The Feast of the Virgin’s Nativity, like the Assumption or the Dormition of Mary, originated in Jerusalem. It began in the fifth century as the Feast of the Basilica Sanctae Mariae ubi nata est, now called the Basilica of St. Anne. In the seventh century, the feast was celebrated at Rome as the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
While little is known about the Virgin Mary’s early childhood and family, however, an ancient text from the year AD 145, called The Protoevangelium of James, provides a narrative that many saints have turned to when wanting to learn more about the Virgin Mary. According to that unknown author, a man named Joachim was saddened at not being able to conceive a child with his wife, Anne. It is recorded this way, “Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and did not come into the presence of his wife; but he retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying in himself: ‘I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink.’” Similarly, his wife Anne “mourned in two mournings, and lamented in two lamentations, saying: “I shall bewail my widowhood; I shall bewail my childlessness.’” Then Anne “saw a laurel, and sat under it, and prayed to the Lord, saying: ‘O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac.’” In the midst of her prayers an angel appeared and said to her, “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.” At the same time an angel appeared to Joachim, saying, “Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence; for, behold, your wife Anne shall conceive.” The two conceived a child shortly thereafter and then according to the first-century account “her months were fulfilled, and in the ninth month Anne brought forth. And she said to the midwife: ‘What have I brought forth?’ And she said: A girl. And said Anne: ‘My soul has been magnified this day.’ And she laid her down. And the days having been fulfilled, Anne was purified, and gave the breast to the child, and called her name Mary.”
Prayer for the Nativity of the BVM
Impart to your servants, we pray, O Lord, the gift of heavenly grace that the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin may bring deeper peace to those for whom the birth of her Son was the dawning of salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Nature and dignity 