THE BIRTH OF ST. MARY
The parents of St. Mary, St. Joachim (Heli) and St. Anne (Anna) were known for their purity, piety and charity and were loved and respected by their neighbours. They were very old but had no children. They prayed fervently for a child and promised to offer their child to God. A girl child was born to them in answer to their prayers. They named the child, 'Mary'- that means 'the beautiful or 'the perfect one.' The Church believes and teaches that St. Mary was conceived and born immaculate without the taint of original sin. The birthplace of St. Mary is believed to be in Jerusalem, near the pool of Bethzatha (Probatica), where the Church of St. Anne is now located.
She was born in sanctity and grew up in sanctity without even a shadow of sin. The Holy Quran, Sacred traditions, liturgical texts and non-canonical books describe the birth of St. Mary in considerable detail.
St. Joachim belonged to the royal family of King David (tribe of Judah) while St. Anne was a descendant of the priestly family of Aaron (tribe of Levi). Thus Jesus Christ, the Eternal king and Priest sprang from both a royal and a priestly family. The Church celebrates the birth of St. Mary on 8th September every year.
By: N.G.Philip, Bethel, Nalamchira, Thiruvananthapuram-695015, Kerala, India & Dr. Babu Philip, Professor, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India.
This is story No. 69 in this site. Please click ‘older posts’ at bottom of page to read previous stories in this site.
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