Mary, Mother of Jesus
Also: Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary
The virgin of Nazareth who said yes to God at the Annunciation (Luke 1:26–38).
- Knew Jesus personally
- Early Church
Awaiting theological review
Who was Mary?
A young Jewish woman of Nazareth, betrothed to Joseph, who conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Gospels show her at his birth and childhood, at the start of his signs in Cana, at the foot of the Cross, and praying with the apostles before Pentecost.
The story
The Annunciation: she consents to God's plan
Why does the Church call Mary's yes a model of faith? →Visits Elizabeth and praises God (the Magnificat)
Gives birth to Jesus in Bethlehem
Presents Jesus in the Temple; Simeon foretells a sword
What was the sword that would pierce Mary's soul? →Flees to Egypt with Joseph and the child
Finds the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple
At Cana: tells the servants to do whatever he says
Why do Catholics ask Mary to pray for them? →Stands by the Cross; entrusted to the beloved disciple
Prays with the apostles before Pentecost
Assumed body and soul into heavenly glory
· Tradition holds
What does the Church mean by the Assumption? →
What we know — and how
Scripture tells us
- She was a virgin betrothed to Joseph, of the house of David, when the angel Gabriel announced that she would conceive the Son of the Most High by the Holy Spirit.(Luke 1:26–38; Matthew 1:18–25)
- Elizabeth, her kinswoman, called her blessed among women and the mother of my Lord.(Luke 1:39–45)
- Twice Luke says she kept these things and pondered them in her heart.(Luke 2:19; Luke 2:51)
- At Cana she brought the need to Jesus and told the servants to do whatever he told them; at the Cross Jesus gave her to the beloved disciple as his mother.(John 2:1–11; John 19:25–27)
- She is named among those devoted to prayer with the apostles in Jerusalem.(Acts of the Apostles 1:14)
Tradition holds
- The Council of Ephesus (431) confessed her as Mother of God (Theotokos), because the one she bore is truly God (CCC 495).Source: Council of Ephesus; Catechism of the Catholic Church
- The Church teaches as dogma that Mary was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her conception (the Immaculate Conception, defined 1854; CCC 491).Source: Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus (1854); Catechism of the Catholic Church
- The Church holds that Mary remained a virgin all her life; the brothers and sisters of Jesus in the Gospels are understood as close relatives (CCC 500).Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church
- The Church teaches as dogma that at the end of her earthly life Mary was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory (the Assumption, defined 1950).Source: Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus (1950)
- Her parents are remembered as Joachim and Anne.Source: Protoevangelium of James (2nd century), an apocryphal writing; not Scripture
Historians debate
- Where she spent her last years and died: traditions point to Jerusalem or to Ephesus.
- Her age at the Annunciation; estimates rest on general customs of betrothal, not on the text.
Unknown
- The dates of her birth and the end of her earthly life. The definition of the Assumption does not settle whether she died first.
Virtues
- Faith
- Obedience to God
- Humility
- Contemplation
- Faithfulness at the Cross
Why Mary matters
Mary shows what it looks like to receive God fully: she hears, believes, consents, and stays — from the manger to the Cross to the upper room. Catholics honour her not in place of Christ but because everything about her points to him.
Related people
- Joseph — Husband
- John the Baptist — Son of her kinswoman Elizabeth
- John — Entrusted to the beloved disciple (traditionally John)
- James, brother of the Lord — Called a brother of the Lord; a relative (CCC 500)
Places
Nazareth · Bethlehem · Egypt · Jerusalem · Cana
Interactive map coming in a later phase.