Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary 

and wrote, `His name is John.' And they all marveled. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue 

loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.  (Lk 1:57 64). 

    Notice, in this passage from Sacred Scripture, that the child of Zechariah and Elizabeth was given the name 

John on the day of his circumcision. Zechariah and Elizabeth knew that they would have a child and would 

name him John, even before John was conceived, for an angel had revealed this to them (Lk 1:13). Yet they 

waited until the day of his circumcision to name him. 

     And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel 

before he was conceived in the womb.  (Lk 2:21). 

    Here again, the name of Jesus was not formally given to the Christ child until the eighth day, the day of the 

circumcision. Even though the angel had revealed His name before He was conceived (Lk 1:31), the Jewish 

custom was to formally give a male child their name on the eighth day. This custom is clearly seen in both the 

births of John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ. 

    In Leviticus 12, Jewish custom concerning newborn children is described. When a woman gives birth to a 

son, she is unclean for seven days, then on the eighth day the child is circumcised. The custom to formally 

name the child on this day is not mentioned here, but is made clear in the above quoted passages from Luke's 

Gospel. Then 33 days later  the days of her purifying are complete  and the child's mother is now able to 

enter the sanctuary of the temple on the 40th day (Lev 12:1 4). Note the division of the 40 days into the first 7 

days, followed by the remaining 33 days. The child's naming occurs after the first 7 days, after the time when 

the mother is considered unclean, and on the first of the 33 days, the time of the mother's purifying. The 

ceremony for the naming and circumcision of a male child occurs on the first day that the mother is considered 

clean. 

      `But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation; and she shall 

continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty six days.'   (Lev 12:5). 

    The custom for naming a female child was different, as can be inferred from this passage of Sacred 

Scripture. The time from the birth of a daughter to the end of the time of purifying is 80 days, twice the time 

for a son.

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 As with a son, the time after the birth of a daughter is also broken into two time periods, a time 

when the mother is unclean and a time for her purifying. A son would be named at his circumcision, but there 

is no circumcision for the daughter. However, the custom for naming a male child was to do so after the time 

when the mother was considered unclean, on the first of the days for her purifying. For the male child this 

coincides with the circumcision on the eighth day. For the female child, the mother is considered unclean for 

two weeks instead of one, so that the corresponding day for the daughter, the first day of the mother's 

purifying, would be the 15th day. (Visitors would not have been allowed to come near a Jewish mother for the 

first 14 days, when she was considered unclean, so the ceremony could not occur until the 15th day.) 

Therefore, if the custom of naming the child on the mother's first day of purifying was followed for both sons 

and daughters, then daughters were first formally given their names on the 15th day from birth. 

    The words of Blessed Anne Catherine confirm that the ancient Jewish custom was to name daughters on the 

15th day from their birth. She saw visions of various events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, sometimes on the 

actual month and day of the event, sometimes on the day of the celebration in the liturgical calendar, and 

sometimes on both days. So, for example, she received visions of the Birth of Jesus Christ on both November 

25 (the actual day) and December 25 (the liturgical celebration).

537

 She saw visions pertaining to the birth of 

the Virgin Mary, on September 8, the day of the liturgical celebration of Mary's birth. And on Sept. 22   23, 

she saw visions of the Virgin Mary's naming ceremony.

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 September 22 is the 15th day counting inclusively 

from September 8. 

    Blessed Anne Catherine also said that, on the day of the Virgin Mary's birth, she heard angels announcing 

that on the 20th day the child would be given the name Mary.  

     They announced the child's name, singing: `On the twentieth day, this child shall be called Mary.' Then 

they sang Gloria and Alleluia. I heard all these words. 

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