The Birth of Jesus

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Augustine3

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As Catholics we believe in Mary’s perpetual virginity, my question is did Mary feel pain at childbirth?
 
Quick Question: Was Jesus’ birth “wondrous, painful, joyful, bloody and messy”?
With response from Peggy Frye:
The statement is problematic as it reads like an established fact when the Church has no official teaching on the physiological.aspects of Jesus’ birth. What the Church does teach is that “Mary bore her Son without any violation of her virginal integrity” (De fide on the ground of the general promulgation of doctrine).
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Ludwig Ott, in his book Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, explains that “The dogma merely asserts the fact of the continuance of Mary’s physical virginity without determining more closely how this is to be physiologically explained” (205). However, he goes on to say that in general, “the Fathers and Schoolmen conceived it as non-injury to the hymen, and accordingly taught that Mary gave birth in miraculous fashion without opening of the womb and injury to the hymen, and consequently also without pains” (cf. Summa Theologiae III:28:2). For further reading on this subject, see The Virgin Birth and the Birth of Science by Stanley Jaki.
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Augustine3 said:
As Catholics we believe in Mary’s perpetual virginity, my question is did Mary feel pain at childbirth?
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No, pain is a result of the curse given to women after the fall, since Mary was without sin, being immaculately conceived, she was a perfect women, equal to Eve BEFORE her sin, and thus childbirth would have been painless.

This is supported by the fact that she (Mary) presenting the doves at the temple a month after the birth - that sacrifice was for her PURIFICATITION - obviously showing that both the child and the mother was without sin.
 
Mary shared in the suufferings of her son. She may well have suffered birth pains as part of that generosity.
 
Revelation seems to say she did, but the Church has no official stance on this.
 
Genesis says Eve’s pain in childbirth would be greatly increased, so there must have been some pain before the curse. So if Mary experienced pain equal to Eve or to women today it would have paled in comparison to seeing her Son crucified. That was the real pain. Just out of curiosity, does the answer to this question matter?🤷
 
Hi, Augustine

It is a common belief among Catholics that Mary did not suffer the pains of childbirth since her virginity was left intact. Pope John Paul II said Mary’s childbirth pains happened on Calvary when Jesus made her the mother of all believers.

Verbum
 
We have read of many saints and martyrs who, by a special grace of God, have been preserved from feeling what would otherwise have been excruciating sorrows. In the light of these accounts, it is fully rational that the Blessed Virgin had received this special grace.
 
According to the Venerable Mary of Agreda’s stated revelations from the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Christ child did not divide, but transfigured and penetrated the virginal chamber as the rays of the sun penetrate the crystal shrine. Mary suffered no pain, as happens with the other daughters of Adam and Eve.
From: “The Mystical City of God”, By Venerable Mary of Agreda, Book Four, Chapter Four.
 
Scripture does not say that Eve experienced pain during childbirth, and that pain would be increased, but that Eve’s pangs/sorrow/grief will be greatly increased. The Hebrew word otzb is more likely translated as sorrow or grief.

and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:34-35)

Mary experienced that pain, sorrow and grief - the sword piercing her soul - at the foot of the cross when, she looked up and saw her son crucified.



Catholics believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary, that she was physically intact. That makes the birth of Jesus as miraculous as the conception of Jesus. The birth of Our Lord is a miracle.

-Tim-
 
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