The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Memorial, November 21

The Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, observed on November 21st, commemorates the bringing of the child Mary to the Temple in Jerusalem by her parents Joachim and Anne, where she was dedicated to God's service and received into the precincts of the Temple. This event, not recorded in the New Testament but preserved in the apocryphal Gospel of James, has been celebrated in the Eastern Church since at least the sixth century and was gradually adopted by the Western Church, where it was extended to the universal Roman Calendar in 1585 by Pope Sixtus V.

According to the pious narrative of the Gospel of James, Mary was brought to the Temple at the age of three, in fulfillment of the vow her parents had made when God granted them the child they had prayed for so long. She is said to have ascended the fifteen steps of the Temple without stumbling and without looking back, and to have been received by the high priest who blessed her and declared that God had magnified her name in all generations. She remained in the precincts of the Temple, fed miraculously by an angel, until the age of twelve, when she was given to Joseph as her guardian.

Whatever the historical value of these details, the theological significance they convey is real: from her earliest childhood, Mary was entirely consecrated to God, her whole being given over to His service and His will. The Presentation anticipates and foreshadows her total consecration at the Annunciation, when she said Be it done to me according to your word and became the dwelling place of the Son of God.

For religious women especially, the feast of the Presentation of Mary is a day of particular meaning, celebrating the first and greatest of those who have given their lives to God in the temple of the consecrated life. Many congregations of religious women regard November 21st as a special day of thanksgiving for their vocation.