The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Feast day: November 21
The Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is observed each year on November 21. According to the apocryphal Gospels, the feast commemorates the presentation of the Blessed Virgin as a child by her parents, Joachim and Anne, in the Temple in Jerusalem. Before Mary’s birth, her parents received a heavenly message that they would bear a child. In thanksgiving for the gift of their daughter, they brought her, when still a child, to the Temple in Jerusalem to consecrate her to God. The celebration of this feast dates back to the 6th century with the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary the New built by the Emperor Justinian I near the ruins of the Temple in Jerusalem. Various monasteries in Italy were known to have celebrated the feast in the 9th century. It was not until the 15th century that it was included in the Roman Missal.
Collect
As we venerate the glorious memory
of the most holy Virgin Mary,
grant, we pray, O Lord, through her intercession,
that we, too, may merit to receive
from the fullness of your grace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
