Saint Mary
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (First century)
As the mother of Jesus, Mary is the most powerful of all the saints; and as the ultimate symbol of motherhood she is invoked to meet every need. But details of her life are sparse.
According to unsubstantiated tradition, she was the daughter of St. Joachim and St. Anne and was presented and dedicated as a virgin at the Temple in Jerusalem. St. Luke’s Gospel records that after her betrothal to Joseph, the arch-angel Gabriel appeared to her at Nazareth to announce that she had been chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus; and that she then visited her cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. She and Joseph went to Bethlehem for a tax census after their marriage, and here Jesus was born. The family’s flight into Egypt to escape from King Herod is described in St. Matthew’s Gospel, as is their return to Nazareth.
Mary remains a shadowy figure in accounts of Christ’s public life. She is recorded in the New Testament as visiting Jerusalem at the Passover when Jesus was 12; as attending the marriage at Cana in Galilee when Jesus turned water into wine— his first miracle; as trying to see Jesus while he was teaching; as present at the Crucifixion — "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother,"— when Jesus gave her into the care of St. John the Apostle. It is assumed that from that time she lived in his household.
Mary remained with the apostles after Christ’s ascension into heaven — the last time she is mentioned in the Bible. Nothing is known of Mary’s last years, nor of how or even when she died.
From the fifth century many Christians have believed that she was assumed directly into heaven and that she remained a virgin throughout her life. In 1854 the Roman Catholic church pro-claimed that Mary was conceived and born unsoiled by original sin — Immaculate Conception —- and (in 1950) that she was taken up into heaven upon her death —- Assumption. The "highest of God’s creatures," as St. Thomas Aquinas called her, has been the object of special cults and devotions throughout the Christian world and has literally fulfilled her prophecy (Luke 1:48) that "all generations shall call me blessed."
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Mary's Song - The Magnificat "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me - holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants for ever, even as he said to our fathers." |
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Collect Almighty and everlasting God, who stooped to raise fallen humanity through the child-bearing of blessed Mary: grant that we, who have seen your glory revealed in our human nature and your love made perfect in our weakness, may daily be renewed in your image and conformed to the pattern of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. |
Feast Days - Purification 2nd February; Annunciation 25th March; Visitation 2nd July; Assumption 15th August; Nativity 8th September; Immaculate Conception 8th December.
Patronages - Motherhood.
Emblems - Normally portrayed holding her infant son.