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Mary, the mother of Jesus, holds a special place in the heart of every Catholic. Deepen that devotion by learning what the Bible says about her, what the Church believes about Mary and how Catholics can honor her.

Seasonal Features
Learning About Mary

Catholic e-Greetings honoring Mary
Send free Catholic e-cards to friends and family members.

Last Secret of Fatima: My Conversations With Sr. Lucia
New! With an introduction by Pope Benedict XVI and including information previously suppressed, the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, definitively reveals and explains one of the most controversial events in 20th-century Catholicism—the 1917 apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima. Click here to find The Last Secret of Fatima audiobook in the SAMP Books catalog.

Mary of History
New! In this Catholic Update, Robert P. Maloney, C.M.examines the Mary of history, whose life is so intertwined with the mystery of Jesus, by exploring religious, economic, cultural and political circumstances of her life.

Mary and the Bible
In Search of the Real Mary
Mary, the First Disciple
The Many Faces of Mary in Nazareth

What Catholics Believe About Mary
The Maternity of Mary
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Catholic Devotion to Mary
Picturing Mary: A Mother's Love
Crowning the Queen of the May
Calling Upon Mother Mary
Our Lady of Guadalupe: A Guide for the New Millennium
Mother Teresa's Handwritten Prayer to Mary
Honoring Mary in Your Garden
Praying the Rosary

Our Lady of Lourdes
Lourdes: 150 Years of God’s Healing Care
Pope John Paul II and Suffering
The Witness of a Cross-carrying Pope
Prayers for Healing
News Feature: Lourdes’ 150th Anniversary

Resources About Mary
Marian prayer, tradition, devotions and spirituality from the Mysteries of the Rosary to Our Lady of Guadalupe are the focus of resources from St. Anthony Messenger Press Books and Servant Books that reflect the special place that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, holds in the heart of every Catholic.

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Feast of the Presentation of Mary: Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honor of this mystery. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does appear in the West in the 11th century. Although the feast at times disappeared from the calendar, in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church.
<p>As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only in apocryphal literature. In what is recognized as an unhistorical account, the <i>Protoevangelium of James</i> tells us that Anna and Joachim offered Mary to God in the Temple when she was three years old. This was to carry out a promise made to God when Anna was still childless.
</p><p>Though it cannot be proven historically, Mary’s presentation has an important theological purpose. It continues the impact of the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and of the birth of Mary. It emphasizes that the holiness conferred on Mary from the beginning of her life on earth continued through her early childhood and beyond.</p>

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