The Life & Times of Virgin Mary

What do we really know about Mary, the Sacred Mother of Jesus?

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is depicted in the gospels as someone of serious spiritual intuition. She’s also described by God as “highly favored.” But the woman who conceived the Savior was of humble origins, a person of limited education who followed a simple lifestyle. Often promoted as a model of chastity and obedience as well as a figure of authority & respect, Mary’s life is documented up to a point in Scripture, but her later years are shrouded in mystery.

Mary was born c. 18 BCE, most likely in Nazareth, Galilee. When Mary was 3 years old, she was given to service as a consecrated virgin in the Temple in Jerusalem. She remained ensconced in the temple until she was 12.

Mary was actually known as Miriam, after the older sister of Moses. Her name in Arabic was Maryam.

Who were Mary’s parents?

There are only 150 manuscripts that refer to the parents of Mary, one of which is the Gospel of James. These surviving documents tell us that her father was Saint Joachim and her mother was Saint Anne.

Mary is believed to be a direct descendant of Abraham, a figure revered by the three great monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

According to the book of Luke, Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel while she was engaged to be married to Joseph, a carpenter. The angel told the young woman that she had found favor with God and would give birth to His son. This is known as the Annunciation.

A birth was foretold. Puzzled, Mary asked how this was possible, as she was still a virgin. The angel replied that the Holy Spirit would impregnate her and that she would conceive a son called Jesus.

Soon afterwards, Mary discovered that she was pregnant. In Christianity, Mary is commonly referred to as the Virgin Mary, in accordance with the belief that she was indeed impregnated by the Holy Spirit.

Mary & Joseph, who was also obedient to God and dissuaded from leaving her after he learned of the pregnancy, married each other in Bethlehem. It was also in Bethlehem that Jesus Christ was born.

The birth of Jesus

The birth of Jesus is only depicted in two of the gospels, Matthew & Luke. In Galatians 4 of the New Testament, reference is made to Jesus “born of a woman,” therefore confirming Jesus as both human & divine & Mary as the mother.

Mary & Joseph eventually returned home to Nazareth, where they lived quietly and for the most part, anonymously.

The Holy Family, the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary & Saint Joseph, probably lived in an extended family unit. The couple had four more sons: Joseph, James, Jude & Simon. The last three mentioned are not to be confused with those who were apostles of Jesus by the same name. The Bible also tells us that Jesus had sisters, but none are named.

Mary’s day life as the mother of Jesus would have been largely spent undertaking domestic chores, things like collecting and carrying water from a nearby well or stream and gathering wood for the fire.

Her household duties no doubt extended to cooking meals and washing utensils and clothes, as well as keeping the home clean and tidy.

Mary was probably illiterate sometimes depicted in a literary setting, a hand on an open book or prayer sheet. However, it’s doubtful that she knew how to read or write, since literacy was extremely rare among women of the time.

Mariology was the theological study of Mary. Mariologists pore over the life of the mother of Jesus in Scripture and the development of doctrine pertaining to her life and mission.

Mary is believed by Catholics to have been born without original sin. In fact, Mariology considers a view of Christ and his role incomplete without reckoning with the part Mary had to play. How is this so?

According to Roman Catholic Church dogma, Mary was the Immaculate Conception, in other words, she was the only person ever born without original sin. The Church argues that not once did Mary contract the guilt of Adam’s original sin, his eating of forbidden fruit that brought despair and death into the world.

But that all depends on how we read the Bible and how Scripture is interpreted. In Luke 1:47, Mary says, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Did Mary need saving?

The argument goes that if Mary needed a savior, she must have been a sinner and therefore couldn’t have been immaculately conceived.

Is Mary the mother of Jesus or the mother of God? The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran Churches believe that Mary, as mother of Jesus, is also the Mother of God. But why?

When Mary is described as the mother of God, it’s a reminder of the role she played in the salvation of the human race. The description can also be interpreted as meaning that Mary conceived a person within her womb and that person was the second divine person of the Trinity, after the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Joseph died before Jesus’ public ministry began. Mary, however, lived through the time of that ministry. We know this through Mark 3:31 and John 2:1-12.

John 19:25-27 tells us that Mary, her sister Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene were all present at Jesus’ crucifixion.

What happened to Mary after Jesus’ death? At that time of the crucifixion, Mary was probably close to 50 years old. That’s well beyond the age most women in that epoch lived.

In Acts 1:12–26, rare appearance of Mary is the only one referenced other than the 11 apostles to be mentioned by name who lived in the upper room when they returned from the Mount of Olives. The upper room, or cenacle, in Jerusalem is traditionally held to be the site of the Last Supper.

There is no reference in Scripture to tell us that Mary witnessed the Resurrection. The first woman to meet Jesus after the Resurrection was another Mary, Mary Magdalene.

At a general audience on May 21, 1997, Pope John Paul II offers an explanation declaring, “The gospels mention various appearances of the risen Christ, but not a meeting between Jesus and his Mother. This silence must not lead to the conclusion that after the Resurrection Christ did not appear to Mary; rather it invites us to seek the reasons.”

The account of Mary’s presence with the apostles during the Pentecost –the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles of Jesus while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks –is vague. And after the Pentecost, Mary’s life effectively disappears from history.

The belief of most biblical scholars is that Mary lived out her life in the company of the disciples. The truth is the rest of her life, disappearing from history, is shrouded in legend.

Her death remains a mystery. It isn’t known when Mary died and her passing is not recorded in the Scriptures. One tradition says she died in 43 CE, another in 48 CE.

However, Orthodox tradition, tolerated also by Catholics, has her first dying a natural death, known as the dormition of Mary and then, soon after, the assumption of the virgin Mary’s body itself also being taken into heaven.

Mary’s unwavering obedience to God as well as the virgin birth led to her being revered in Christianity across the world. As the Sanctified Mother, she remains in the official teachings of the Catholic Church as “the first dwelling place of God in the salvation history.”