Virgin Mary

Mary (Judeo-Aramaic: ????, Maryam, from Hebrew Miriam meaning excellence), called since medieval times Madonna (My Lady), resident in Nazareth in Galilee, is known from the New Testament as the mother of Jesus of Nazareth, whom as a young maiden she had conceived by the agency of the Holy Spirit whilst she was already the betrothed wife of Joseph of the House of David and awaiting their imminent formal "Home-taking" ceremony (the concluding Jewish wedding rite). To many believers the accounts in the canonical "Birth narratives" suggest that she had still been a virgin at the time of the child's conception as well as at his birth. The New Testament also recounts her presence at important stages during her son's adult life and in the early Church (e.g. at the Wedding at Cana, at his crucifixion, during communal prayers in the Upper Room).
Stories of her life are further elaborated in later Christian apocryphal and Islamic traditions, their best-known detail being the alleged names of her parents: Joachim and Anne.
Christian churches teach various doctrines concerning Mary, and she is the subject of much veneration. The area of Christian theology concerning her is known as Mariology. The conception of her son Jesus is believed to have been an act of the Holy Spirit, and to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that a virgin (or maiden) would bear a son who would be called Immanuel ("God with us"). The Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches venerate her as the Ever-Virgin Mother of God (Theotokos), who was specially favored by God's grace (Catholics hold that she was conceived without original sin) and, when her earthly life had been completed, was assumed into Heaven. Some Protestants, including certain Anglicans, Methodists and Lutherans, embrace veneration of Mary and also hold some of these doctrines. Others, especially in the Reformed tradition, question or even condemn the devotional and doctrinal position of Mary in the above traditions. Mary also holds a revered position in Islam.
Mary's most common titles include The Blessed Virgin Mary (also abbreviated to "BVM"), Our Lady (Notre Dame, Nuestra Señora, Nossa Senhora, Madonna), Mother of God, and the Queen of Heaven (Regina Caeli).
Mary is referred to by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy and all Eastern Catholic Churches as Theotokos, a title recognized at the Third Ecumenical Council (held at Ephesus to address the teachings of Nestorius, in 431). Theotokos (and its Latin equivalents, "Deipara" and "Dei genetrix") literally means "Godbearer". The equivalent phrase "Mater Dei" (Mother of God) is more common in Latin and so also in the other languages used in the Western Catholic Church, but this same phrase in Greek, in the abbreviated form of the first and last letter of the two words (?? T?), is the indication attached to her image in Byzantine icons. The Council stated that the Church Fathers "did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God", so as to emphasize that Mary's child, Jesus Christ, is in fact God.
Mary is also sometimes referred to as the Second Eve, as her obedience to God's command (contrasted with Eve's disobedience) led to the salvation of mankind through Jesus.
New TestamentLittle is known of Mary's personal history from the New Testament. She was a relative of Elizabeth, wife of the priest Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah, who herself was of the lineage of Aaron and so of the tribe of Levi. In spite of this, some speculate that Mary, like Joseph, to whom she was betrothed, was of the House of David and so of the tribe of Judah, and that the genealogy presented in Luke was hers, while Joseph's is given in Matthew. She resided at Nazareth in Galilee, presumably with her parents, and during her betrothal – the first stage of a Jewish marriage - the angel Gabriel announced to her that she was to be the mother of the promised Messiah by conceiving him through the Holy Spirit. When Joseph was told of her conception in a dream by "an angel of the Lord", he was surprised; but the angel told him to be unafraid and take her as his wife, which Joseph did, thereby formally completing the wedding rites.
Since the angel Gabriel had told Mary that Elizabeth, having previously been barren, was now miraculously pregnant, Mary hurried to visit Elizabeth, who was living with her husband Zechariah in a city of Judah "in the hill country". Once Mary arrived at the house and greeted Elizabeth, Elizabeth proclaimed Mary as "the mother of [her] Lord", and Mary recited a song of thanksgiving commonly known as the Magnificat from its first word in Latin. After three months, Mary returned to her house. According to the Gospel of Luke, a decree of the Roman emperor Augustus required that Joseph and his betrothed should proceed to Bethlehem for an enrollment, see Census of Quirinius. While they were there, Mary gave birth to Jesus; but because there was no place for them in the inn, she had to use a manger as a cradle.
After eight days, the boy was circumcised and named Jesus, in accordance with the instructions that the "angel of the Lord" had given to Joseph after the Annunciation to Mary. These customary ceremonies were followed by Jesus' presentation to the Lord at the Temple in Jerusalem in accordance with the law for firstborn males, then the visit of the Magi, the family's flight into Egypt, their return after the death of King Herod the Great about 2/1 BC and taking up residence in Nazareth.[14] Mary apparently remained in Nazareth for some thirty years. She is involved in the only event in Jesus' adolescent life that is recorded in the New Testament: at the age of twelve, Jesus having become separated from his parents on their return journey from the Passover celebration in Jerusalem was found among the teachers in the temple. Probably some time between this event and the opening of Jesus' public ministry Mary was widowed, for Joseph is not mentioned again.
After Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist and his temptations by the devil in the desert, Mary was present when Jesus worked his first public miracle at the marriage in Cana by turning water into wine at her intercession.[16] Subsequently there are events when Mary is present along with Jesus' "brothers" (James, Joseph, Simon and Judas) and unnamed "sisters". Mary is also depicted as being present during the crucifixion standing near "the disciple whom Jesus loved" along with her sister Mary of Clopas (possibly identical with the mother of James the younger and Joseph mentioned in Matthew 27:55, cf. Mark 15:40), and Mary Magdalene (John 19:25-26), to which list Matthew 27:56 adds "the mother of the sons of Zebedee", presumably the Salome mentioned in Mark 15:40, and other women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and ministered to him (mentioned in Matthew and Mark). Mary, cradling the dead body of her Son, while not recorded in the Gospel accounts, is a common motif in art, called a "pietà" or "pity".
According to Acts, Mary is the only one of about 120 people gathered, after the Ascension, in the Upper Room on the occasion of the election of Matthias to the vacancy of Judas, to be mentioned by name, other than the twelve Apostles and the candidates (Acts 1:12-26, especially v. 14; though it is said that "the women" and Jesus' "brothers" were there as well, their names are not given. From this time, she disappears from the Biblical accounts, although it is held by some Christian groups that she is again portrayed as the heavenly Woman of Revelation (Revelation 12:1).
Her death is not recorded in scripture. Tradition has her assumed (taken bodily) into heaven.
Ancient Non-Christian SourcesThe Church Father Origen wrote an apologetic work refuting the claims of Celsus, a late second-century eclectic Greek philosopher and polemic writer against Christianity. Preserved in Origen's work is the claim of Celsus that Jesus was an illegitimate child of a certain Roman soldier named Panthera from Mary, who had been turned out by her husband because she was convicted of unfaithfulness. These claims are related to the references in the Talmud to the figure of Ben-Pandera. According to the early third century Acts of Pilate, a Christian apocryphal work, the elders of the Jews stated to Pilate during the trial of Jesus that he had been conceived through fornication.
Later Christian writings and traditionsAccording to the Gospel of James, which, though not part of the New Testament, contains stories about Mary considered "plausible" by some Orthodox and Catholic Christians, she was the daughter of Joachim and Anna. Before Mary's conception, Anna had been barren, and her parents were quite old when she was conceived. They gave her to service as a consecrated virgin in the Temple in Jerusalem when she was three years old, much like Hannah took Samuel to the Tabernacle as recorded in the Old Testament (Tanakh, Hebrew Bible).
According to tradition, Mary died while surrounded by the apostles (in either Jerusalem or Ephesus) between three and fifteen years after Christ's ascension. When the apostles later opened her tomb they found it empty and concluded that she had been bodily assumed into Heaven.
The House of the Virgin Mary near Ephesus, Turkey is believed by some to be the place where Mary lived until her assumption into Heaven. The Gospel of John states that Mary went to live with the Disciple whom Jesus loved (John 19:27), who is traditionally identified as John the Apostle. Irenaeus and Eusebius of Caesarea wrote in their histories that John went later to Ephesus, which may provide the basis for the early belief that Mary also lived in Ephesus with John.
"Mary's Tomb", an empty tomb in Jerusalem, is attributed to Mary, but it was unknown until the 6th century.