The Blessed Virgin Mary was born on September 8, which has long been a set date in the Catholic Church, nine months after the celebration of her Immaculate Conception on December 8.

Although the Bible does not specifically mention the circumstances of the Virgin Mary's birth or early life, several of the earliest Christian writers from the first decades of the Church do mention other writings and traditions that do. These narratives illustrate some of the Church's traditional views around Mary's birth, although not being regarded as authoritative in the same way as the Bible.

According to the Protoevangelium of James, which was presumably finalized in writing by the beginning of the second century, Mary's father Joachim was a prosperous representative of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joachim and his wife Anne both felt great grief about their infertility. The early Christian writing states, "He called to mind Abraham, that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac."

When Joachim and Anne were unable to conceive a child, they originally wondered if this would indicate God's displeasure with them. As a result, they started to commit themselves widely and assiduously to prayer and fasting.

In actuality, however, the couple was to be blessed even more abundantly than Abraham and Sarah, as an angel revealed to Anne when he appeared to her and foretold that all generations would honor their future child: "The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world."

According to the Protoevangelium of James, when Mary was born, Anne "made a sanctuary" in the baby girl's room and "allowed nothing common or unclean" because of the child's unique holiness. The same document states that her father "made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel.”

The Protoevangelium continues by describing how Mary's parents and the temple priests ultimately determined that she would be offered to God as a consecrated Virgin for the remainder of her life and enter a chaste marriage with the carpenter Joseph.

Other Saints of the Day
Saint Disibod
Saint Kingsmark
Saint Louis of Omura
Saint Nestor
Saint Romanus Aybara