Thursday, 21 November 2013

The Presentation Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Feast Day 21 November.


Text from the Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Feast Day 21 November.

Greater-Double.
White Vestments.


File:Presentation titian.JPG

English: Presentation of the Virgin Mary (detail).
Titian (1490–1576).
Italiano: Tiziano. Presentazione al Tempio (dettaglio).
Date: 1534 - 1538.
Current location: Accademia of Venice, Italy.
Source: Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy.
(Wikimedia Commons)

After having Solemnised on 8 September the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and four days later the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, a name given to her a short time before her Birth, the Cycle celebrates on this day the Presentation in the Temple of the Child of Benediction.

These first three Feasts of Mary's Cycle are an echo of the Christological Cycle which, likewise, celebrates the Birth of Jesus, 25 December, the imposition of His Holy Name, 2 January, and His Presentation in the Temple, 2 February.


File:Alfonso boschi, presentazione di maria al tempio.jpg

English: The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple.
Italiano: Presentazione di maria al tempio.
Artist: Alfonso Boschi.
Date: 17th-Century.
Source: Giovanni Piccirillo (a cura di), 
La chiesa dei Santi Michele e Gaetano, 
Becocci Editore, Firenze 2006.
Author: sailko.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Feast of the Presentation of Mary is founded on a pious tradition, originated by two apocryphal Gospels, which relate that the Blessed Virgin was presented in the Temple of Jerusalem when three years old, and that she lived there with other girls and the Holy Women who had them in their care. Already in the 6th-Century, the event is commemorated in the East and the Emperor Michael Comnenus alludes to it in a Constitution of 1166.


File:Dillingen Klosterkirche Mariä Himmelfahrt Fresko 778.JPG

der Dillinger Franziskanerinnen in Dillingen an der Donau, 
Fresko mit der Darstellung des Tempelganges Mariens.
English: Fresco of The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Monastery Church of the Assumption, 
Photo: 26 September 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: GFreihalter.
(Wikimedia Commons)


A French nobleman, Philippe de Maizières, who was Chancellor at the Court of the King of Cyprus, having been sent in 1372 as Ambassador to Pope Gregory XI, at Avignon, related to the Pope with what magnificence the Feast was Solemnised in Greece, on 21 November. His Holiness introduced the Feast at Avignon and Pope Sixtus V introduced it at Rome in 1585. Pope Clement VIII raised it to the Rank of Greater-Double and re-arranged the Office.

Mass: Salve, Sancta Parens.


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