she was born. This position, however, was opposed by the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception , systematized by Duns Scotus , a 13th-century British Scholastic theologian, and finally defined as Roman Catholic dogma by Pope Pius IX in According to this dogma, Mary not only was pure in her life and in her birth but.

When the Immaculate Conception was promulgated , petitions began coming to the Vatican for a definition regarding the Assumption of the Virgin into heaven, as this was believed by Roman Catholics and celebrated in the Feast of the Assumption. During the century that followed, more than eight million persons signed such petitions, yet Rome hesitated because the doctrine was difficult to define on the basis of Scripture and early witnesses to the Christian tradition. Such arguments from silence, however, did not suffice to establish a dogma, and, on the positive side, even the earliest doctrinal and liturgical testimony in support of the idea had appeared relatively late in history.

In addition to these official prerogatives and titles given to her by Catholic Christianity, the Virgin Mary has achieved great cultural importance. Popular devotion to Mary—in such forms as feasts, devotional services, and the rosary —has played a tremendously important role in the lives of Roman Catholics and the Orthodox ; at times, this devotion has pushed other doctrines into the background.

Modern Roman Catholicism has emphasized that the doctrine of Mary is not an isolated belief but must be seen in the context of two other Christian doctrines: What is said of Mary is derived from what is said of Jesus; this was the basic meaning of Theotokos. We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval.

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Mary, The Madonna, the Virgin Mary. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Icons of Mary were probably first created because of the development of Marian doctrines in the 3rd and 4th centuries. The lack of New Testament descriptions of Mary was compensated by numerous legends of Mary that concerned themselves especially with wondrous appearances of miraculous icons of the…. More About Mary 45 references found in Britannica articles Assorted References anagogical interpretation In biblical literature: Art and iconography View More. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

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