Early history The earliest feasts that relate to Mary grew out of the cycle of feasts that celebrate the
Nativity of Jesus Christ. Given that according to the
Gospel of Luke (), forty days after the birth of Jesus, along with the
Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Mary was purified according to Jewish customs, the
Feast of the Purification began to be celebrated by the 5th century, and became the
Feast of Simeon in
Byzantium. The origin of Marian feasts is lost to history. Although there are references to specific Marian feasts introduced into the liturgies in later centuries, there are indications that Christians celebrated Mary very early on. Methodius, a bishop (died 311) from the 3rd and early 4th century, wrote: And what shall I conceive, what shall I speak worthy of this day? I am struggling to reach the inaccessible, for the remembrance of this holy virgin far transcends all words of mine. Wherefore, since the greatness of the panegyric required completely puts to shame our limited powers, let us betake ourselves to that hymn which is not beyond our faculties, and boasting in our own unalterable defeat, let us join the rejoicing chorus of Christ’s flock, who are keeping holy-day ... We keep festival, not according to the vain customs of the Greek mythology; we keep a feast which brings with it no ridiculous or frenzied banqueting of the gods, but which teaches us the wondrous condescension to us men of the awful glory of Him who is God over all ... Do thou, therefore, O lover of this festival ... A separate feast for Mary, connected with the Christmastide, originated in the 5th century, even perhaps before the
First Council of Ephesus of 431. It seems certain that the sermon by
Proclus before
Nestorius (the Archbishop of
Constantinople whose
Nestorianism rejected the title of
Theotokos) which began the controversy that led to the council was about a feast for the Virgin Mary. Some differences in feasts originate from doctrinal issues – the
Feast of the Assumption is such an example. Given that there is no agreement among all Christians on the circumstances of the death, Dormition or
Assumption of Mary, the Feast of the Assumption is celebrated among some denominations and not others. In his early years,
Martin Luther used to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, but towards the end of his life he stopped celebrating it. While the
Western Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Assumption on 15 August, some
Eastern Catholics celebrate it as
Dormition of the Mother of God, and may do so on 28 August, if they follow the
Julian calendar. The
Eastern Orthodox also celebrate it as the Dormition of the Mother of God, one of their 12
Great Feasts. The
Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the Feast of Dormition not on a fixed date, but on the Sunday nearest 15 August. Moreover, the practices apart from doctrinal differences also vary, e.g. for the
Eastern Orthodox the feast is preceded by the 14-day Dormition Fast. Feasts continue to be developed, e.g. the feast of the
Queenship of Mary was declared in 1954 in the papal encyclical
Ad Caeli Reginam by
Pope Pius XII. The initial ceremony for this feast involved the crowning of the
Salus Populi Romani icon of the Virgin Mary in Rome by Pius XII as part of a procession in Rome, and is unique to Roman Catholics. Other differences in feasts relate to specific events that occurred in history. For instance, the Feast of
Our Lady of Victory (later renamed Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary) was based on the 1571 victory of the
Papal States against the
Ottoman Empire in the
Battle of Lepanto, is hence unique to Roman Catholics. == By Christian denomination ==