Mary, mother of Jesus
c. -10* – c. 50 · Nazareth
Also known as Theotokos · Miriam
Feast: 15 August

Mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Present at the crucifixion and entrusted to the disciple John; numbered among the disciples gathered before Pentecost.
Mary is the first disciple. She said yes before anyone else, watched her son die, and was still in the upper room at Pentecost when the church started. Luke clearly got his infancy material from her or someone close to her — those chapters read like family memory. The later church spent centuries arguing about her titles (Theotokos, ever-virgin, immaculate) and those arguments were never really about her — they were about Christ. If Jesus is fully God and fully man from conception, then his mother carries God in her womb, and the church had to find language for that. The Magnificat is also the most politically radical hymn in scripture.
Primary sources
- ·Gospel of Luke 1-2
- ·Gospel of John 19:25-27
- ·Acts of the Apostles 1:14

Book of the day
On Wealth and Poverty
John ChrysostomA reading pick tied to today's figure, quote, era, or event. A direct, uncomfortable introduction to Chrysostom's preaching and social critique.
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