Fast & Fascinating Facts on March 25th, the Annunciation, and Christ’s Prenatal Life

For centuries March 25th was observed as New Year's Day by most European countries and the British colonies in America, when it was known as "Annunciation Day" and celebrated as a religious feast. This changed in the late 16th century when Roman Catholic nations adopted the Gregorian calendar which returned to the old Roman practice of celebrating New Year's on January first. Scotland switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1600, followed by Germany, Denmark and Sweden around 1700. England continued to observe the Annunciation as the beginning of the New Year until 1752 (the change caused the previous year of 1751 to be cut short, losing what would have been the remaining months of January, February, and the first 24 days of March). Source: "New Year’s Day," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000. © 1993-1999

Most Christians asked where the Incarnation took place would answer incorrectly--citing the place of the Nativity rather than the site of the Annunciation; this is what the insightful pro-life Christian writer Randy Alcorn, head of Eternal Perspective Ministries, contends in his comprehensive work "ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments" (Multnomah Pub.). Toward the end of the book's 2000 edition in the “Sanctity of Life Message” he states that 99 percent of Christians will answer Bethlehem, rather than correctly identify the location as Nazareth.

The date of March 25th was chosen by Pope John Paul II to promulgate his 1995 “Evangelium Vitae” (Gospel of Life) upholding the teaching on the sanctity of all human life, especially the unborn.

The Annunciation is listed at or near the top of the most frequently depicted subjects in the history of Western art. In 1887 Rev. I.T. Hecker wrote of the Annunciation: “Such is the narrative…which has inspired countless tomes of exposition from the pens of doctors, pontiffs, theologians, and has inspired, too, more representations than any other event, unless the Crucifixion, from the hand of Christian masters.” Source: “The Annunciation in Art,” Catholic World, Vol. XLV, Apr. 1887, No.265

In J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" the date of March 25th was used symbolically to allude to the central Christian theme of the story -- it is the day the ring, representing original sin, is destroyed. Author Joseph Pearce in his televised April 2011 EWTN special "Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: A Catholic Worldview" gives a fascinating explanation of the day's significance both in the fictional trilogy and historical Christendom: "But now it's time to reveal the secret that unlocks the fundamentally religious dimension of the whole work. The fact is, that Tolkien hides a key within the story, a key that once discovered, allows us to unlock the deepest Christian theology at the heart of the drama. What is the key? It's to be found in the date on which Tolkien tells us that the ring is destroyed or unmade. That date is March the 25th -- a date that every Catholic knows is perhaps the most significant and important date on the whole Christian calendar. March the 25th is the Feast of the Annunciation, the day on which the archangel Gabriel appears to the Blessed Virgin, and more important, it is the day on which Jesus is conceived in his mother's womb. It is the day on which the Word is made flesh -- the day on which God becomes man. It is a more important date than Christmas, because life begins at conception, not at birth. God did not become man at Christmas, but at the Annunciation. The Incarnation happens at the Annunciation. It happens on March the 25th -- the date on which the ring is destroyed. And that's not all. Many medievals believed that the crucifixion also happened on March the 25th. Of course, we celebrate Good Friday as a movable feast. It is celebrated on a different day each year. But the crucifixion as an historical event happened once on a particular day in history. That day, so the medievals believed, was March the 25th, thus connecting Christ's death to his Incarnation. And what do these two events signify taken together with the Resurrection? They signify man's redemption from original sin. And what is original sin? It is the one sin to rule them all and in the darkness bind them, just as the one ring is the one ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them. The one ring is the same as the one sin, and they're both destroyed or unmade on the same day -- March the 25th. This is no coincidence, but is the very key that unlocks the deep theology and deepest meaning of the Lord of the Rings…. So Frodo and his loyal companion Samwise Gamgee walk through the Valley of Death to Mount Doom carrying the cross in mythological imitation of Christ himself. And, as we have seen, the climax on Mt. Doom is united with Christ's crucifixion on Golgotha through the key date of March the 25th." NOTE: Passages in "The Return of the King" (Part 3 of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy) also refer to March 25 not only as an important date but as the start of the new year--Tolkien's selection of March 25 as a New Year's Day for his fictional world mirrors reality as this date known as Annunciation Day began the New Year in the real world before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar: In the chapter entitled "The Field of Cormallen" Gandalf tells Sam: "But in Gondor the New Year will always now begin upon the twenty-fifth of March when Sauron fell, and when you were brought out of the fire to the King." Appendix B (The Great Years) also mentions the destruction of the ring and the evil Sauron in the entry for March 25: "Gollum seizes the Ring and falls in the Cracks of Doom. Downfall of Barad-dur and passing of Sauron." Toward the end of Appendix D (The Calendars) there are several references: "March 25, the date of the downfall of the Barad-dur….The date was, however, March 25 in both Kings' and Stewards' Reckoning….In the New Reckoning the year began on March 25 old style, in commemoration of the fall of Sauron and the deeds of the Ring-bearers….Fourth Age 1 was the year that began according to the New Reckoning in March 25, 3021, old style." Tolkien also chose March 25th for a life-affirming event at the end of "The Lord of the Rings." Despite the length of the three volumes, in a trilogy centering on war the birth of babies is remarkably absent. But in the last few pages of the story we find: "The first of Sam and Rosie's children was born on the twenty-fifth of March, a date that Sam noted."

Pope John Paul II made the collegial consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Annunciation/Incarnation on March 25th, 1984 (also known as the Consecration of all Individuals and Peoples of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary) and pointedly commented on it in 2004 exactly two decades later when he highlighted the Incarnational import of the selection of this date: According to a Catholic World News report of March 24, 2004, Pope John Paul II, at his weekly public audience on this eve of the collegial consecration’s 20-year anniversary, began his reflection on that act by reminding those attending that March 25th is the Feast of the Annunciation, which, in his words, “allows us to contemplate the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, made man in Mary's womb."

Pope John Paul II also chose this date of March 25th in 2003 to personally sign and grant a pro-life Apostolic Blessing to the Eucharistic Apostles of The Divine Mercy and all the faithful who join them in reciting the Divine Mercy Chaplet to end abortion, euthanasia, cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Interestingly, in the papal blessing the feast is referred to by the more informative title: Solemnity of the Incarnation of The Divine Word.

For St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first U.S. born person to be canonized a saint, March 25th would figure importantly in her faith journey on several occasions. After converting to Catholicism she received her first Holy Communion on the March 25th Feast of the Annunciation in 1805. Then in 1809 she founded the Daughters of Charity and made her first profession of vows on the Annunciation feast day of March 25. After 1813 she and the Sisters of Charity made their annual vows on the March 25th Annunciation feast date.

Leo Severino, producer of the pro-life themed film Bella noted the "providential" significance of the film's milestones coinciding with important religious feast dates. Severino said that although not planned, Bella's "first public showing was on the Feast of the Annunciation." Quote from October 18, 2007 televised interview with Severino on EWTN's Life on the Rock

Several hospitals in Hungary announced they would stop aborting children on March 25th and other holy days after an interdenominational group of bishops led by the Alfa Alliance’s Imre Teglasy held prayer vigils outside, placing special emphasis on the March 25th Annunciation and the December 28th feast of the Holy Innocents.

In 2004 on the March 25th feast of the Annunciation, Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York established the Sisters of Life as a religious institute of diocesan right. This was done at the direction of the Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

An interest in fostering devotion to the unborn Christ child has developed in conjunction with renewed interest in celebrating the Annunciation Feast of Christ's conception -- most often explicitly undertaken as positive approaches toward building a "culture of life." The importance of these allied initiatives was highlighted in a televised interview with Mother Agnes Donovan, SV (Superior General of the Sisters of Life) on Fr. Benedict's Groeschel's program Sunday Night Live (05/03/09) in which they discussed the importance of devotion to the Annunciation and the Unborn Christ: Mother Agnes opened the topic when she said, "I'm hoping that in our day, there'll be a new devotion--a devotion to Jesus unborn--the unborn Jesus in Mary, by way of devotion to the Annunciation of the Lord. You know we are so in need of a devotion to the Unborn Jesus, I think even just because we need to be reminded that we are precious in the eyes of God before we do anything to make ourselves worthy of his love. He loves us unborn, silent, unconscious in the womb. And I really hope that is going to be at least part of the work of the Sisters of Life to bring that devotion forward." Fr. Groeschel expressed his agreement, adding, "And that devotion is also linked with the devotion of Our Lady of Guadalupe...and of course the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe--she's expecting the Christ Child--that's the Annunciation."

In England, this feast day still determines the due date for payment of income tax-- April 5, which is March 25th if one subtracts the eleven extra days added with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. Until the mid-18th century, England used a version of the Julian calendar, in which the March 25th Annunciation feast was the first day of the civil New Year.

At the 2008 Solemn Papal Mass of Pope Benedict XVI in Nationals Park, Washington, D.C., the Archbishop of that diocese, Most Rev. Donald W. Wuerl, included the following anecdote concerning the March 25th arrival of Catholic colonists in Maryland in his opening address to the Holy Father: "Not all that far from here, in 1634, the first Catholics arrived in the colonies that later formed the United States. The celebration of Mass at St. Clements Island, March 25th 1634, marked the beginning of an unbroken line of continuity in faith and worship that we hope is made manifest is so many ways during your visit with us." [March 25th was made a legal holiday in Maryland.]

Mother Angelica, often considered the most influential Catholic woman in the modern U.S., was named after the Annunciation under remarkable circumstances--the feast became her "name-day" and she urged its wider celebration: The full religious name of Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN Catholic television network, is "Sister Mary Angelica of the Annunciation." She explained the personal, religious, and also the pro-life significance of the day on the March 24th 1998 broadcast of Mother Angelica Live (rebroadcast as an episode of Mother Angelica Classics on March 26, 2011)--a show devoted to the topic of the Annunciation: "Tomorrow is the 25th of March...and it's the Annunciation. It happens to be my name-day. I don't know how my abbess ever decided on that, but she did. It's a very special, special name-day for me, because ordinarily, in an order--religious order, monastic order--your name-day is the feast that your name is. For example, with Isadore it would be the Feast of St. Isadore. With mine being Angelica it was supposed to be the feast of the Holy Angels which is in October....But anyway, all she said to me was, 'I've decided that your name-day will be the Annunciation,' and I thought 'Wow.' And the reason I was so surprised and pleased is because I made the consecration to Our Lady, the DeMontfort Consecration, on March 25th, 1942 I think, and I entered in '44. It's a very, very, special, special day for me. So--tomorrow. So often we kind of omit special days for the simple reason we don't know they're special." After highlighting the pro-life implications of Christ's conception (remarking on the fact that the newly-conceived Jesus sanctified the unborn John the Baptist as the angel Gabriel foretold before the conception of John and the Incarnation of Christ) she exhorted the audience: "So tomorrow, we celebrate that moment....let us rejoice, celebrate somehow; go buy yourself a soda if you can't do anything else. Do something!"

Chapter two of Anthony DeStefano’s book “Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To” cites the Annunciation and Incarnation in Nazareth as the most dramatic example of how even the most profound encounters with God inspire an immediate reaching out toward others rather than a turning inward in what we might naturally expect to be a prolonged period of personal meditation: “In the history of the world, no one has ever had a more profound encounter with God than Mary did at that moment. The Gospel says that the Holy Spirit literally ‘overshadowed her’ and that Jesus Christ--the second person of the Holy Trinity--was conceived in her womb. Now what did Mary do after this experience? Did she go off on a spiritual retreat? Did she lock herself in her room and meditate?….She would have been more than justified to take a few weeks to mull things over in her mind, to pray intensely and try to come to grips with the mystery of what had happened to her. But no, she didn’t do any of these things. Instead Mary left Nazareth immediately and rushed to the side of her cousin in order to help her. And she stayed at her side for three months, until Elizabeth’s baby was born.”

The most prominent theory of the origin of April Fool’s Day proposes it as a vestige of the change from the March 25th New Year to January 1st: In the older tradition March 25th began an eight-day New Year’s celebration extending through April 1st. When the new calendar was introduced, not everyone wanted New Year’s Day moved to January, and those who insisted on keeping the old New Year and preserving the long celebration of it into the first day of April were called “April Fools”--thus April 1st became April Fool’s Day.

During the course of the 1858 Lourdes apparitions of Mary (approved by the Catholic Church), it was on the March 25th Feast of the Annunciation that “the lady” revealed her identity to the young Bernadette Soubirous (later to become canonized as a saint). At the request of Pope Pius XII one of the churches built at the site (the Basilica of St. Pius X) was consecrated on March 25, 1958 -- one hundred years after the apparitions -- by the Patriarch of Venezia, cardinal Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII. Marlene Watkins, foundress of North American Lourdes Volunteers noted that the annual Lourdes pilgrimage season begins on or near March 25th (from interview on the 5/15/2011 EWTN airing of "Sunday Night Prime with Fr. Groeschel").

St. Therese of Liseux’s earnestly desired early entrance into religious life (for which she sought a Papal audience in Rome) was finally achieved during the community’s celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation in 1888. (She had hoped it would happen on the previous Christmas Day, but later realized that many graces came to her in the interim delay.) The actual date of her entrance into the Carmel convent was April 9th--she notes in the first line of chapter 7 in her autobiography “Story of a Soul,” that the feast was “transferred because of Lent.” This saint, known as “The Little Flower,” also makes a passing reference in her autobiography to the continuity of Jesus's pre- and post-natal childhood and Mary's maternal relationship with Him: "…Mary had carried Jesus in her arms, having carried Him in her Virginal womb." From Chapter 6 of "A Story of a Soul," 3rd ed., trans. from the original manuscripts by John Clarke, O.C.D.

Writer and philosopher Dr. Alice von Hildebrand offered the following reflection regarding Christ’s Incarnation: "God in His infinite goodness sent us His son who was incarnated in the womb of a woman." She then describes the human womb as "an organ of unbelievable dignity because it has been the cradle of the Son of God for nine months." Source: "Man and Woman: Divine Invention"--2008 series airing on EWTN

"Lives of the Saints: For Every Day of the Year" points out that the March 25 "Annunciation of Our Lord" is a "double feast" celebrating both the angel's meeting with Mary and "the Incarnation of the Son of God" on this same occasion. "On this same day, God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, by the power of the Holy Spirit, assumed a human body and a human soul, and became the Son of Mary." Source: "Lives of the Saints: For Every Day of the Year--In Accord with the Norms and Principles of the New Roman Calendar" [Imprimatur] -- Rev. of the Original Ed. of Rev. Hugo Hoever, S.O.Cist., Ph.D., Catholic Book Pub. Co, N.Y., c. 1974-1955, p. 119 (entry for March 25).

In some countries the Feast of the Annunciation remains a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics, a status that not only reinforces the centrality of the Incarnation but also the sanctity of human life before birth--a reality underscored by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president and Diocese of New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan: On the 12/19/10 broadcast of EWTN's "Sunday Night Live" in conversation with Fr. Benedict Groeschel, Archbishop Dolan began by commenting on the "He's On His Way--Christmas Starts With Christ" graphic showing a sonogram image of an unborn child with a halo. He said, "You know what I think--what it reminds me Fr. Benedict, when I see that--I've always thought that we as a church should celebrate with greater significance the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25th nine months before Christmas--the day that the second person of the most blessed Trinity, the Eternal Word, God the Son, became incarnate, conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That really is when our salvation began. That's when the Incarnation began--the Word took flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary--and we should celebrate that more. I think in some parts of the world it's a holy day of obligation is it not? [Fr. Benedict replies, "Yet it is" and Archbishop Dolan continues:] "But that wouldn't be bad to reclaim, would it? For the whole pro-life movement--that Mary carried the only-begotten Son of God in her womb for nine months. It's a powerful feast day. At Christmas we celebrate the birth, we ought to celebrate the conception with equal fervor...."

A charming image of a day in the active life of the unborn Christ is painted in one version of the unbiblical offbeat lyric of the Cherry Tree Carol dating back to circa 1400. In the song’s storyline, when the expectant Mary’s wish for cherries goes unfulfilled, “Jesus intervenes from the womb and the tree bows down to deliver the fruit to the Virgin Mary” at the divine infant’s command.

The companion guide to Mel Gibson's film The Passion of The Christ, entitled "Guide to the Passion: 100 Questions," points out in the first few pages the recent reawakening to the significance of the Annunciation as the beginning of Christ's life--the answer to the "Incarnation" question noted that increasingly the Feast of the Annunciation is being celebrated on March 25th in honor of that most important event of history.

In 2010 growing awareness of the Annunciation's import reached one of the most controversial arenas of politics via a videotaped press conference with the U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives: On July 29th a young reporter (Jane McGrath of CNSnews.com) asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi about what she had publicly stated (at a 5/6/10 Catholic Community Conference on Capitol Hill) was her favorite "Word"--the Word made flesh. She pointedly asked Ms. Pelosi whether that occurred "at the Annunciation when Jesus was conceived" or at his birth, ending her question with a reference to the right-to-life implications of the self-evident answer. Click here for video on the controversy or read the CNSNews.com report and the article "At the Annunciation or at the Nativity, Nancy?" The story was reported via many media outlets and blogs, including Fox News and CNSNews.com, which did a follow-up on 12/3/2010 comparing another congresswoman's response to that of Ms. Pelosi. Transcription Source: Video clips of both the May 6 and July 29, 2010 statements aired toward the end of the August 4, 2010 Glenn Beck program on Fox News, the segment transcribed as follows: (Begin video clips of 5/6/10 speech given by Nancy Pelosi)--"My favorite word is The Word--is The Word--and that is everything--it says it all for us. And you know the Biblical reference--you know the Gospel reference of The Word…[video ellipsis]…We have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of The Word…[video ellipsis]…Fill it in with anything you want but of course we know it means 'the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.'"--(End video clip). (Beck's commentary)--"…The point is she's talking about Jesus Christ here. It's beautiful and touching and I thought she meant it there for a while until a brave young reporter finally asked her about her 'favorite word.' Watch." (Begin 7/29/10 clip)--[CNSNews.com correspondent Jane McGrath asking a question of Ms. Pelosi]--"When was The Word made flesh? Was it at the Annunciation when Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit as the creed says, or was it at the Nativity when He was born of the Virgin Mary? And when did The Word get the right to life?"--[Pelosi's reply]--"Whenever it was, we bow our heads when we talk about it in church, and that's where I'd like to talk about that."--(End video clip). (Beck comments)--"I'm sorry--what? You weren't in church the last time you brought it up. Nancy, why not address your 'favorite word?'….Clearly the Speaker was panic-stricken as to define the moment when the Word was made flesh--conception or at birth. Which is it? Kind of a good question since The Word defines her policy-making decisions she said later in that same speech--kind of makes it hard to understand her position on abortion."

The Polish Association for Human Life Protection was registered on the 25th of March. The bottom of the www.pro-life.pl English translation page notes: "The Polish Association for Human Life Protection was registered on the 25th March" -- 25 marca -- 25 marzec -- "1999 in Local Court in Kraków Civil Department I."

[updated 5/2011]