An Aid To Memory

Today the Church celebrates the birthday of Mary. Today, September 8, falls 9 months after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is on December 8th. According to early Christian tradition, expressed in various non-canonical gospels, Mary was born to parents Anna and Joachim.

The feast of the Nativity of Mary originated in the Eastern Church, and gradually made its way westward. However, being based on apocryphal accounts, the feast was slow to take hold in the Western Church. The Eastern Churches celebrate Mary’s birthday on varying days. Historically, we know very little as to why September 8th was chosen to celebrate Mary’s birth in the West.

Some may object that we don’t really know when Mary was born. Some may say Mary’s birth is not worth celebrating. I can understand these objections as a historian and having grown up Protestant. Personally, neither objection really bothers me that much. These objections are often made about Christmas as well. The point is that we are celebrating the birth of the Mother of God, the new ark who was to bear God-in-the-flesh. We Catholics love to celebrate the heroes of the faith, and Mary is one of the biggest because of her role as Christ’s mother. Happy Birthday to the Virgin Mary.

Robb has also posted an excellent blog entry on Mary’s Birthday. Jennifer has also posted on Mary’s Birthday and a popular devotion associated with Mary’s birthday, the Maria Bambina.

Image from: http://www.holycross.edu/departments/visarts/projects/kempe/devotion/virgin.html

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 8th, 2005 at 1:49 pm and is filed under The Church Year. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.