Sts Joachim and Ann presented their daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the Temple in Jerusalem when she was a little girl, consecrating her to God. This event is not found in Scripture but attested to by an apocryphal book, as well as by Catholic Tradition.
Read the full Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary novena on the novena page. You can also learn more about novenas here.
What is the significance of the presentation of Mary?
Sts Joachim and Anne were childless, but God revealed to them that they would conceive a child.
In great thanksgiving, they brought Mary, then a little child, to the Temple in Jerusalem. There she was consecrated to God.
One tradition says that she remained there until her miraculous meeting with St Joseph when she was a young woman. (St Joseph’s staff miraculously blossomed in flowers, indicating that he was God’s choice for her husband.)
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century, and a church was built there in honor of it.
The Eastern Church celebrated the feast early on, but it does appear in the West until the 11th century.
In the 16th century, the pope declared this feast to be for the universal Church.
Some information on the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is found in the apocryphal work called the Protoevangelium of James. This book is not inspired Scripture and so cannot be trusted to be inerrant.
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich received private revelations that confirm the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Sts Joachim and Anne.
She wrote that Our Lady’s incredible virtues, even as a young girl, were recognized and lauded by the priests in the Temple.