Where Was Our Lady Born?

On September 8, we mark the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. But where was Mary born, and when? Günther Simmermacher tries to find answers.

When the Church celebrates the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8, it doesn’t suggest that this is the actual birthday of Our Lady.

The Bible is silent on the specifics of her birth, just as Scripture doesn’t reveal the date of Jesus’ birth. The reason for that is simple: the early Christians regarded birthdays as meaningless; the important date was, and is, that of earthly death, when the faithful commence their transition to heaven.

At least we know where Jesus was born. In Mary’s case, we only have a number of ancient traditions. The strongest of these places her nativity in Jerusalem, adjacent to the Temple. That belief goes back to the early second century, and we shall return to it shortly.

Another tradition suggests that Mary was born in the city of Sepphoris, near Nazareth, before its reconstruction (a project in which St Joseph and Jesus might have been involved in their job as builders). In the 5th century a basilica dedicated to Mary was built there, suggesting that it was manifesting a local tradition.

There is also a theory, not entirely unreasonable, that Mary was native to Nazareth, but no written record or robust tradition supports that notion, nor the lately fashionable idea that Jesus was born there.

The Gospel of St James

The only written record places Mary’s birth firmly in Jerusalem. For this, we must rely on the apocryphal Gospel of St James, which was written no later than 150 AD, when it is first mentioned. It might be apocryphal, in as far as it does not form part of the four canonical Gospels, but it was seen as credible enough by early Church leaders to form the basis of many things we believe about Mary even today, including the existence of Ss Anne and Joachim.

Its rejection as a canonical Gospel goes back to St Jerome, who in the late 4th century translated the Bible into Latin, and his friend Pope Innocent I, who in 405 condemned the Gospel of James. So when the Bible was structured in the late 5th century, James was excluded.

But James’ biography of Mary did enter into the Christian mainstream. Uniquely, it tells of St Anne’s miraculous conception of Mary, mentions Anne’s husband Joachim, and provides the earliest known assertion of Mary’s perpetual virginity.

According to James, Anne and Joachim were advanced in age and childless, a circumstance that distressed them. One day Joachim went into the wilderness to fast and pray for 40 days. At home, Anne did likewise. As she lamented her childlessness, an angel appeared to her, announcing that she would have a child. By the time Joachim returned from the desert, having been duly apprised of the new circumstances by an angel, Anne was pregnant.

What was the year?

But where was Mary born, and when? For the former, we may turn to the Gospel of James and tradition; for the date, we have only conjecture by maths.

The feast of Mary’s nativity, set at September 8, was established in the 7th century. Its date is predicated on the older feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, much as the date of Jesus’ nativity is based on the feast of the Annunciation. Add nine months to both feasts of conception, and you arrive at the dates of their respective nativities.

The year of Mary’s birth is more complicated to guess at, because we know neither the year of Jesus’ birth nor her age when she gave birth to the Lord. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the Massacre of the Innocents was initiated by King Herod after the Magi described the infant they sought to locate as a king. Since we know that Herod died in 4 BC, Jesus must have been born before that year. If we allow a year or two between Herod’s genocidal mania and his death, then Jesus might well have been born in 5 or 6 BC, or even earlier.

Tradition has it that Mary was around 14 at the time of the Annunciation. In our times, that is absurdly young for motherhood, but in those days, it was a typical age for marriage (remember that life expectancy was very short then). If we then assume that Mary was 14 or maybe 15 when she gave birth to Jesus, then she might have been born around 20 BC.

What was the place? And where was Mary born?

Tracking back to Anne’s unexpected pregnancy, the Gospel of James reports that when Joachim returned from his penance in the wilderness, he and Anne embraced at the city gates in Jerusalem, placing the couple in the Holy City.

A wealthy couple, they are said to have lived very near the Pools of Bethesda, and close to the Sheep Gate, through which livestock would be driven on their way to be sacrificed in the Temple (today it’s the location of Lions’ or St Stephen’s Gate).

The tradition therefore is that Anne gave birth to Mary near this site, where Jesus would later cure the paralysed man (John 5:2-18). A small chapel dedicated to Mary was built at the site of the Pools of Bethesda in the 4th century, and a large basilica, also dedicated to Mary, in the 5th century. It was severely damaged in the Persian invasion of 614. Remnants of that church can still be seen among the various excavations of the Pools of Bethesda.

In the 1130s, the Crusaders built a new church over the grotto believed to be the place where Anne gave birth to Mary. The church was dedicated to St Anne, and it still exists today. In the church’s crypt, a rather gaudy mural marks the spot of Mary’s nativity.

The survival of St Anne’s church can be attributed to Islam’s veneration of Mary and then to the Crimean War of the mid-1800s.

After Saladin’s defeat of the Crusaders in 1187, the Muslims did not destroy the church but turned it into a madrassa, or Islamic school of theology. An Arabic inscription above the entrance still bears that institution’s name, Salahiya (“of Saladin”). Christians could still visit the crypt to pray at Mary’s reputed birthplace, but only for an entrance fee.

Over the centuries the structure became a stable and then was abandoned, falling into neglect. In 1854 the Ottoman sultan presented the church, with the Pools of Bethesda site, to France’s Emperor Napoleon III, in gratitude for the French involvement on the Turkish side in the Crimean War. The church, filled to the top with rubbish when handed over, was lovingly restored by the French government, which still owns the site.

It is cared for by the Missionaries for Africa, or White Fathers, one of whom is often at hand to greet pilgrims and chat with them about the church, the horticulture in the beautiful garden, or life in Jerusalem. The interior of St Anne’s church is plain, almost austere. Still, the church is very popular for its astonishing acoustics. Many pilgrim groups will sing an impromptu hymn or two during their visit, and the church is often used for choral concerts.

A stone’s throw away from the church of St Anne and the Pools of Bethesda, the Via Dolorosa begins. And on the Lord’s way to the Cross we again encounter Mary, now an older woman.

Why Nazareth?

The question arises: If Mary was born in Jerusalem, how did she end up in the rural backwater of Nazareth? Alas, no reliable narrative helps us out here. We do know a little about Mary’s childhood from the Gospel of James.

According to James, Anne and Joachim expected their child to be a boy and vowed that he would be brought up in the Temple. As we know, the child turned out to be a girl, but true to their vow, Mary’s parents sent her to the Temple into the care of the priests when the girl was only three years old. That’s where we lose track of Anne and Joachim. Tradition says that Joachim died not long after Mary’s birth.

Mary’s position in the Temple changed when she was 12 and started menstruating, a function of nature which Judaism considered to be unclean. So Mary had to leave the Temple, and, according to James, was betrothed to the widower Joseph. While Joseph was away on business, Mary was called to the Temple to help weave the temple curtain (perhaps the same curtain that would tear at the moment her Son would die on the cross three decades later). While Mary was spinning thread, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her, carrying the most momentous news.

So James doesn’t place Mary in Nazareth at all, though the older canonical Gospels agree on her residence in Nazareth, and the angel’s appearance there. We are left to speculate how that came to be.

There are a couple of reasonable explanations. One is that after Joachim’s death, Anne and Mary moved to Galilee to stay with relatives there. In the society of their time,

a woman without a man’s protection had no rights and was a social outcast. So without Joachim, Anne might have sought refuge under male guardianship. Such a man might have lived in Sepphoris — maybe one of the two other husbands which a medieval legend marries Anne off to, or maybe a family member. And in Sepphoris, they might have encountered one Joseph of Bethlehem.

Another alternative is that Mary, by now possibly orphaned, moved to Nazareth after being dismissed from the Temple, either to be with relatives or moving there with her fiancée Joseph.

And what was Joseph, who hailed from Bethlehem, located near Jerusalem, doing in the remote Galilee? As a craftsman — the Gospels call him a tekton, a Greek term which suggests that he was a skilled builder — he might well have found employment in the huge reconstruction project of the city of Sepphoris. So Nazareth was a convenient site of residence — and a safe place for the Son of God to be raised by Mary, who was born probably in Jerusalem around 2045 years ago.

Günther Simmermacher is the author of The Holy Land Trek: A Pilgrim’s Guide.

Published in the September 2024 issue of The Southern Cross magazine