Nativity of Mary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Giotto's Birth of Mary in the Scrovegni Chapel, ca 1305

The Nativity (Birth) of Mary is celebrated as a liturgical feast in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints and in most Anglican liturgical calendars on 8 September, nine months after the feast of her Immaculate Conception, celebrated on 8 December.

This feast, like that of the Assumption of Mary on 15 August, originated in Jerusalem. It began, in the fifth century, as the feast of the basilica Sanctae Mariae ubi nata est (the Basilica of the Birthplace of Saint Mary), now the Basilica of Saint Anne. In the seventh century, the feast was celebrated by the Byzantines and at Rome as the feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The feast is also celebrated by Syrian Christians on 8 September and by Coptic Christians on 7 September.^[1]

The feast was included in the Tridentine Calendar for 8 September and has remained on that date.

1 In art
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] In art

The scene was frequently depicted in art, as part of cycles of the the Life of the Virgin. Late medieval depictions are often valuable records of domestic interiors and their fittings - at this period the setting was often in a wealthy household.