Who Was the Virgin Mary?

Dec. 19 -- Picture a teenage girl — perhaps even as young as 12 — with dark skin and dark hair, tending her baby in a village on a hillside in the Roman-occupied province of Palestine, 2,000 years ago.

Dressed in modest garments, she is a far cry from the pale-faced, exquisite Virgin Mary usually depicted in European art.

Although Mary is one of the most famous and influential women in Western civilization, revered by hundreds of millions of Christians and many non-Christians too, little is known about the details of her life. But judging from what we do know, historians say, the teenager on the hillside — who would have been known by her Hebrew name, Miryam — is the closest we can get to a historical portrait of Mary.

Mary is revered as the mother of God by Christians, especially by Catholic and Orthodox believers. She is highly respected in Islam as the mother of one of the prophets who came before Muhammad: the Koran refers to her as "a saintly woman." Although Mary has no role in Judaism, some Jews have pointed to her as a symbol of Jewish motherhood.

"She has power for people who aren't Catholics, who aren't Christians," says art historian Jerrilynn Dodds. "She connects with some of the deepest experiences that we share: experiences of motherhood, of tragedy, of passion."

A Picture of Mary

The chief Biblical sources of information about Mary are the four New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, written an estimated 30 to 120 years after the death of Jesus. The four books carry relatively few words about Mary, although Luke tells the Christmas story from her point of view. When the angel Gabriel says she is to bear the son of God, she asks, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" She is told that nothing is impossible with God.

Luke also contains a prayer attributed to Mary. The prayer, known as the Magnificat, offers a Biblical view of Mary's character and personality. A statement of faith and a declaration against social injustice, it tells of God's intent to put down the powerful and lift up the lowly — a message that would have resonated with Jews living under Roman rule.