Note 494 — Chapter III

Rom. Sott., p. 261.—One of these devout fictions, known as the Proto-Evangelium, and attributed to St. James, was the source of those legends of the early life of Mary which furnished so many subjects to Italian art. According to this tradition she was dedicated while yet an infant to a religious life, and remained till twelve years of age in the temple, where she was daily fed by angels. See an inscription in Provence: MARIA VIRGO MINISTER IN TEMPLO GEROSALE. Later legends assert the angelic pre-annunciation of her birth and her immaculate conception, which has at length become a formulated dogma of the church, though contrary to the opinion of the ancient Fathers. (Kayes’ Tertul., p. 386 and postea.) St. Joachim and St. Anne, her parents, are invoked in the Missal, which also asserts her freedom from original sin, an exemption shared only by Our Lord, John the Baptist, and Jeremiah.

In her youth, says the Proto-Evangelium, Mary was consigned to Joseph, not for marriage, but for parental guardianship. A number of suitors claimed her hand, but the apparition of a dove flying from the top of Joseph’s rod indicated the divinely chosen spouse. In course of time, in consequence of the growing superior regard for celibacy, the legends of her perpetual virginity were developed, although some, at least, of the Fathers held a contrary opinion. See Tertul., De Monogamia, c. 8, and De Carne Christi, c. 23; Neander’s Antignostikus, Whedon’s Commentary, Matt. xiii, 55. The word πρωτότοκον, first-born, applied to Jesus, Matt. i, 25, implies a second born afterward, as in Rom. viii, 29, “first born of many brethren;” otherwise the word μονογενής, only born, would be used, as in Luke vii, 12; ix, 38.