The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated on September 8, originated in the Christian East, probably in Syria or Palestine during the sixth century. The earliest surviving evidence is a hymn by St. Romanus the Melodist, composed around 536–556. 1

Jerusalem origins

A more specific origin is associated with Jerusalem. According to the Protoevangelium of James, Mary was born in the house of Joachim and Anna near the Sheep Pool, traditionally identified with the area of today’s Church of St. Anne. A Marian church existed there by the end of the fifth century. The feast may have arisen from the annual commemoration of that church’s dedication, possibly on September 8. 2

The historical details of Mary’s birth are not recorded in the New Testament. The liturgical tradition therefore drew substantially upon the Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal second-century text. This does not make the feast itself apocryphal; rather, the Church developed a liturgical celebration of Mary’s birth from early Christian devotion and tradition, while the precise circumstances of her birth remain historically uncertain. 1

Spread to Constantinople and Rome

The feast spread from Jerusalem to Constantinople under the emperor Justinian I. St. Romanus composed a hymn for it, helping establish its themes of light, joy, and life. 2

Rome adopted the feast toward the end of the seventh century, probably between 680 and 695. It appeared in the Gelasian and Gregorian sacramentaries, and Pope St. Sergius I (687–701), who came from Syria, ordered a litany and procession for the celebration. 1 3

The feast was accepted gradually in the West. It is listed in the calendar of St. Willibrord, but it was not uniformly celebrated everywhere during the eighth and ninth centuries. Its octave was later instituted by Pope Innocent IV in the thirteenth century. 4

The theological meaning of the feast

The feast does not focus on Mary independently of Christ. Its meaning is Christological: Mary’s birth is celebrated because she was chosen to become the Mother of the Savior. The Roman Missal calls her maternity “the beginning of salvation” and presents her as the dawn preceding Christ, the “sun of justice.” 5

Thus, the feast developed:

• in the Christian East, especially Jerusalem and Syria-Palestine;
• through early Marian devotion and the tradition surrounding Joachim and Anna;
• in connection with a Jerusalem church dedicated to Mary;
• and later entered the Roman liturgy in the late seventh century.

September 8 also became the date from which the feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception was calculated nine months earlier, on December 8. 5