Mary
Mother of Jesus
About 18 BC – 63 A.D.

Mary, distinctively know as the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, is described in the gospel history as a virgin in humble circumstances, but of the stem of David, who lived in obscurity in Nazareth, a city of Galilee, and was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter. A heavenly messenger broke in upon her solitude and announced to her that she should bear a son who should be called the Son of God, the long-expected Saviour of the Jews. “How shall this be,: she replied, “seeing I know not a man?” The angel informed her that the power of God should overshadow her, and make that which seemed impossible a reality. She bowed in submission to the will of the Supreme – “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to thy word.”

It was in a stable at Bethlehem, whither she and Joseph had come from Nazareth to be enrolled in the census ordered by the Emperor Augustus, that she gave birth to the Saviour.

After the flight to Egypt and the return to Nazareth we hear little of Mary, and to what extent she accompanied Jesus on his journeys we do not know. But she attended Him through all his perilous course to Golgotha with ever watchful anxiety, for we find her absorbed in silent sorrow at the foot of the cross with the beloved disciple, St. John, to whose care Jesus entrusted her.

There is a tradition that she died at Jerusalem 63 A.D.

Many religious orders have been instituted in honor of the Annunciation, of the Visitation, and all the orders of females called by her name.

In Christian art Mary as the Madonna occupies a most important position, and all the chief events in her life have formed the subjects of paintings executed by some of the greatest artists in the world.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.