Virgin

The figure known in Christian tradition simply as the Virgin is Mary, the mother of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish woman of first-century Galilee. The only sources that can be treated as near-contemporary are the four canonical Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Matthew and Luke contain infancy narratives in which she is central; Mark, John, and Acts mention her more briefly. Later writings, notably the second-century Protoevangelium of James, name her parents as Joachim and Anne and describe a childhood dedicated in the Jerusalem Temple, but those accounts are legendary and are not corroborated by earlier evidence. Neither the year nor the precise place of her birth is recorded in any first-century source, nor is the date of her death.

Luke situates Mary in Nazareth of Galilee at the time of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel declares that she will conceive a son by the Holy Spirit. She is described as a virgin betrothed to Joseph, of the house of David. Matthew recounts Joseph's discovery of the pregnancy, his plan to dismiss her quietly, and his subsequent taking of her as his wife after a dream. Jesus is born in Bethlehem of Judea in the last years of Herod the Great. Matthew then has the family flee to Egypt and later settle in Nazareth; Luke has them return to Nazareth after the presentation of the child in the Temple. Luke also records Mary's visit to Elizabeth in the hill country of Judah and the canticle known as the Magnificat. These narratives are theological as well as biographical, and historians treat their details with caution while accepting the core claim that Mary of Nazareth was the mother of Jesus and the wife of Joseph.

In the accounts of Jesus' public life Mary appears infrequently. John's Gospel places her at the wedding at Cana, where she intercedes regarding the lack of wine, and at the crucifixion in Jerusalem, where Jesus entrusts her to the beloved disciple. The Synoptic Gospels mention her among relatives who come seeking Jesus. After the resurrection, Acts 1:14 names her among the women and the apostles at prayer in Jerusalem before Pentecost. The New Testament then falls silent. Christian tradition of subsequent centuries located her later years either in Jerusalem or at Ephesus with the apostle John, described her Dormition (falling asleep), and, in Catholic and Orthodox belief, her Assumption or translation into heaven. A tomb in the Kidron Valley east of Jerusalem has been venerated as hers since the late antique period; whether she died in Jerusalem or Ephesus remains a matter of competing traditions rather than demonstrated fact.

Veneration of Mary is attested from the second century and became universal in the historic churches. The Council of Ephesus in 431 affirmed the title Theotokos, God-bearer. Ancient and medieval Christianity, East and West, generally held her perpetual virginity; some later Protestant readers have interpreted the New Testament references to Jesus' brothers and sisters as children of Mary and Joseph. She was never canonized by a formal papal process, because her cult predates that institution and is regarded as apostolic. In the Roman calendar her principal celebrations include 1 January (Mary, Mother of God), 25 March (Annunciation of the Lord), 15 August (Assumption), 8 September (Nativity of Mary), and 8 December (Immaculate Conception). Parallel feasts of the Dormition and Nativity are observed in the Byzantine tradition. Under many titles she is patroness of mothers and virgins, of the Catholic Church, of numerous nations including Mexico, the United States, Poland, France, Portugal, Brazil, and the Philippines, and of sailors and families, among many other causes and places.