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Annunciation

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For other uses, see Annunciation (disambiguation).
A Byzantine icon of the Annunciation from Ohrid, early 14th century

The Annunciation is, in Christianity, the revelation to Mary, the mother of Jesus by the angel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born the Son of God. Some Christian churches celebrate this with the Feast of Annunciation on 25 March, which as the Incarnation is nine months before Christmas.

The date of the Annunciation also marked the New Year in many places, including England, where it is called Lady Day. Both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches hold that the Annunciation took place at Nazareth, but differ as to the precise location. The Church of the Annunciation marks the site preferred by the former, while the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation marks that of the latter.

The annunciation has been a key topic in Christian art in general, as well as in Roman Catholic Marian art, particularly during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

The Annunciation in the Bible

Part of a series of articles on
Mother of Jesus
Chronology
Marian perspectives
Catholic Mariology
Marian dogmas
Mary in culture

In the Bible, the Annunciation is narrated in the book of Luke, Chapter 1, verses 26-38 (WEB):

26Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28Having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!” 29But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be. 30The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and will call his name ‘Jesus.’ 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.” 34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?” 35The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God. 36Behold, Elizabeth, your relative, also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37For everything spoken by God is possible.” 38Mary said, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to your word.” The angel departed from her.

Eastern traditions

In Eastern Christianity Mary is referred to as Theotokos (Θεοτόκος="God-bearer"). The traditional Troparion (hymn for the day) of the Annunciation is:

Today is the beginning of our salvation,
And the revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos:
"Rejoice, O Full of Grace, The Lord is with You!"

The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the twelve Great Feasts of the church year. As the action initiating the Incarnation of Christ, Annunciation has such an important place in Eastern theology that the Festal Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is always celebrated on March 25, regardless of what day it falls on—even if it falls on Pascha (Easter Sunday) itself, a coincidence which is called Kyriopascha. The only time the Divine Liturgy may be celebrated on Great and Holy Friday is if it falls on March 25. Due to this, the rubrics regarding the celebration of the feast are the most complicated of all in Eastern liturgics. The Annunciation is called Euangelismos (Evangelism) in Greek, literally meaning "spreading the Good News".

The Annunciation, by El Greco (1575)

In the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgical calendars, the feast is moved if necessary to prevent it from falling during Holy Week or Easter Week or on a Sunday. To avoid a Sunday before Holy Week, the next day (March 26) would be observed instead. In years such as 2008 when March 25 falls during Holy Week or Easter Week, the Annunciation is moved to the Monday after Octave of Easter, which is the Sunday after Easter.

It might be thought that with a very early Easter, the feast of St Joseph would be displaced from 19 March to the Monday after Easter week, thus displacing the Annunciation to the Tuesday. However, in the Roman Catholic calendar, if the Feast of St Joseph, normally falling on March 19, must also be moved as a consequence of Easter falling on one of its earliest possible dates, it is moved to an earlier rather than a later date. This will normally be the Saturday before Holy Week. (This change was announced by the Congregation for Divine Worship in Notitiae March-April, 2006 (475-476, page 96).) In the Church of England it is moved to the Tuesday after Easter Week, following the Annunciation on the Monday, which is of higher rank and takes precedence.

The Eastern churches (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental and Eastern Catholic) do not move the feast of the Annunciation under any circumstance. They have special combined liturgies for those years when the Annunciation coincides with another feast. In these churches, even on Good Friday a Divine Liturgy is celebrated when it coincides with the Annunciation. One of the most frequent accusations brought against New Calendarism is the fact that in the New Calendar churches (which celebrate the Annunciation according to the New Calendar, but Easter according to the Old Calendar), these special Liturgies can never be celebrated any more, since the Annunciation is always well before Holy Week on the New Calendar. The Old Calendarists believe that this impoverishes the liturgical and spiritual life of the Church.

File:Damiane4.jpg
The Annunciation, mural from Ubisi, Georgia

The date is close to the vernal equinox, as Christmas is to the winter solstice; because of this the Annunciation and Christmas were two of the four "Quarter days" in medieval and early modern England, which marked the divisions of the fiscal year (the other two were Midsummer Day, or the Nativity of St. John the Baptist—June 24—and Michaelmas, the feast day of St. Michael, on September 29).

When the calendar system of Anno Domini was first introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525, he assigned the beginning of the new year to March 25, since according to Christian theology, the era of grace began with the Incarnation of Christ.

The first authentic allusions to it are in a canon, of the Council of Toledo (656), and another of the Council of Constantinople "in Trullo" (692), forbidding the celebration of any festivals during Lent, excepting the Lord's Day (Sunday) and the Feast of the Annunciation. An earlier origin has been claimed for it on the ground that it is mentioned in sermons of Athanasius and of Gregory Thaumaturgus, but both of these documents are now admitted to be spurious. A synod held at Worcester, England (1240), forbade all servile work on this feast day. See further Lady Day.

Theories on the origins of the Feast

Thomas J. Talley, S.J., cites an observation of the nineteenth century liturgical scholar Louis Duchesne that “fractions are imperfections which do not fall in with the demands of a symbolical system of numbers.” In this connection Talley notes the well-known tendency of rabbinic thought to have the births and deaths of the Old Testament patriarchs on the same day of the year, either in during Passover in Nisan or to Tabernacles in Tishri. It would therefore have been natural for the Jewish Christians, for theological reasons, to develop a similar tradition about Jesus Christ. He cites an early Christian tractate, 'De solstitiia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis domini nostri iesu Christi et iohannis baptista', which, evoking the tradition that the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah in the Holy of Holies when he was serving as high priest on the Day of Atonement, would have placed the conception of John the Baptist during the feast of Tabernacles and his birth nine months later at the time of the summer solstice. Since Luke’s gospel states that the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary in the sixth month after John’s conception, this would place the conception of Christ at about the time of the spring equinox, i.e., at the time of the Jewish Passover and his birth at the time of the winter solstice. This would mean that the early Christian community had modified the earlier Jewish tradition to associate the beginning of the lives of both John the Baptist and of Christ with their conception, rather than with their births. He quotes the 'De solstitiia' as explicitly stating this in an almost laconic way:

“Therefore, our O Lord was conceived on the eighth of the calends of April in the month of March, which is the day of the passion of the Lord and of his conception. For on the day that he was conceived on the same he suffered.”

Talley notes that Augustine was also aware of this tradition and cites it in his 'De Trinitate' IV,5.[1] Talley also points out that a similar tradition of dating of the passion and death of Christ on April 6 in the Eastern Church gives one the date of January 6 as the day of Christ’s birth, a tradition which lasted long in the Eastern Church, especially in the Jerusalem Church and is still the day celebrated as the Nativity of Christ in the Armenian Church.

Quran

Main article: Islamic view of Mary

Annunciation is also cited in the Quran, in Suras 3 (Aal 'Imran - The family of Imran) verses 45-51 and 19 (Maryam - Mary) verses 16-26, although without mentioning Jesus as the son of God.

Annunciation in art

See also: Roman Catholic Marian art
The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci (1472-1475) Uffizi Gallery.

The Annunciation is one of the most frequent subjects of artistic representation in both the Christian East and as Roman Catholic Marian art, particularly during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and figures in the repertoire of almost all of the great masters. The figures of the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel, being emblematic of purity and grace, were favorite subjects of Roman Catholic Marian art.

Because the natural composition of the scene–two parallel figures, often elegantly clad–the subject was often employed in the decoration of a diptych or tympaneum (decorated arch above a doorway). In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Annunciation is typically depicted on the Holy Doors (decorative doorway leading from the nave into the sanctuary).

Annunciation by Fabrizio Boschi, 17th century

In Roman Catholic Marian art scenes depicting the annunciations are also used to representthe dogma of perpetual virginity, via the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel that Mary would conceive a child to be born the Son of God.

Frescos depicting this scene have appeared in Roman Catholic Marian churches for centuries and it has been a topic addressed by many artists in multiple media, ranging from stained glass to mosaic, to relief, to sculpture to oil painting.[2]

It has been one of the most frequent subjects of Christian art, particularly during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The figures of the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel, being emblematic of purity and grace, were favorite subjects of many painters such as Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo de Vinci, Caravaggio, Duccio and Murillo among others. The mosaics of Pietro Cavallini in Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome (1291), the frescos of Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (1303), Domenico Ghirlandaio's fresco at the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence (1486) and Donatello's gilded sculpture at the church of Santa Croce, Florence (1435) are famous examples.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Annunciation.
Wikisource has the text of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article The Feast of the Annunciation.
  • [1] MP3 of Orthodox Byzantine Hymn(s) for the Annunciation

References

  1. ^ The Origins of the Liturgical Year (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1986) 91-99.
  2. ^ Annunciation Art, Phaidon Press, 2004, ISBN 0714844470
Gabriel announces Mary's motherhood to Jesus
Life of Jesus: Conception of Jesus
Preceded by
Gabriel announces John's
birth to Zechariah
   New Testament   
Events
Followed by
Mary visits Elizabeth

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