Virgin Mary
Virgin Mary (d. ca. 1st c.), mother of Jesus. According to Catholic doctrine, she was born without Original Sin to Saints Anna and Joachim, and consecrated to the temple at a young age. At the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce that she would give birth to the Son of God. Upon her death, Mary was assumed to Heaven, where she acts as an intercessor between the faithful and her son Jesus.
Excerpt from The Golden Legend
This glorious virgin was, in the womb of her mother sanctified more plainly and more specially than ever was any other, for as [said] St. Thomas Aquinas in Compendio: There [are] three manners of sanctifications, the first is common, and given by the sacraments of the Holy Church, like as by baptism and other sacraments, and these give grace but to take away the inclination to sin deadly and venially, nay, and this was done in the Virgin Mary, for she was hallowed and confirmed in all goodness, more than ever was any creature, like as [said] St. Austin: She did never sin mortal nor venial. For she was so much [illuminated] by the Holy Ghost which descended in her, that through the conception of her blessed son Jesus Christ, which rested in her nine months, she was so confirmed in all virtues that there abode in her no inclination of sin.
Joseph [who] then was of the lineage of David, and dwelled in Nazareth, went into the city of Bethlehem, and led with him the Virgin Mary his wife. And when they [arrived], because the hostelries were all taken up, they were constrained to be without in a common place where all people went. And there was a stable for an ass that he brought with him, and for an ox. In that night our Blessed Lady and Mother of God was delivered of our Blessed Saviour upon the hay that lay in the rack. At which nativity our Lord [showed] many marvels.
