Visitation (Christian)

The Visitation is the visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Saint Elizabeth as recorded in the Gospel of Luke . It is also the term for a Christian feast day commemorating this visit, celebrated on 31 May in the West (2 July in calendars of the 1263-1969 period) and 30 March in the East.

Event

Mary, having heard at the Annunciation that Elizabeth was six months pregnant, left her home to visit her. Elizabeth and John the Baptist were inspired by the Holy Spirit at her arrival, and Elizabeth prophesied. Mary pronounced the "Magnificat" and remained with Elizabeth for about three months. [Lk 1:56]

In art it is a regular component of cycles of scenes from the Life of the Virgin. It is the second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, with the theme of "Spiritual Fruit and Love of Neighbor".

Feast

Western Christianity

This feast is of medieval origin. It was kept by the Franciscan Order before 1263 when Saint Bonaventure recommended it and the Franciscan chapter adopted it. The Franciscan Breviary spread it to many churches. In 1389 Pope Urban VI, hoping thereby to obtain an end to the Great Western Schism, inserted it in the Roman Calendar, for celebration on 2 July. [Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 19690, p. 93] In the Tridentine Calendar it was a Double. When that Missal of Pope Pius V was replaced by that of Pope Clement VIII in 1604, the Visitation became a Double of the Second Class, and remained so until Pope John XXIII reclassified it as a Second-Class Feast in 1962. [2nd Class] It continued to be assigned to 2 July, just over a week after the celebration of the birth of John the Baptist, who was still in his mother's womb at the time of the Visitation, until in 1969 Pope Paul VI moved it to 31 May, "between the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (25 March) and that of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (24 June), so that it would harmonize better with the Gospel story." ["Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 128]

Roman Catholics who use a pre-1969 calendar and Anglicans who use the 1662 "Book of Common Prayer" celebrate the feast on 2 July.

Eastern Christianity

The celebration of a feast day commemorating this event in the Eastern Orthodox Church is of relatively recent origin, dating only to the 19th century. The impetus to estabish a feast day in the Liturgical calendar of the Orthodox Church, and the composition of a service to be included in the Menaion were the work of Archimandrite Antonin Kapustin (†1894), head of the Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem. The Gorneye Convent in Jerusalem, which was built on the traditional site of the Meeting of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) and St. Elizabeth, celebrates this Feast on 30 March. (Julian Calendar 30 March corresponds, until 2099, to Gregorian Calendar 12 April.) If 30 March falls between Lazarus Saturday and Pascha (Easter), the Visitation Feast is transferred to Bright Friday. Celebration of the Feast of the Visitation has not yet been accepted by all Orthodox jurisdictions.

ee also

*Mariology

References

External links

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15480a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary"]
* [http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=109950 The Meeting of the Mother of God and Saint Elizabeth] Orthodox icon and synaxarion