Mary (mother of Jesus)

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Mary, the mother of Jesus, also called the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Mary the Virgin, the Virgin Mary and Mary, mother of God, was a first century Hebrew woman and the mother of Jesus of Nazareth.

Christian teaching generally holds that Jesus, Mary's firstborn son, was conceived by the divine intervention, that is by God acting through the Holy Spirit. Support for this position comes chiefly from the description of the Annunciation in the Gospel According to Luke and the Gospel According to Matthew. The doctrine of the Virgin Birth (often confused with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception), although generally accepted by believers, has not been without controversy even among Christians.

New Testament accounts feature Mary at several key points in Jesus' life. Mary has been a subject of Christian veneration since the early church; there are special cults of Mary and devotions to Mary, and she has been a popular subject in the Arts for the past two millennia.