Presentation of Mary

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Presentation of Mary

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (as it is known in the West), or The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos
Theotokos

Theotokos is a title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches....
into the Temple (its name in the East), is a liturgical

Liturgy

A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to their particular traditions. The word may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Mass , or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat and Jewish Jewish services....
feast celebrated by the Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

New Testament

The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, but in the apocryphal Infancy Narrative of James

Gospel of James

The Gospel of James, also sometimes known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protoevangelium of James, is an New Testament apocrypha probably written about AD 150....
. According to that text, Mary

Blessed Virgin Mary

The Blessed Virgin Mary, sometimes shortened to The Blessed Virgin or The Virgin Mary, is a traditional title used by most Christians and most specifically used by liturgical Christians such as Roman Catholics, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics, and some others to describe Mary, mother of Jesus, the mother of...
's parents, Joachim

Joachim

Saint Joachim was the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and therefore is ascribed the title of "forebearer of God", in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Anglican traditions....
and Anne

Saint Anne

Saint Anne of David's house and line, was the mother of the Virgin Mary, according to Christianity tradition. Her name Anne is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Hannah ....
, who had been childless, received a heavenly message that they would bear a child.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Presentation of Mary'

Start a new discussion about 'Presentation of Mary'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Liturgy

Roman Catholic Church

New Testament

Gospel of James

Blessed Virgin Mary

Joachim

Saint Anne

Temple in Jerusalem

The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to a series of structures located on the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem. Historically, two temples were built at this location, and a The Third Temple features in Jewish eschatology....
to consecrate her to God. Mary remained in the Temple until puberty, at which point she was assigned to Joseph as guardian. Later versions of the story (such as the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew

Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew

The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew is a part of the New Testament apocrypha, and sometimes goes by the name of The Infancy Gospel of Matthew, but the actual name of the text in antiquity was The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior....
and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary) tell us that Mary was taken to the Temple at around the age of three in fulfillment of a vow

Vow

A vow is a promise or oath....
. Tradition held that she was to remain there to be educated in preparation for her role as Mother of God.

The feast originated as a result of the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary the New, built in the year 543 by the Byzantines under Emperor Justinian I

Justinian I

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus , AD 482 or 483 ? 13 or 14 November 565, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and List of Roman Emperors from 527 until his death....
near the site of the ruined Temple in Jerusalem. Although this basilica was destroyed by the Sassanid Persians under Khosrau II

Khosrau II

Khosrau II or Khosrow II was the twenty-second Sassanid Empire King of Persia from 590 to 628. He was the son of Hormizd IV and grandson of Khosrau I ....
after the Siege of Jerusalem

Siege of Jerusalem

A number of sieges have the name Siege of Jerusalem:*Sack of Jerusalem by Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I, called Shishaq in the Bible*Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, fighting a revolt against the Neo-Assyrian Empire...
(614

614

Events...
), the feast continued to be celebrated throughout the East. The feast was celebrated in the monasteries of Southern Italy by the ninth century and was later introduced into the Papal Chapel in Avignon

Avignon

Avignon is a Communes of France in the Vaucluse Departments of France in southeastern France with an estimated mid-2004 population of 89,300 in the city itself and a population of 290,466 in the aire urbaine at the 1999 census....
in the year 1372 by a decree of Pope Gregory IX

Pope Gregory IX

Pope Gregory IX, born Ugolino di Conti, was pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241.The successor of Pope Honorius III , he fully inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his uncle Pope Innocent III , and zealously continued their policy of Papal supremacy....
. It was included in the Roman Missal in 1472. But, as the fact of the "Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary" is only a pious belief, but not a defined matter of faith, it was suppressed by Pope Pius V

Pope Pius V

Pope Saint Pius V , born Antonio Ghislieri was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the implementation of the Council of Trent, the Counterreformation and the standardisation of the liturgy....
in 1568. As a result, it did not appear in the Tridentine Calendar

Tridentine Calendar

The Tridentine Calendar is the calendar of saints to be honoured in the official liturgy of the Roman Rite during the course of the liturgical year....
. Pope Sixtus V

Pope Sixtus V

Pope Sixtus V , born Felice Peretti di Montalto, was Pope from 1585 to 1590....
reintroduced it into the Roman Calendar in 1585. Pope Clement VIII

Pope Clement VIII

Pope Clement VIII , born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was Pope from January 30, 1592 to March 3, 1605....
made this feast a Greater Double in 1597. The feast also continued as a memorial in the Roman Calendar of 1969.

The Eastern Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world with an estimated 225 million members worldwide. It is considered by its adherents to be the Four Marks of the Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago....
celebrates it as one of its twelve Great Feasts, with the first documented celebration of the feast in any calendar being the mention of the ??s?d?? t?? ?a?a??a? Te?t???? (Entry of the All-Holy Theotokos

Theotokos

Theotokos is a title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches....
- i.e. into the Temple) in the 11th-century Menology of the Eastern Roman (also known as Byzantine

Byzantine

The word Byzantine may refer to:Topics directly related to the Byzantine Empire* A citizen of Byzantine Empire, or native Greeks during the Middle Ages ....
) emperor Basil II

Basil II

Basil II, surnamed the Bulgar-slayer , also known as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from January 10 976 to December 15, 1025....
.

For the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
, on the day of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, "we celebrate that dedication of herself which Mary made to God from her very childhood under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who filled her with grace at her Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception

For artistic depictions see Roman Catholic Marian art. For the novel by Ga?tan Soucy, see The Immaculate Conception.The Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic Dogma, the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary without any stain of original sin....
."

November 21 is also a "Pro Orantibus" Day, a day of prayer for cloistered religious

Nun

A Nun is a woman who has taken special vows committing her to a religious life. She may be an monasticism who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent....
"totally dedicated to God in prayer, silence and concealment."

The Presentation in art

Western depictions usually focused on the lone figure of the young Mary climbing the steep steps of the Temple, having left her parents at the bottom, and climbing towards the Chief Priest and other Temple figures at the top of the steps. The Presentation was one of the usual scenes in larger cycles of the Life of the Virgin

Life of the Virgin

The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary , the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ....
, although it was not usually one of the scenes shown in a Book of hours

Book of Hours

File:Boucicaut-Meister.jpgFile:Meester van Catharina van Kleef - Getijdenboek van de Meester van Catharina van Kleef4.jpgThe book of hours is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript....
.

Gallery

External links

Orthodox Icon
Icon

An 'icon' is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity. More broadly the term is used in a wide number of contexts for an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it either concretely or by analogy, as in semiotics; by extension, ...
and Synaxarion
- Catholic Encyclopedia article