After consulting local traditions, the Emperor Constantine and his successors built churches over important biblical sites in Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the 4th century. One of the churches, built near the ancient pool of Bethesda, just north of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, was associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus.

It was built on a spot pointed out in John’s gospel:  “Now there was in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate, a pool in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of the blind, lame and crippled,”  (John 5,2) Jesus healed a paralyzed man at this healing place, where pagan gods  like Asclepius and Serapis were honored.

Third century traditions concerning Mary, the Mother of Jesus, were associated with the church built over the ancient healing site. The traditions claimed that Mary’s birth and early life took place in this area. By the 5th century, Mary’s birth was celebrated here September 8. Christian pilgrims, returning home, began ti celebrate the feast of her birth on this day.

In the last century archeologists uncovered the ancient healing pool with its porticoes, parts of an ancient church and ruins of a temple of Asclepius (2nd-4th century) ..

The early traditions said that Mary’s mother was Anne and her father Joachim. He provided sheep for the temple sacrifices. They were looked down upon as old and childless, but angels came and told them they were to conceive a daughter. Like Abraham and Sarah, their faith was rewarded.

Stories of Mary’s birth and her childhood strongly influenced the spirituality and devotional life of the early Christian churches of east and west. The feast of her birth is still celebrated by all the ancient churches on September 8 . Her parents are honored September 9 by the Greek Church. The Roman Church celebrates their feast July 26th.

When the Crusaders conquered the Holy Land in the 11th century they rebuilt the small church over the healing pool, which had fallen into ruins, and also built a new, larger church honoring St. Anne, the mother of Mary, southeast of the pool.

The present Church of St. Anne is one of the most beautiful of Jerusalem’s churches today. A favorite destination for pilgrims, it stands overlooking the remains of the old church and the ancient healing pool.

Readings for today’s feast see Mary’s birth awaited by all her ancestors. The gospel, St.Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, begins with Abraham whose hopes and the hopes of generations before him were fulfilled when Mary brought Jesus Christ into the world. “We commemorate the birth of the blessed Virgin Mary, a descendant of Abraham, born of the tribe of Judah and of David’s seed,” (Antiphon, 1st Vespers, Roman rite)

“This feast of the birth of the Mother of God is the prelude, while the final act is the foreordained union of the Word with flesh. Today, the Virgin is born, tended and formed and prepared for her role as Mother of God, who is the universal King of the ages…
Today the created world is raised to the dignity of a holy place for him who made all things. The creature is newly prepared to be a divine dwelling place for the Creator.”
(St. Andrew of Crete, bishop, Office of Readings, Roman rite)

The Birth of Mary is the first great feast in the Orthodox Church calendar which begins in September. Their calendar ends with the feast of Mary’s Dormition, on August 15th.

The Orthodox liturgy sees Mary as the mysterious ladder that Jacob saw in a dream reaching from earth to heaven. (Genesis 28,10-17) She is the way the Word came down to earth’s lowest point, death itself, and returns to heaven having redeemed humanity. The Orthodox liturgy also associates  Mary with the miracle of the paralyzed man at the Pool of Bethesda. She has a role in healing our paralyzed humanity.

May your Church rejoice, O Lord, for you have renewed her with these sacred mysteries, as she rejoices in the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the hope and the daybreak of salvation for all the world. Through Christ our Lord.