Virgin Mary's Upbringing

[zgraf]

Someone mentioned a tradition that St. Joachim and Anne (parents of the Virgin Mary) offered their daughter to God at a very young age – supposedly at age three they took her to the temple – never to see her again…

Was thinking about this, and it occurred to me that this lovely pious tradition – seems a little impractical from several perspectives. For instance, who took care of her? How would a child of three left alone in the temple be able to care for herself? How would she get food? Wouldn’t passersby in the temple ask “what is this poor child doing here” and try to remove her?

 

[Todd_Easton]

As far as I know, the earliest extant writing on the subject is the mid-second century work, Protoevangeluim of James.

 

[zgraf]

Thank you Todd.
That article is good. In fact, it has a couple answers to my questions.

First it appears Mary had some reception when she arrived at the temple. One could infer that the whole “house of Israel” was looking after her:

And the priest received her, and kissed her, and blessed her, saying:
The Lord has magnified your name in all generations. In you, on the last of the days,
the Lord will manifest His redemption to the sons of Israel. And he set her down upon the third step of the altar, and the Lord God sent grace upon her; and she danced with her feet,
and all the house of Israel loved her.

And then it appears that she got her food by a miraculous means:

and she received food from the hand of an angel.

 

[Todd_Easton]

If I remember correctly, another work on this subject is Sister Mary of Jesus of Agreda’s seventeen-century writing, Mystical City of God.

 

[Talitha712]

Hannah did the same thing with Samuel in the Old Testament. It must’ve been an accepted practice at the time. I imagine - but can’t say for sure - that the rabbis saw to the needs of any children left in the Temple.

 

[curious_cath]

She might have become part of a religious order of her time inside Judaism.

 

[runningdude]

work on this subject is Sister Mary of Jesus of Agreda’s seventeen-century writing, Mystical City of God.

The Gospels and sacred tradition are silent on this matter. What should be noted is that Saint Luke showed Mary being genuinely surprised and afraid when the Angel Gabriel visited her; it is unlikely that Angels directly ministered to her prior then.

The tradition I am most familiar with is that Mary was consecrated as a Virgin to serve the Lord, and was entrusted to Joseph to provide for her when she left her parents.

 

[TheOldColonel]

According to Jewish tradition of the time, no female would have been allowed to approach the Temple altar or its steps. In the Temple proper the females occupied only a raised gallery along three sides of the court. They were allowed to observe the ceremonies but never to participate in them. No priest would have been allowed to break the prohibition. Indeed, men and women always prayed in segregated areas of the Temple and only the priestly cast near the altar. The story is quite impossible.

 

[zgraf]

According to Jewish tradition of the time, no female would have been allowed to approach the Temple altar or its steps. . .The story is quite impossible.

Well ya – under ordinary circumstances… But we are dealing with the Mother of God. The one who was conceived without original sin and assumed into heaven. She who was once assured that “. . .for God nothing is impossible”.

 

[Lea101]

Well ya – under ordinary circumstances…

But that would assume that everyone at the temple would know her identity. Based on the gospels we can assume that everyone thought they were a normal family.