The first mention of Mary is the story of theAnnunciation, which reports that she was living inNazarethand was betrothed toJoseph(Luke 1:26 ff.), and the last mention of her (Acts of the Apostles 1:14) includes her in the company of those who devoted themselves toprayerafter the ascensi...
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling ...
Icon of the Virgin and Child with Saints Theodore and George, St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mt. Sinai, 6th century That there are many different types and genres of Mary icons that attest to the need of all Christians to be able to relate to different aspects of her humanity and divinity...
It is also the site of the Stella Maris Monastery, the world headquarters of the Carmelites, a Catholic contemplative religious order. Three great saints of the Carmelite Order are St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Therese of Lisieux. Through their witness and books they...
The Virgin Mary, on the other hand, was a star rising above the waves like Aphrodite before her. Queen of the Seas, Queen of the Heavens, Queen of the Virgins:the Cult of the Virgin Mary. Theodora had seen images of Isis nursing Horus in Egypt. There was a similar icon of Mary and...
St. Benedict had a rose garden ("rosary") at his monastery in the 4th c., but the first garden we know of that was specifically dedicated to Mary was one created by the Irish St. Fiacre in the 7th c. The earliest record of a garden explicitly called a "Mary Garden" involves a "...
Devotion to Our Blessed Lady…is not contained, at least explicitly in the earlier forms of the Apostles’ Creed…we do not meet with any clear traces of the cultus of the Blessed Virgin in the first Christian centuries (Herbert Thurston. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Catholic Enc...
The Door of the Apostles at the Cathedral of Valencia stands as a treasure of sacred Gothic architecture and sculpture. A modification to its original structure in 1599 removed the mullion and the stone image of the Virgin that is to be found today in the tympanum. However, regardless of her...