VIRGIN
464g
VIRGIN
in this extraordinary way. We have already seen
that St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Germ, of Constant.,
and pseudo-Gregory Nazianzen seem to adopt these
legends. Besides, the emperor Justinian allowed a
basilica to be built on the platform of the former
Temple in memory of Our Lady '.s stay in the sanctu-
ary; the church was called the New St. Mary's so as
to distinguish it from the Church of the Nativity.
It seems to be the modern mosque el-Aksa (cf . Gu^rin,
Jerusalem, 302; Li(5vin, Guide de la Terre-Sainte, I,
447). On the other hand, the Church is silent as to
Mary's stav in the Temple. St. Ambrose (de virgin.,
II, ii, 9, 10, P. L., XVI, 209 sq.), describing Mary's
life before the Annunciation, supposes expressly that
she Uved in the house of her parents. All the descrip-
tions of the Jewish Temple which can claim any
scientific value leave us in ignorance as to any locali-
ties in which young girls might have been educated.
Joas's stay in the Temple till the age of seven does not
favour the suiiposition that yoimg girls were educated
within the sacred precincts; for Joas was king, and
was forced by circumstances to remain in the Temple
(cf. IV King's, xi, .3). What II Mach., iii, 19, says
about "the virgins also that were shut up" does not
show that any of them were kept in the Temple build-
ings. If the prophetess Anna is said (Luke, ii, 37)
not to have "departed from the temple, by fastings
and pravcr serving night and day ", we do not supjiose
that she actually lived in one of the temple rooms
(cf. Corn. Jans.', Tetrateuch. in Evang., Louvain,
1699, p. 484; Knabenbauer, Evang. sec. Luc, Paris,
1896, p. 138). As the house of Joachim and Anna
was not far distant from the Temi)le, we may suppose
that the holy child Mary was often allowed to visit
the sacred buildings in order to satisfy her devotion.
Jewish maidens were considered marriageable at the age of twelve years and six months, though the actual age of the bride varied with circumstances. The marriage was preceded by the betrothal, after which the bride legally belonged to the bridegroom, though she did not live with him till about a year later, when the marriage u.sed to be celebrated. All this well agrees with the language of the Evangelists. St. Luke (i, 27) calls Mary "a virgin e-spoused to a man whose name was Joseph"; St. Matthew (i, 18) says, "when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost". As we know of no brother of Mary, we must suppose that she was an heiress, and was obliged by the law of Num., xxxvi, 6, to marry a member of her tribe. The Law itself prohibited marriage within c(>rtain degrees of rela- tionship, so that the marriage of even an heiress was left more or less to choice. According to Jewish custom, the union between Joseph and Man,- had to be arranged by the parents of St. Joseph. One might ask why Mary consented to her betrothal, though she was bound by her vow of virginity. As she had obeyed God's inspiration in making her vow, so she obeyed God's inspiration in becoming the affianced bride of Joseph. Besides, it would have been singular among the .lews to refuse betrothal or marriage; for all the Jewish maidens aspired after marriage as the accomplishment of a natural duty. Mary trusted the Divine gviidance implicitly, and thus was certain that her vow wf)uld be kejjt e\en in her married state.
The Annunciation has been treated in a special article. According to Luke, i, 36, the angel Gabriel told Mary at the time of the annunciation, "behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren". Without doubting the tnith of the angel's words, Mary determined at once to add to the pleasure of her pious relative (cf. St. Ambrose, Expos. Evang. sec. Luc, II, 19, P. L., XV, 1.560). Hence the Evangelist continues (i, 39): "And Mary, rising up in those days, went into the
hill country with haste into a city of Juda. And she
entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted Eliza-
beth." Though Mary must have told Joseph of
her intended visit, it is hard to determine whether he
accompanied her; if the time of the journey happened
to coincide with one of the festal seasons at which
the Israelites had to go to the Temple, there would be
httle difficulty about companionship. The place of
Elizabeth's home has been variously located by differ-
ent writers: it has been placed in Macha?rus, over ten
miles east of the Dead Sea, or in Hebron, or again
in the ancient sacerdotal city of Jutta, about seven
miles south of Hebron, or finally in Ain-Karim, the
traditional St. John-in-the-Mountain, nearly four
miles west of Jerusalem (cf. Schick, Der (ieburtsort
Johannes' des Taufers, Zeitschrift des Deutschen
Detail, the Virgin Adoring the Infant jEsns
Lorenzo da Credi, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Palastina-Vereins, 1899, 81; Bamab6 Meistermann, La patrie de saint Jean-Baptist e, Paris, 1904; Idem, Nouveau Guide de Terre-Sainte, Paris, 1907, 294 sqq.). But the first three places possess no tradi- tional memorial of the birth or life of St. John; besides, Machaerus was not situated in the mountains of Juda; Hebron and Jutta belonged after the Baby- lonian caj)tivity to Idumea, while Ain-Karim lies in the "hill country" (cf. Plinius, Histor. natural., V, 14, 70) mentioned in the inspired text of St. Luke. After her journey of about thirty hours, Mary "entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted Elizabeth" (Luke, i, 40). According to tradition, Elizabeth lived at the time of the visitation not in her city home, but in her villa, about ten minutes distant from the city; formerly this place was marked by an upper and a lower church. In 1S61 the present small church of the Visitation was erected on the ancient foundations. ".Vnd it came to pass that, when P^Iizabeth heard the .salutation of Marj', the infant leajx'd in her womb." It was at this moment that God fulfilled the promise made by the angel to Zachary (Luke, i, l.'j), "and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb"; in other words, the infant in Elizabeth's womb was cleansed from the stain of original sin. The fullness
