The celebration has an unusual history, and honesty about it is part of understanding it. The narrative of Mary being brought to the Temple as a small child and presented to God comes not from the canonical Gospels but from the second-century apocryphal writing known as the Protoevangelium of James. The Church has never proposed that account as historical fact. What the liturgy celebrates is what the story expresses and what the Church holds with certainty: that the Mother of God was set apart for the Lord from the beginning and gave herself wholly to his will. The date is anchored in something concrete. On November 21, 543, a church dedicated to Saint Mary the New was consecrated in Jerusalem near the site of the Temple, and the anniversary was kept in the East as a Marian celebration. It reached the papal court at Avignon in 1372 through the influence of a diplomat from Cyprus, and Pope Sixtus V extended it to the whole Latin Church in 1585. The revised calendar retains it as an obligatory memorial, celebrated in white. The Gospel offered is the Lord's word that whoever does the will of his Father is his brother and sister and mother, which sets the memorial exactly where it belongs: Mary's greatness lies in her obedience of faith. Since 1953 the day has been widely observed as Pro Orantibus Day, a day of prayer and support for contemplative religious, whose enclosed life mirrors the hidden self-offering the memorial celebrates. Many communities of nuns and monks renew their vows on this day.

Memorial

memorial

Ordinary time

November 21

memorial