Marian Trivia | Why do Catholics Celebrate Mary’s Birthday on Sept 08?The Nativi…
September 9, 2022
Marian Trivia | Why do Catholics Celebrate Mary’s Birthday on Sept 08?
The Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary was already being celebrated even before the dogma of Her Immaculate Conception was declared in 1854 by Pope Pius IX. It was already a longstanding tradition in the Byzantine Church. It reached the Western church in the 7th century and was then integrated into the liturgical calendar. The Catholic Church celebrates the Blessed Mother’s birthday on its traditional fixed date of September 8, which is exactly nine (9) months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne. There is no reference in the Sacred Scriptures to the birth of Mary. However, this gap is filled by apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, which has been dated by historians before 200 AD.