Birth of A Virgin
24x20.5cm
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Saint Anne gave birth to her daughter Mary surrounded by attendants and servants befitting the family’s wealth and status.
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To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
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- Genesis 3:16
Presentation of A Virgin
24x20.5cm
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Mary’s mother promised God that if she
conceived her child would be dedicated to
Him, so when Mary was three she was
taken to serve in the temple.
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“And being
placed before the alter, she danced with
her feet, so that all the house of Israel
loved her.”
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- from the legendary ‘Book of James’
Childhood of a Virgin
20.5x24cm
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Mary served in the temple under the guidance of the priests until she was fourteen.
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“Do you not realise Eve, that the curse God pronounced on your sex weighs still on the world. Guilty, you must bear its hardships. You are the devil’s gateway, you first betrayed the law of God, you softened up with your cajoling words the man against whom the devil could not prevail by force.”
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- Tertullian, early 3rd Century Roman jurist, Christian apologist and theologian
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“….I have been provided with information which leads me to think she was not entirely an angel herself.”
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- Judge Starforth Hill, Winchester, June 1993 (on the character of an eight year old child of sexual abuse.)
Marriage of A Virgin
24x20.5cm
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Acting on the advice of an angel, the high priest told Mary to Marry. Eligible men slept overnight at the temple and Joseph was chosen next day as his staff (by a divine hand) had blossomed...
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“Do you not see where marriage took its origin?…. For where there is death, there too is sexual coupling; and where there is no death, there is no sexual coupling either.”
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- St. John Chrysostom (d.407) Archbishop of Constantinople
An Annunciation
24x20.5cm
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The Archangel Gabriel brought Mary God’s message that she would give birth to the Christ child.
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Then said Mary, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” And the angel answered, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.”
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- St. Luke 1:34-35 Ascribed as one of The Four Evangelists & traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical Gospels
A Visitation
20.5x24cm
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Mary went to stay with her older cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist. When they met, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy and she knew that Mary carried the Christ.
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“It is a subject of humiliation of all mothers of the children of Adam to know that while they are with child, they carry within them an infant…. who is the enemy of God, the object of His hatred and malediction, and the shrine of the demon.”
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- St. Jean Eudes (1601-80) French priest and founder of the Order of Our Lady of Charity (to rehabilitate delinquent females)
A Nativity
20.5x24cm
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Mary gave birth to a son in a stable at Bethlehem, there being no room at the inn. Some shepherds (and three wise men) who were guided by a star, juorneyed to the town to worship the child.
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“The Virgin rose and stood erect …. then the son of the Eternal God came out of the womb of the mother without a murmur or lesion ….in a moment,”
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- St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) Seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor & Cardinal Bishop of Albano
A Purification
24x20.5cm
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As was customary after the birth of a male, Mary underwent a purification period of thirty-three days. After that she presented Jesus at the temple and sacrificed two birds.
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“If they become tired or even die, that does not matter. The norm is male. Every woman is a failed man.”
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- St. John Chrysostom (c. 349 – 407) Archbishop of Constantinople & Early Church Father
A Pieta
24x20.5cm
Holding Jesus’ body, taken down from the cross, Mary mourns his death.
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“ ….Nor was she merely engaged in witnessing the cruel spectacle; rather, she rejoiced utterly that her only begotten was being offered for the salvation of the human race.”
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- Francisco Suarez (d.1617) Spanish Jesuit priest, philosopher and theologian
Pentecost
24x20.5cm
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When Mary and the followers of Jesus gathered to celebrate the day os Pentecost, the room became filled with wind and ‘tongues of fire sat on each of them’. They were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in strange languages.
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“The ‘new me’ is washed off with the evening bath.”
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- Naomi Wolf from The Beauty Myth (London 1990) (on the effectiveness of anti-aging products)
An Assumption
24x20.5cm
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At the close of Mary’s earthly life, her uncorrupted body was transported to and assumed into heaven.
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Jesus said to Mary, “Rise up my love and my kinswoman; thou that didst not suffer corruption by union of the flesh, shall not suffer dissolution of the body ….”
- The Pseudo-Melito 2nd Century
A Coronation
20.5x24cm
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Mary was received into heaven by Christ her son and crowned ‘Queen of Heaven’ by him.
An Immaculate Conception
24x20.5cm
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From the instant Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb, she was free from original sin and therefore worthy to be Christ’s mother.
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“He created me in the beginning before the world and I shall never fail.”
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- Ecclesiasticus 24:9 O.T. Apocrapha
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“Most blessed Virgin Mary …. your life of faith and love and perfect unity with Christ was planned by God to show us more clearly what our lives should be, you are the outstanding model of motherhood and virginity.”
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- modern prayer commended by Second Vatican Council, 1964
