Thistle - are you unable to use the quote facility?
Correct… this story isn’t infallible at all
The feast day of St. Anne and St. Joachim, mother and father of blessed virgin in July 25 in the West, and July 26th in the east.
According to the protoevangelium sp?) of James, the issue was that the society was not geared for a woman to provide for herself as an adult without a husband. There was no community for adult virgins. Her vow was unusual. As such, St. Joseph was a widower who became her betrothed husband to serve more of a guardianship role over her. He was much older and had grown or nearly grown children. James, the supposed writer of this gospel, is claimed to be Joseph’s son from his previous marriage and thus the brother of Jesus. The document remained popular but was controversial and rejected. Some of the historical criticisms against it are bizarre. For instance, the gospel mentions a midwife being present at the birth of Jesus, and Aquinas found the idea of Mary having a midwife to be insanely offensive. I’m just like “What? Why does it matter?”
I sought to assist you.
Please read more carefully. It was not I who suggested any such thing.
You’ve told me you avoid sarcasm, so is this just an ad hominem attack? I hope not.
Ahh… I see what you did there!
Be careful, @thistle: the history of the liturgical celebrations of the Church is precisely one of the reasons Pope Pius XII gave for the declaration of the dogma of the Assumption in Munificentissumus deus…
Actually, that wasn’t quite the implication. In the document, the priests are noting that a girl – who is ‘coming of age’ as a woman – cannot stay in the temple. It wasn’t a question of “providing for herself”, it was a question of ritual purity and keeping the temple free from ritual impurity.
Because it implies that Jesus’ birth wasn’t immaculate and pure and painless. (However, the document asserts that the midwife did nothing and left right after the birth. Aquinas sees the mere presence of a midwife as an admission that the birth included normal child-bearing pain.)
The Deposit of Faith is Sacred Scripture plus Apostolic Tradition and not pious tradition. Pious tradition is not part of the Deposit of Faith.
Look back again at what you said (which prompted my reply). You weren’t talking about pious tradition, you were talking about feast days.
There is a 1st century apocryphal document called The Protoevangelium of James which describes Mary’s life in some detail. Although it isn’t an Inspired document, it does serve as a good historical reference. It’s my understanding that in it we find out that Mary is consecrated to the service of the Lord prior to her birth by her mother Anne. However, at some point it became necessary for her to marry for purely protective reasons. She needed someone to provide for her well being. It was understood by the authorities that her marriage was not to be a conventional romantic marriage. Thus it was decided that Joseph would marry her, probably because he was an older man who had already been married and had children. When it becomes apparent that Mary is pregnant, we see Joseph brought before the Temple authorities to give account for this. This is because it was understood by all parties (Mary, Joseph, and the Jewish authorities) that the marriage was to be a celibate one.