Image 1 of 1: The Nativity of the Virgin, Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen
Saints and feasts
The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary's birth is the dawn before the coming of Christ. The Church rejoices because the Mother prepared for the Redeemer has entered the world and salvation has drawn nearer.
The reading
ⓘ Butler source
Butler's Lives of the Saints, Volume III (July-August-September), September 8, The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Christian Classics 1990, p. 506.
The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the dawn before the coming of Christ. The Church rejoices because the Mother prepared for the Redeemer has entered the world, and the promises of salvation have drawn visibly nearer. Nine months after the feast of her Immaculate Conception, Mary's nativity reveals in time the hidden work of grace already begun in her.
Scripture does not record the circumstances of Mary's birth, and the Church does not pretend to know every detail of her infancy. The feast looks instead to the mystery itself: God prepared a holy mother for His Son, and her quiet beginning belongs to the unfolding of redemption. Long celebrated in both East and West, the Nativity of Mary teaches Christians to give thanks for grace before its full fruit can yet be seen.
Historical note
Scripture does not record the circumstances of Mary's birth; the feast centers on her place in salvation history rather than uncertain details of infancy.
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