Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/55

43 ST. MARY 48 was buried at Antiooh, and that when they sought for her body in the tomb it was not there, bnt crowds of beautiful lilies were growing in the place where the Blessed Virgin had lain. Tillemont (Hist. Eec, I. 403) says that although the tradition of her being brought up in the temple is founded en- tirely on apocryphal writings, it is clear from 2 Kings zi. 23, 2 Chron. xzii. 11, 1 2, and St. Luke ii. 37, that under some circumstances women did live in the temple and bring up children there. Exodus zzxviii. 8 appears to have been taken by St. Ambrose to mean that there were women set apart for the service of the house of God. Tillemont further says that, although the Jewish traditions quoted by Epiphanius and Gregory were supposed to imply that the Virgin con- secrated to Qod was to remain a virgin, and although the story of her marriage takes for granted not only that she had a vow of celibacy bnt that such a vdw was of ordinary occurrence, " or Vun et Vauire est sana apparence" Whereas the Jewish writers disparaged Mary and stigmatized her Son as illegiti- mate, Mohammedan tradition makes her identical with Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, and says that she was miraculously kept alive for centuries in order to be the mother of Christ. It represents her as a holy virgin dedicated to God before her birth, by her mother Hannah ; educated by the priests in the temple, where angels ministered to her and where St. Gtibriel appeared to her with the salutation, ^ O Mary I verily Qod sendeth thee good tidings that thou shalt bear the Word proceeding from Himself. He shall be called Christ Jesus the son of Mary." Her child was born under a palm tree, and there Gt>d provided a stream of water for her and ripe dates fell from the tree for her to eat. The holy Infant spoke and taught and de- clared His mission. '' This," continues the story, ^< was Jesns tbe son of Mary, concerning whom they doubt." Neither Mary nor her Son were guilty of sin like other children of Adam, for, at their birth, God placed a veil between them and the evil spirit, because Mary's mother Hannah had prayed that they should be protected from Satan. This is the germ of the doctrine of the Im- maculate Conception. During the first six centuries this doctrine was not heard of. So far was Mary from being con- sidered faultless, that the ''sword" which was to " pierce through her own soul" was interpreted by St. Basil, in the fifth century, to mean tbe pang of unbelief in her Son's divinity that she experienced when she witnessed His cruci- fixion ; and her going with her nephews to try to interrupt His preaching and labours was attributed by St. Chry- sostom to arrogance and ambition. St. Ambrose describes her as a pattern of a young girl. St. Augustine says she was under original sin, but that perhaps the grace of God protected her entirely from actual sin. The observance of a feast of the Im- maculate Conception is said to have been established in England by St. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1109. St. Bernard opposed the inno- vation. From the 14th century the Mohammedan belief in Mary's entire sinlessness grew and spread, until a decree of Pius IX., in 1 854, established it as a dogma of the Church. As her worship increased, many passages in the scriptures were discovered to be pro- phetic or mystical references to her. She was the Bride of Solomon's Song ; the Woman clothed with the Sun ; the East Gate of Ezekiel's Temple, by which the Prince of the people entered once, and which was shut for evermore (Eze- kiel xliv. 2); Jacob's ladder (Gen. xxviii. 12) ; the burning bush (Exodus iii. 2) ; Aaron's rod (Numbers xvii. 8) ; Gideon's fleece (Judges vi. 37). The Church of St. Mary in Trastevoro, in Home, claims to stand on the site of one built about 222 by Pope Calixtus. Other places claim to have had the first church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, but it is thought that the worship of Diana, virgin-nurse of the universe, was transferred to St. Mary and led to the building of the first church at Ephesus, in the fourth century, when " the Peace of the Church " was granted by Con- stantino. Until that time monuments were erected to martyrs only. After