Fast & Fascinating Facts on March 25th, the Annunciation, and Christ’s Prenatal Life
In addition to being celebrated as a
religious feast, for centuries the March
25th "Annunciation Day" was also observed as New Year's Day by most
European countries and the British colonies in America. 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
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 2016 Good Friday honoring Christ's
death fell on the traditional March 25th feast date honoring his conception --
the feasts of the beginning and end of Jesus' earthly life occurring on the
same day will not happen again for over a century -- 141 years. The infrequent phenomenon of these days
coinciding is symbolically significant and associated with a miracle in Andrea,
Italy recorded since 1633 known as the "bleeding thorn." Catholic News Agency reported that the
thorn, believed to be from Christ's crown of thorns, "bleeds" each
time Good Friday falls on March 25, and did so as expected in 2016: "A commission who observed the miracle
confirmed the formation of three spherical formations or 'gems' on the thorn
and that 'on the base of the thorn is the residue of the preceding miracle of
2005, renewing." Read
more from CNA about the miracle here. Note: An
Annunciation day miracle involving formation of gem-like formations was also
witnessed and filmed on March 25 1999 in the home of Katya Rivas of Bolivia --
click here for more.
EWTN founder Mother Mary Angelica of the
Annunciation passed away on Easter Sunday--March 27, 2016, but what many don't
know is that she also died on the feast she was named after, as Maronites
celebrated the Annunciation vigil "evening prayer" on March 27th (after sundown when Easter services were over--liturgically
this is considered the next day). [For
Mother Angelica's advice to celebrate the Annunciation, click HERE for a quote from
her popular EWTN program.] The Maronite
Rite usually celebrates Annunciation on March 25, but due to the GoodFriday
conflict in 2016, moved it according to a formula that differs from the Roman
Catholic Church, with which it is in communion. The following account was
given by Fr. Mitch Pacwa on a special edition of EWTN Live the evening of March
28th, 2016: "Today the Maronite
Rite is celebrating the Feast of the Annunciation, and it was so striking to me
last night--I'd just finished evening prayer of the Annunciation in the
Maronite liturgical book, and I got off the plane, soon after that, and that's
when I found out, and I thought--it's doubly cool that she died on Easter, but
also at least on the Maronite Feast of the Annunciation, because she's Mother
Angelica of the Annunciation--that's her full name--a lot of folks don't
know. So it was kind of neat to see
that going on as well--to offer the Maronite liturgy for her today--the
Annunciation feast that we celebrate."
Pope
Francis elected in 2013 (the former Cardinal Bergoglio) is from Argentina, the
country that began the movement to declare the March 25 Annunciation feast date
as the Day of the Unborn Child in 1998.
As cardinal he wrote the introduction to a book on devotion to the
unborn Christ in the womb of Mary ("María, el primer Sagrario" by J.
de Mouriño), and spoke on the significance of the Annunciation as Day of the
Unborn Child -- also participating in public events for the day. To read his quotes about the book and a
March 25th 2004 homily he gave on the day's import (in the original Spanish
with rough English translations), see our
page Pope
Francis On March 25th & Christ Unborn.
In
England, this feast day still determines the end of the tax year for income tax
payments -- 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.
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 was featured in the 2017 mainstream animated film "The
Star"; the movie begins with a depiction of the Annunciation and words
appear on the screen reminding us that the time and place is Nazareth, 9 Months
Before the first Christmas. Watching the first part of the film in March (and then the
whole in December) can become a memorable family tradition to prepare for March
25th. The film is available on DVD or
can be rented online with a free sample
video clip -- click here
for a review that mentions the unique opening.
One beautiful
Annunciation custom from Russia is to release white pigeons or doves (symbolic
of the Holy Spirit) on the feast day to represent the Incarnation's liberation
of humanity. See Russian Orthodox
Patriarch Kirill's Annunciation Day dove release in Moscow on April 7th
(equivalent to March 25th on the Western calendar) here. Visit this site for more, or this direct link to the video. Click here for a lovely photo of a Russian altar boy holding a dove
and here to read more.
An
ancient practice of the papal curia--the executive office of the Roman Catholic
Church -- is to use the March 25th Annunciation feast date as the start of the
year for all their official documents and communications, adding a designation
near the date that reads, "Year of the Incarnation." Most civil governments followed suit, using
this day to start their New Year, until the adoption of the Gregorian
calendar. Sources: CatholicCulture.org which cites "The Holyday
Book" by Francis X. Weiser, S.J., Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., New
York, 1956
In yet
another instance proving that awareness of the Annunciation and its pro-life
import is spreading, CatholicVote.org sent out a 1/14/2013 e-mail subscriber
update with subject "a coincidence?" noting the intriguing irony of
Supreme Court arguments scheduled to begin on the life-affirming March 25th
Annunciation feast in the religious liberty cases brought by for-profit
corporations challenging the HHS mandate to force employers to fund employee
health plans that cover anti-life abortifacients--it read as follows: "Last week the Supreme Court released
the official date for oral arguments in the cases brought by for-profit
corporations challenging the HHS mandate.
Can you guess the date when the Justices will hear arguments about the
foundational right to religious liberty--and freedom of every American to
uphold the dignity of human life from conception….March 25. Yes indeed–the Solemnity of the
Annunciation–the day Catholics around the world celebrate the conception of Our
Lord in the womb of the Blessed Mother.
Soon-to-be-saint John Paul II said in 1982: 'In the designs of
Providence there are no mere coincidences.'
The fate of the HHS mandate for thousands of business owners will soon
be decided by the nine Justices of the Supreme Court. But I can’t help but think God is reminding us that we are not
powerless–that we actually have a very important role to play. That's why CV will not only be filing our
own amicus brief in the case, we are planning to lead a nationwide prayer
campaign leading up to the Feast of the Annunciation. We call on all Catholics–and all people of good will–to join us
in praying for an end to this attack on human life and religious liberty. Nothing is more powerful than prayer. A coincidence? I don’t think so." Visit
the link with the e-mail text here.
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 an
alternate title similar to the old Latin name "Festum
Incarnationis": it reads
"Solemnity of the Incarnation of The Divine Word." Pope John Paul II had previously said in his
1/13/88 General Audience, "It may be said that the Incarnation is the
'miracle of miracles,' the radical and permanent 'miracle' of the new order of
creation." The Summer 2014
Eucharistic Apostles of The Divine Mercy Newsletter "Rays of Merciful
Love" included the following quote in the pg. 2 article "Praying for
the Sick and Dying" by Bryan Thatcher, MD: "[O]n the feast of the
Annunciation (Incarnation) on March 25, 2003, Pope John Paul II imparted a
Special Apostolic Blessing to all the faithful worldwide who pray the chaplet
at any time and any place for pro-life causes: for mothers contemplating
abortion; for infants dying in the womb; for victims of stem cell research,
genetic manipulation, euthanasia; and for all elected officials that they
promote a culture of life."
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."
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 a
2018 interview on EWTN, Charles Hoffman, convert to Catholicism from Orthodox
Judaism who escaped Nazi Germany as a child, stressed two aspects of Christ
being conceived in Mary's womb as parallel to the Jewish logic and
understanding of sacred spaces. "Number one, was the Holy of
Holies...and what's in the Holy of Holies?
The Ark of the Covenant...like a throne for the Holy Spirit. No one could go in there, except the high
priest once a year, because it was believed that God in the form of a cloud,
would come into the Holy [of Holies] and be there....If the Holy of Holies had
God in it as a cloud, how about Mary's womb -- there was conceived the Son of
God. So Mary's womb has got to be
Holier than the Holy of Holies...Not only that, but then look at the
Torah...after the Temple that became the most sacred object to Orthodox Jews --
the first five books of the Bible...the Torah was the word of God -- but in
Mary's womb was THE Word, so then don't I owe greater devotion….In Judaism I
couldn't imagine she'd have other children…I can't believe anybody would be
conceived in that womb, when God had already been conceived there." --[Source: Charles Hoffman, guest on Journey Home Live hosted
by Marcus Grodi, EWTN, 10/29/2018]
The
2016 canonization of St. Stanislaus Papczynski was made possible by a
Vatican-approved miracle discovered on March 25th 2008 attributed to his
intercession.
20-year-old Barbara Rudzik (now Barbara Sobolewska) was near death, on a
respirator and in a coma, yet only days after her family began a novena prayer
seeking the intercession of Blessed Stanislaus Papczynski, an X-ray was taken
on March 25th that "showed a complete healing of her irreversibly damaged
lungs" -- a revelation that "shocked the doctors" as it showed a
"medically unexplained clearing with normal functioning of the
lungs." To read the full article
click here. Source: Article by Marie Romagnano, RN and Rev.
Kazimierz Chwalek, MIC, "It Was a Miracle" printed in the Fall 2016
Marian Helper, Stockbridge, MA, p. 14-15.
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
Pope
John Paul II specifically chose Nazareth and the March 25th Annunciation feast
as the place and time to celebrate the Great Jubilee in 2000 during his
week-long pilgrimage to the Holy Land -- he did so to bring the message of the
Incarnation to the world via celebration of a public Mass click here to read about his visit (bottom of web page) and
his homily is reprinted here.
Several years earlier he had released the document Tertio Millennio
Adveniente announcing plans for the Great Jubilee celebrations in the Holy Land
and stressing the importance of understanding the Incarnation in preparation
for the new millennium.
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. Alcorn on his EPM.org
website posted
his introduction to an interesting Christianity Today article that included his
quotes on the Annunciation's importance as a day to observe -- the article
poses the provocative question of why among Protestants (even those who are
strongly pro-life) only a small segment of believers will acknowledge and
highlight its import (as Alcorn does) or suggest it be celebrated (as does
Lutherans For Life) -- the intro and a link to the full article which includes
quotes both pro- and con- can be found at
http://www.epm.org/blog/2010/Mar/26/the-annunciation-and-its-prolife-implications
-- but readers should note that in all fairness an even more
thought-provoking article could have asked that question of the Christian
community as a whole. As Alcorn's book
points out in addressing the problem of understanding where the Incarnation
took place -- it's a general problem among Christians. Annunciation Day often slips by unnoticed or
under-appreciated even among fervent and pro-life Catholics who've inherited a
long Annunciation history and who are perfectly comfortable discussing Mary as
Mother of God and the pre-ministry life of Christ including his born and unborn
infancy -- so an omission is not always deliberate and can't be ascribed merely
to sectarian traditions or theological differences, though these certainly have
a strong influence. Today there are a
variety of factors involved -- including general loss of tradition as well as
mundane matters of time-pressures and distractions that can seem far more
urgent, and these problems affect us all, including those of us already
committed to celebrating the Annunciation.
All too often it is not our eternal perspective but our daily pragmatism
that decides what we'll make room for on our calendars and what falls by the
wayside -- thus the need to promote this day honoring Christ's conception to
all Christians as the commemoration of the moment of Incarnation, and to
promote it to the wider world as a day to remember the unborn.
The
Annunciation is also known as the "Feast of Swallows" in central
Europe because the birds return on or near this day every year. This may be why medieval Europeans thought
of swallows as holy birds, taking care not to harm swallows or their nests, and
calling them "God's birds" in Hungary. In Germany they were called "Mary's birds"~likewise in
Austria, the land that gave birth to a very old rhyme: "When Gabriel does the message bring,
return the swallows, comes the spring."
Click here for a photo of this lovely bird. Sources: CatholicCulture.org which cites "The Holyday
Book" by Francis X. Weiser, S.J., Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., New
York, 1956
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."
Furthermore, in 1989 Sister Lucia, who had been one of the three child
visionaries at Fatima, referenced March 25th 1984 as the day the consecration
(requested by the Blessed Mother via the apparitions) was definitively
accomplished: The Winter 2017-18 Marian Helper notes that the Vatican's
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith released "The Message of
Fatima" as part of its official full 1917 "secret" of Fatima
publication in the year 2000, which stated, "Sister Lucia personally
confirmed that this solemn and universal act of consecration corresponded to
what Our Lady wished ('Sim, està feita, tal como Nossa Senhora a pediu, desde o
dia 25 de Marco de 1984': [in English Sr. Lucia's words are] 'Yes it has been
done just as Our Lady asked, on 25 March 1984': Letter of 8 November
1989)." [Source: Marian Helper Vol.72 No.4 Win.2017-18, p.11-12 of
"Fatima: What Are We Missing?" by Chris Sparks, p.10-13]
.
The
names of the months September, October, November, and December can help to
remind us of the March 25th Annunciation's former status as New Year's Day, as
the numerical meaning of these words only matches the calendar if the year
begins in March. These ancient names refer to month 7, 8, 9, and 10 respectively,
but they all appear to be two months off -- the final month of December being
the 12th, yet named for the 10th. The
months originally were named centuries before Christ when the original Roman
calendar had only 10 months and began in March. Over a millennium later in the Christian era there was no need to
change them as the March 25th feast of Christ's conception was celebrated as
New Year's Day, and it remained so until the 18th century when the change to
the Gregorian calendar's January 1st New Year was complete. So if you recall the meaning of those months
of the year, it will remind you of March 25th's place of importance in
history. Source: Personal reflection of Fr. Frank Pavone
(Priests for Life) at the Summit Life Outreach banquet, Niagara Falls, NY
9/27/14.
Apparitions
in Betania, Venezuela were reported on March 25, 1984--the same day Pope John
Paul II consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The
events were detailed in Ch.17, (pg. 242-260) of "Those Who Saw Her"
(1995 Rev. Ed.) by Catherine M. Odell:
At a farmhouse in a town named Betania (meaning Bethany), flowers had
been placed to decorate a man-made grotto for the Annunciation feast date
gathering, and several times that day over 100 people (including atheists and agnostics)
reported seeing an image of Mary (who some saw holding the infant Christ) above
a nearby waterfall. The farm's owner,
Maria Esperanza de Bianchini, from childhood had been having visitations from
Mary who at one point told her she would appear to her for the first time at
this site on the Annunciation feast--March 25, 1976. That year she reported the message about the impending March 25th
apparition to Bishop Bernal of their diocese who assigned priests to celebrate
Mass and Reconciliation there. One year
after that first apparition, on March 25, 1977, Mary again appeared at the farm
to 15 people, and later Esperanza learned from Mary that more would see the
next March 25 apparition, and that sacramental preparation for the poorest of
their community should be accomplished before March 25th--the apparition
occurred on the usual Annunciation feast date which in 1978 was also Holy
Saturday. In the early 1980s Mary told
Esperanza that many people would see her on March 25, 1984 (which occurred on the
same day Pope John Paul II made the collegial consecration). That well-documented and investigated
apparition (approved by Bishop Pio Ricardo of the Los Teques diocese in 1987)
plus the healings and miraculous occurrences that followed drew crowds as large
as thirty-thousand people to the little nearby village--on the 25th of each
month.
Though pro-life devotees
of the March 25/December 25 Annunciation-Christmas connection often advocate
monthly prayer each 25th, the spiritual significance of the 25th of each month
is also reflected in the history of the Medjugorje apparitions. Although not officially afforded the
same status by the Roman Catholic Church as are those of Lourdes and Fatima, the
Vatican in 2019 did authorize official pilgrimages to Medjugorje. This is the Eastern European town where reported
apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary began with a vision late in the
afternoon of June 24, 1981, and the first message and prayer with the
youngsters occurring the day after on June 25th, which is the official anniversary
date of the apparitions reportedly requested by the Virgin Mary herself. As the messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje (also
given the title Queen of Peace and Mother of the Redeemer) reported by the six
young people, transitioned from daily, to weekly, and then monthly in 1987, the
Blessed Mother indicated the day chosen would be the 25th of each month and
that the messages would be for the whole world to lead it back to her Son,
Jesus -- these continue to be reported into this present year of 2021. (It is interesting to note that the
Medjugorje focus on the 25th of the month precedes by more than a decade the later
establishment of the first official March 25th Day of the Unborn Child which later
inspired other 25th-of-the-month prayer initiatives.) American adherents of the Medjugorje messages
were inspired to build a shrine in Birmingham, AL in 1993 and to write a series
of novena prayers (usually 9 consecutive days) to be prayed beginning on the
25th of each month, starting in June and ending in December at the dedication
of the building. The novena series was
titled, "For the Reconciliation of Ourselves, Our Families and our Nation
Back to God" and as of the end of 2020 was prayed monthly each 25th for 27
years -- three nine-year novenas. [The
town of Medjugorje is located in the nation now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina,
but when the apparitions began in 1981 the nation was known as Yugoslavia, a
communist country with an officially atheist government.]
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.
Pope John Paul II
speaking on the significance of the Incarnation said: "The most radical and elevating
affirmation of the value of every human being was made by the Son of God in his
becoming man in the womb of a woman…"
Source:
Christifideles Laici
The Sisters of Life (established on June 1st 1991 at the behest
of New York Archbishop John Cardinal O'Connor), were officially approved as a
Religious Institute of Diocesan Right within the Church, on their patronal
feast of the Annunciation, March 25th, 2004.
This was done at the direction of
the Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of
Apostolic Life (Click here to read more). The Sisters' pro-life ministry includes assisting pregnant women
and highlighting the importance of the Annunciation and its celebration--for
more on this aspect of the Sisters of Life, please see the quotes on this page below
from their Superior General Mother Agnes Donovan, SV, and visit the Related Links page entry on the
Sisters of Life including quotes from their website and Annunciation web
page.
An
interest in fostering devotion and prayer 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"--"culture"
including daily prayer practices and yearly celebrations to remind ourselves
and the world of what truly matters, and how we "order" our year and
priorities based on their import and meaning. 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."
Mother Agnes continued the discussion of the need for prayer to the
Unborn Christ on the 6/20/2010 Sunday Night Live w/ Fr. Groeschel, as
she responded to a phone request for this type of prayer from Harold T. Gomes,
the brother of one of the Sisters of Life who accompanied Mother Agnes on the
broadcast. For more on this aspect of
the Sisters of Life, visit the Related
Links page entry on the Sisters of Life including quotes from their website
and Annunciation web page.
Ave Maria
University (founded in 1998 by Domino's Pizza entrepreneur Tom Monaghan)
celebrates the Annunciation each year as its "patronal feast" with
many special events for students and area residents. Ave Maria University's tradition of
celebrating the Annunciation as a campus-wide event began March 25, 2004. Since then it has figured prominently in
many milestones and special occasions at Ave Maria. In 2007 the cornerstone of its new Oratory was blessed and laid
on March 25th. On the March 31, 2008
feast of the Annunciation (transferred to this date that year due to Easter
schedule) the dedication Mass for the Ave Maria Oratory was celebrated with
over 1,000 worshippers and another 1,000 watching nearby on closed circuit
TV. In 2011 the March 25th Feast of the
Annunciation was the date for the official unveiling of the 50 ton, 35-foot
tall bas relief sculpture of the Annunciation created by Marton Varo. On March 25th, 2012 the university made the
Annunciation Feast an outdoor festival on campus. In 2015, AMU had a "second ground-breaking" on the
March 25th Annunciation as the university was consecrated to Jesus through Mary
by Bishop Frank Dewane at a Mass attended by over 1,000.
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. (The
8-day Annunciation celebration beginning on March 25 is reminiscent of the
8-day celebration of Hanukkah beginning on the 25th of Kislev, the third month
of the Jewish calendar).
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...."
On the subject of the Incarnation, Joseph
Kung, President of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (dedicated to raising awareness
of the persecuted underground Catholic Church in China), said that at Mary's
"Yes" the eternal Son of God had "a new home in his mother's
womb." Source: "Christmas 2013" newsletter,
Cardinal Kung Foundation, Stamford, CT.
In 1999
a miraculous event was reported to have occurred in Cochabamba, Bolivia on
March 25th of that year. In the home of
Katya [Catalina] Rivas, multicolored crystals were seen to spontaneously appear
(and were photographed) on an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe (an image
associated with the Annunciation as it depicts Mary pregnant with the unborn
Christ). The mysterious phenomenon was recorded on film because in
1998 reporter Michael Willesee began a documentary entitled "Signs from
God -- Science Tests Faith" on stigmata of a woman named Katya Rivas. He and his film crew
happened to be there on that Annunciation feast date of March 25th 1999. Pt. 1 of the video (6:10 min. mark)
describes the event: "This is a
simple framed print of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It hangs in Katya's hallway. But
on March 25, 1999 something truly inexplicable occurred. We witnessed and
filmed a gathering of thousands of colored crystals on the image bright and
exquisite in their artistic formation -- and no evidence of the hand of
man." Also in Pt.1 of "Signs
From God--Science Tests Faith" is a quote referencing Christ's Incarnation
in Mary's womb (at the 8:51 min. mark): "As we continued to visit Katya at
her home the artistic glitter on the picture of Mary continued to grow and
change. On the third night we noticed part of the image illuminated in the
dark. We then bathed the image in a strong television light. The same area lit
up into a brilliant phosphorus green. To us, a mystery but to Katya it was
simple -- A gift from Jesus and a message:
This was the womb of Mary where He became man." For more on these events, including photos
and links to YouTube videos from the "Signs From God--Science Tests
Faith" documentary, click
here. Additional info on these
happenings can be found at LoveAndMercy.org.
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.
In
2012, the Annunciation feast was chosen as the day to announce the Vatican's approval
of the publication of the "Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the
Womb."
A LifeNews.com article noted that the blessing, which can be offered
both within and outside of Mass, "was prepared to support parents awaiting
the birth of their child, to encourage parish prayers for and recognition of
the precious gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human
life within society." On the
significance of the date selected for the announcement, the article quoted
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on
Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who said,
"I can think of no better day to announce this news than on the feast of
the Annunciation, when we remember Mary’s 'yes' to God and the incarnation of
that child in her the womb that saved the world." To read the full article click here. Source: Article by Steven Ertelt, "Vatican
Approves New Blessing for Unborn Children" reported by LifeNews.com,
3/26/12, Washington, DC.
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--read CNSnews.com's 5/31/10
report "Pelosi Says Her Policies Guided by the Values of Jesus") 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 8/2/10 CNSnews.com video report "Pelosi Won't Say When Jesus
Christ Got the Right to Life" or read the August 3, 2010 CNSNews.com report
by Jane McGrath entitled "Pelosi Won’t Say When Jesus Got the Right to
Life" and the article "At the Annunciation or at the Nativity,
Nancy?" (CNA 8/5/10). The story
was reported via many media outlets and blogs, including Fox News and
CNSNews.com--the latter did a follow-up article on 12/3/2010 by Terence P. Jeffrey
entitled "Michele Bachmann: Jesus Had a Right to Life from the Moment of
Conception" that contrasted the pro-life response of U.S. Congresswoman
and Republican presidential primary candidate Michele Bachmann to that of Ms.
Pelosi when asked the same question [Note: the link to the follow-up article on Bachmann
includes a beautiful depiction of the Annunciation by the 17th Century Spanish
artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.]
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
Institute of the Incarnate Word was founded on March 25th, 1984 in Argentina
(the country that later began the tradition of celebrating the date as Day of
the Unborn Child). This Catholic men's
religious congregation, also known as "the IVE" from its title in
Spanish, "Instituto del Verbo Encarnado" celebrates its anniversary
on the Feast of the Annunciation, even when it is moved to a different
date. For more info click here.
The
Feast of the Annunciation is a national holiday in Lebanon--with all government
offices, schools and banks closed and private businesses encouraged to close as
well since 2010 when it was officially declared a joint Christian-Muslim
holiday. Although Christians and
Muslims have very different understandings of the Annunciation, the fact that
both faiths agree that it was an important and blessed event inspired efforts
in Lebanon to recognize it as an unprecedented shared national holiday for both
faiths.
On March 30, 2013 a Lebanon TV channel aired a special on this aspect of
the Annunciation entitled: Kitab Edition Speciale - Islamic-Christian National Holiday
(Program description: “From the Annunciation to the Resurrection a long path in
faith and religion...The 25th of March, Feast of the Annunciation, an
Islamic-Christian National Holiday"; thus becoming the first joint formal
holiday in the history of these two religions). The article, "Lebanon: How the Annunciation came to be a joint
Muslim-Christian national holiday" (by Marialaura Conte, 29.03.2010)
includes an interview with Sheikh Mohamad Nokkari, a Sunni Muslim who began the
initiative after discussions with a Christian friend. A 2/20/10 meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the Prime
Minister of Lebanon in which the matter was to be discussed is mentioned here in the article "Beirut, 'national'
Islamic-Christian holiday in the name of the Annunciation of Mary" (by
Fady Noun, 02/19/2010). The Catholic
News Service article "Lebanese
sheik helped get Annunciation recognized as national holiday" (by
Doreen Abi Raad, Mar-24-2010) states that Lebanon's Prime Minister confirmed
the decision to approve the holiday at that Vatican meeting. Click here for the Zenit article "Marian Feast Named Holiday
for Muslims, Christians" (By Tony Assaf, March 01, 2010) -- toward the end
are the remarks of secretary general of the Christian-Muslim Committee for
Dialogue Mohammad Al-Sammak on his efforts to help establish the dual-faith
holiday.
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."
One of
the most famous and affecting depictions of The Annunciation was painted by an
American artist -- Henry Ossawa Tanner -- in 1898 (click here to see the image): "The Philadelphia Museum of Art…has
a magnificent and well articulated Catholic collection…and besides that, there
is the most impressive picture of the Annunciation I've ever seen in my life,
done by America's first great black artist, Henry Ossawa Tanner--his father was
a bishop of the African Methodist-Episcopal Church….Did you ever see the
picture of the Annunciation where the archangel is just a shaft of shimmering
white light, and the Virgin is sitting there like this, and the appointments of
the house are Mexican Indian--the rug, everything--and you say, "Why did
he make it look Mexican?"--because if you go back and look at the face,
it's the face of "Our Lady of Guadalupe," but wearing an expression,
a slight expression. Tanner couldn't
work in this country because of prejudice, and he worked in France--the name of
this painting is La Anunciación--and "Our Lady of Guadalupe" was
immensely popular among the Catholic intelligentsia before the First World
War." Source: Side 2 of Tape 3 (entitled, "Why You
Should Be Hopeful") of the four tape set "Exposing the Real Church
Scandal" [talk given by Fr. Benedict Groeschel] published by Crisis
(www.CrisisMagazine.com). Note:
The work's alternate French title is, L'Annunciation.
For the
first time on March 26th, 2011 a simultaneous pro-life march was held in four
Romanian cities: Bucharest, Timisoara,
Satu Mare, and Falticeni. All the prominent Christian
denominations were represented to show solidarity on the issue~the featured
banner read, "United for Life and Christian Family," at this
gathering of mostly teenage participants. HLI Mission Report No. 319 July 2011 p.7
(Human Life International)
The
Fleur-de-lis (Fleur de lys) symbol is often associated with and used in
depictions of the Annunciation. Click here
to view. The symbol is thought to be
based on the shape of the lily (which often represents the purity, and
therefore the Virgin Mary as well) and is also associated with the angel Gabriel
in Annunciation art. Visit this site for more.
Several
religious orders have been named for the Annunciation (Annunciades, Celestial
Annunciades, Annunciates Of Lombardy, and Annunziata (mostly women religious
except for the last of the four, which includes men as well). There is also a charitable
"Archconfraternity of the Annunciation" in Rome dating back to the
1400s that has raised money for poor young women who want to marry or enter
religious life (at one time in history the Pope presided over their annual
ceremonies on March 25th presenting the award certificate). Click here for
more.
One of
the chivalric orders of knights was named for and dedicated to the
Annunciation. The "Order of the
Most Holy Annunciation" has its origins in the 1300s, making it the second
most ancient of the surviving royal collar orders. The collar badge of the order depicts the Annunciation and is
worn on the feast day. For more details
and to see an image of the collar badge, click here.
In 1990
Art Garfunkel recorded a song called "The Annunciation" on an album
with Amy Grant titled "The Animals' Christmas." Visit this webpage for audio samples.
Although St. Faustina is known for the
messages of Divine Mercy given to her by Jesus, the Blessed Mother also
appeared to her on this very special day to urge her to speak to the world
about Christ's great mercy, as noted by Sr. M. Caterina Esselen, OLM (Superior
of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy -- Boston): "Our Lady appeared to St. Faustina on the Feast of the
Annunciation--March 25th in 1936." (Interview aired on EWTN March 25th,
2015 on EWTN Live)
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[page updated 03/25/2019]