Annunciation

Celebrates Christian

Celebrated the March 25th (9 months before Christmas) by the Christian tradition, the birthday of the Annunciation corresponds to the birthdays of dead of Adam and the Crucifixion of the Christ.

The Annunciation is one of the central mysteries of the Christian worship. It is indeed the moment when the divine one is incarnated as a man: the Archange Gabriel announces in Marie her new statute of mother of the Son of God, and explains to him that it will carry a child in his center while remaining virgin. It is the origin of the belief in a virginal Conception which one should not confuse with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception which is specific to modern Catholicism (for the orthodoxe and the Protestant the only human being designed out of the original sin is Jesus-Christ). In other words, like explained it the theologists, a Jewish woman living under the law of Brace agrees to introduce into the world That which will die for the sins of the men, i.e. the law, while remaining valid, cease to be the essential theological principle, and leaves the place to the hello. For this reason, the Annunciation is the moment when the original sin of Adam and Eve is washed. A pure woman puts at the world Christ, and washes the sin of impurity of Eve. The theological tradition even underlines that the formula Latin E pronounced by Gabriel “Ave Maria” contains the name of Eve reversed (Ave/Eva, in Latin) and makes visible the direction even of the Annunciation. In the original text of the Gospel, in Greek, the greeting of Gabriel is " XAIPE" i.e. " Delighted! " The Annunciation is a message of joy and release. But this release is potential, it is achieved indeed only by the Cross and Resurrection.

Biblical origin

Before being made in Marie, the Annunciation of a miraculous pregnancy is made in Sarah, marries Abraham, in Genèse 18,9-15.

the text

The Annunciation with Marie is elatée in the Gospel according to Luc, chapter 1 26-38.

“To the sixth month, the Ange Gabriel was sent by God in a town of Galileo called Nazareth, towards a virgin who was promised in marriage to a man of the house of David, named Joseph; and the name of the virgin was Marie. ” “The angel greets the Virgin: " Hello, full with grace! " " The Lord is with you ". ” “The angel says to him: " Do not fear, Marie, because you found grace in front of God. Here that you will conceive, and you will give birth to a son, and you will give him the name of Jesus. He will be large and will be called wire of the Almighty; the Lord God will give him to the throne of David his father; he will reign eternally on the house of Jacob, and its reign will not have end. " Marie said to the angel: " How that will it be, since I do not know the man? " The angel answered him: " The Holy Ghost will come on you, and the virtue of the Almighty will cover you with his shade. This is why the holy being which will be born will be called Sons of God. ”

Thus, Jesus-Christ “was conceived Holy Spirit”, and “was born from the Virgin Mary” (Symbole of the Apostles).

Basilica of the Annunciation

With Nazareth, the basilica Catholique of the Annunciation is largest of the churches of the the Middle East and one of the high places of Christendom. It was inaugurated in 1964 by the Pope Paul VI and was devoted in 1969 on the site of churches older, themselves built, as from the 4th century, on a cave identified like that of the Annunciation, at the place even where according to the Christian tradition the Archange Gabriel appeared with Marie to announce to him that it carried the child Jesus.

People and institutions dedicated to the festival

female First names referring to the Annunciation:

Évanghélia, Évangéline (Annunciation says Evanghelismos in Greek).
Annuciata, Annonciade.

the orthodoxe cathedral of Athens.
the principal hospital of the center of Athens is called Évanghélismos.

The topic in art

The Annunciation is one of the privileged topics of the Christian art, Western and Byzantine in particular. The first representations which us remained about it date from the 4th century, in the Catacombes of Priscille and of the Saint-Pierre-and-Marcellin with Rome. It is reproduced also on the mosaics of the triumphal arch of major Sainte-Marie (v. 435) in Rome, where the Virgin weaves the purple intended for the veil of the temple, in accordance with the texts of the Gospels apocryphal books. One finds it at the same time on bulbs of Monza and Bobbio.

This topic was particularly developed with the Middle Ages, in the East and Occident, and then undergoes one of its iconography.

It was with the honor during the Quattrocento and during the following centuries.

On many representations of the Annunciation, particularly since Duccio which is the first to adopt this iconography, Marie is generally represented with a book open to the hand. The book, that Marie holds with the hand, translates its origin well-read woman and thus its knowledge of the Holy Scriptures: Marie is the model of confidence as a God par excellence. Saint Bonaventure identifies the passage read like prophecies of Isaïe, which precisely announce the arrival of Christ.

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