Mary – the mother of Jesus Christ

Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, is also known as Saint Mary, the Virgin Mary, Our Lady, and the Madonna. She is one of the most revered personalities and the greatest of the Christian saints.
According to the Gospel she was the girl from Nazareth.
Maryam is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur’an (Koran). She miraculously gave birth to God’s messenger and prophet Isa. In Islam, she is known as Ms Mariam and is revered as one of the most righteous women.
The feast of the birth or nativity of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, is observed on September 8 by the Roman Catholic church. It is also marked on this date by Eastern Orthodox churches, except those that still adhere to the Old Style, or Julian calendar and observe the feast on September 21. Among the Eastern Orthodox, the feast is known as the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokas, or simply as the Nativity of the Theotokas.

The Greek word theotokas means “god- bearer” or “mother of God.” Mary was declared to be Theotokas as a result of the early church Council of Ephesus, held in 431.
The feast of Mary’s nativity originated in the East, probably in either Syria or Palestine. In the 7th century the feast became established in the Roman liturgy. By the 11th century the September 8 feast had spread throughout Christendom.
The mother of Jesus Christ was also considered the patron of wine-makers, a designation most likely stemming from her important role at the wedding feast at Cana, as related in the second chapter of the Gospel of John. It was she who called the attention of her son to the fact that the hosts had run out of wine, leading him to perform his first miracle: the changing of water into wine.