Mary's birthday is not in the Bible. The names Joachim and Anne are not in the Bible either. And the Church has kept September 8 anyway for more than fifteen hundred years. Joe walks through where the feast actually came from — a second-century document the Church refused to canonize but never stopped remembering, a church dedication in Jerusalem, and a Roman procession under Pope St. Sergius I — and why December 8 exists only because September 8 does.

The Church keeps just three birthdays on her calendar: Jesus, John the Baptist, and Our Lady. Everyone else is remembered on the day they died. Joe reads from the free cheat sheet on air — the two ancient sources side by side, every quote with its citation, and a dated timeline of the oldest references to Mary in the Church Fathers, from St. Ignatius of Antioch around A.D. 107 to the Council of Ephesus in 431.

Also on today's show: Luis Roman joins Joe on "Murder in the 33rd Degree," the documentary series he is associate producer on, based on the testimony of Fr. Charles T. Murr and his book of the same name — Vatican corruption in 1977-78 and the Year of the Three Popes. Directed by Luis Piccinali, presented by VADE RETRO and produced by Dominus Estudios.

REFERENCED ON AIR

• The Protoevangelium of James, c. A.D. 145-200 - https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm
• St. Andrew of Crete, Discourse on the Nativity of the Theotokos, c. A.D. 700-730 (Oratio 1: PG 97, 806-810) - read in today's Office of Readings
• St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Ephesians 19, c. A.D. 107
• St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 100, c. A.D. 155
• St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies III.22.4, c. A.D. 180
• St. Jerome, Against Helvidius, A.D. 383 - https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm
• Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431 - Theotokos defined
• Catholic Encyclopedia, "The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary" - https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10712b.htm
• Luke 1:28, 38; John 2:1-11; 1 Kings 2:19-20 (Douay-Rheims)

LUIS ROMAN
Murder in the 33rd Degree - https://murder33.com/

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