Presentation of the Blessed Virgin
Today's memorial (21 November) in honour of the Blessed Virgin was first observed in the West in England in the 11th century and became a Roman feast in the 14th century. Because of its relatively late emergence, Pope Pius V actually removed it from the Tridentine-reformed Breviary but it was restored by Pope Sixtus V in 1585, thus firmly establishing this feast in the Universal Calendar of the Church. However, it seems to date to the 8th century in the Eastern Church wherein on 21 October, the Greek books mark a Feast of the 'Entrance of the All-Holy Mother of God into the Temple'. This, according to Butler's 'Lives of the Saints' links it to a commemoration of the basilica of St Mary the New in Jerusalem in 543.
Whatever the provenance of today's memorial, it is yet another opportunity to focus on the total dedication of Our Lady to the will of the Father, for this day commemorates the belief that when Mary was three years old, her parents, Ss Joachim and Anne, took her to the Temple to be educated. The 'Protoevangelium of James' rather touchingly notes that although Our Lady was only three, the Holy Spirit so endowed her with grace that she did not cling to her parents and instead "danced with her feet and all the house of Israel loved her", for which Ss Joachim and Anne thanked God and marvelled at His goodness.
This stained glass detail is from Our Lady of Victories in Kensington, London.
Presentation of the Blessed Virgin
Today's memorial (21 November) in honour of the Blessed Virgin was first observed in the West in England in the 11th century and became a Roman feast in the 14th century. Because of its relatively late emergence, Pope Pius V actually removed it from the Tridentine-reformed Breviary but it was restored by Pope Sixtus V in 1585, thus firmly establishing this feast in the Universal Calendar of the Church. However, it seems to date to the 8th century in the Eastern Church wherein on 21 October, the Greek books mark a Feast of the 'Entrance of the All-Holy Mother of God into the Temple'. This, according to Butler's 'Lives of the Saints' links it to a commemoration of the basilica of St Mary the New in Jerusalem in 543.
Whatever the provenance of today's memorial, it is yet another opportunity to focus on the total dedication of Our Lady to the will of the Father, for this day commemorates the belief that when Mary was three years old, her parents, Ss Joachim and Anne, took her to the Temple to be educated. The 'Protoevangelium of James' rather touchingly notes that although Our Lady was only three, the Holy Spirit so endowed her with grace that she did not cling to her parents and instead "danced with her feet and all the house of Israel loved her", for which Ss Joachim and Anne thanked God and marvelled at His goodness.
This stained glass detail is from Our Lady of Victories in Kensington, London.