Mary (Heb. Miriam, Gr. Maria or Miriam), 'the mother of Jesus' (Matt. ii. 11; Acts, i. 14), called the Blessed Virgin, is the mother of our Lord according to the flesh, held in high honour by all Christians; and her intercession is invoked with a higher religious worship and a firmer confidence than that of all the other saints, not only in the Roman Church, but in all the Christian churches of the East. Of her personal history but few particulars are recorded in Scripture. Some details are filled up from the works of the early
Fathers, especially their commentaries or deductions from the scriptural narrative, some from the apocryphal writings of the first centuries, and some from medieval or modern legendaries. The genealogy of our Lord in St Matthew is traced through Joseph (q.v.); and, as it is plainly assumed that Mary was of the same family with her husband Joseph, the evidence of the descent of the latter from David is equivalently an evidence of the origin of Mary from the same royal house. But the genealogy of Christ as traced in St Luke is commonly held to be the proper genealogy of his mother in the flesh, Mary. The incidents in her personal history recorded in Scripture are few in number, and almost entirely refer to her relations with our Lord. They will be found in Matt. i., ii., xii.; Luke i., ii.; John ii., xix.; and Acts, i., where the last notice of her is of her 'persevering in prayer' with the disciples and the holy women at Jerusalem after our Lord's ascension (Acts, i. 14). The apocryphal gospels entitled 'The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary,' and the 'Protevangelion of the Birth of Christ,' contain some additional, but, of course, unauthentic particulars as to the lineage, birth, and early years of Mary, among which is the miraculous story of her betrothal with Joseph, immortalised by the pencil of Raphael. As to her history after the ascension of her Son the traditions differ widely. A letter ascribed to the Council of Ephesus speaks of her as having lived with John at that city, where she died, and was buried. Another epistle, nearly contemporaneous, tells that she died and was buried at Jerusalem at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Connected with this tradition is the incident which has so often formed a subject of sacred art, of the apostles coming to her tomb on the third day after her interment, and finding the tomb empty, but exhaling an 'exceeding sweet fragrance.' On this tradition is founded the belief of her having been assumed into heaven, which is celebrated in the festival of the Assumption (q.v.). The date of her death is commonly fixed at the year of our Lord 63, or, according to another account, the year 48. Another tradition makes her survive the crucifixion only 11 years.
Of theological questions regarding the B.V.M. (Beata Virgo Maria), one is treated at IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. The perpetual virginity of Mary is not explicitly attested in Scripture, and there are even certain ambiguous phrases which at first sight seem to imply that children were born of her after the birth of Jesus, as that of his being called (Matt. i. 25; Luke, ii. 7) her 'first-born son,' and that of James and others being more than once called 'brothers of the Lord'; for which see JOSEPH. The perpetual virginity of Mary is held as a firm article of belief in the Roman and Eastern churches.
MARIOLATRY (Gr. Maria, and latreia, 'adoration') is the name given by polemical writers to the worship paid by Roman Catholics to the Virgin Mary. This name is intended to imply that the Catholic worship of the Virgin is the supreme worship of latreia or adoration, which Catholics earnestly disclaim, although, from her relation to our Lord, they hold her worship, which they style hyperdulia, to be higher than that of all other saints. Many examples of prayers addressed to Mary (such as the 'Litany of the Sacred Heart of Mary'), of acts of worship done in her honour, and of expressions employed regarding her, are alleged by controversialists, for the purpose of showing that the worship of Mary in the Roman Church is in effect 'adoration.' To these and similar allegations Roman Catholics reply that many of the objected prayers and devotional practices are entirely unauthorised by the church, and that some of them are undoubtedly liable to misinter- pretation; but they further insist that all such prayers, however worded, are to be understood, and are, in fact, understood by all Roman Catholics, even ordinarily acquainted with the principles of their faith, solely as petitions for the intercession of Mary, and as expressions of reliance, not on her own power, but on the efficacy of her prayers to her Son.
Although no trace is found in the New Testament of any actual worship of the Virgin Mary, yet Roman Catholic interpreters regard the language of the angel Gabriel, who saluted her as 'full of grace,' or 'highly favoured,' and as 'blessed among women,' and her own prediction in the canticle of the Magnificat, that 'all nations should call her blessed' (Luke, i. 48), as a foreshadowing of the practice of their church; and they rely equally on the language employed by the early Fathers, as, for instance, Irenæus, regarding the Virgin, although Protestants consider it as having reference to the Incarnation. But it seems quite certain that during the first ages the invocation of the Virgin and the other saints must have held a subordinate place in Christian worship; the reason for which, according to Roman Catholics, was probably the fear which was entertained of reintroducing among the recent converts from paganism the polytheistic notions of their former creed. But from the time of the triumph of Christianity in the 4th century, the traces of it become more apparent. St Gregory Nazianzen, in his panegyric of the virgin martyr Justina, tells that in her hour of peril she 'implored Mary the Virgin to come to the aid of a virgin in her danger.' But it was only after the heresy of Nestorius that the worship of Mary seems to have obtained its full development. His denial to her of the character of mother of God, and the solemn affirmation of that character by the ecumenical council of Ephesus (430 A.D.), had the effect at once of quickening the devotion of the people and of drawing forth a more marked manifestation on the part of the church of the belief which had been called into question. The 5th and 6th centuries, both in the East and in the West, exhibit clear evidence of the practice; and the writers of each succeeding age till the Reformation speak with gradually increasing enthusiasm of the privileges of the Virgin Mary, and of the efficacy of her functions as a mediator with her Son. St Bernard, and, still more, St Bonaventura, carried this devotional enthusiasm to its greatest height. The institution of the 'Rosary of the Virgin Mary,' the appointment of a special office in her honour, and, more than all, the fame of many of the sanctuaries which were held to be especially sacred to her worship gave a prominence to the devotion which Protestants find it difficult to reconcile with the honour which they hold due to God alone. The chief festivals of the Virgin, common to the Western and Eastern churches, are the Conception, the Nativity, the Purification, the Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Assumption. The Roman Church has several other special festivals, with appropriate offices—all, however, of minor solemnity. For accounts of representations of Mary in Art, see MADONNA, PIETÀ.