Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary/Chapter 1

The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary.

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Chapter 1.

The blessed and glorious ever-virgin Mary, sprung from the royal stock and family of David, born in the city of Nazareth, was brought up at Jerusalem in the temple of the Lord.&#160; Her father was named Joachim, and her mother Anna.&#160; Her father&#8217;s house was from Galilee and the city of Nazareth, but her mother&#8217;s family from Bethlehem.&#160; Their life was guileless and right before the Lord, and irreproachable and pious before men.&#160; For they divided all their substance into three parts.&#160; One part they spent upon the temple and the temple servants; another they distributed to strangers and the poor; the third they reserved, for themselves and the necessities of their family.&#160; Thus, dear to God, kind to men, for about twenty years they lived in their own house, a chaste married life, without having any children.&#160; Nevertheless they vowed that, should the Lord happen to give them offspring, they would deliver it to the service of the Lord; on which account also they used to visit the temple of the Lord at each of the feasts during the year.