The tradition of Mary being presented in the Temple of Jerusalem comes from a pious belief, whose earliest source (or better said, its origin) is found in the apocryphal and pseudonymous work known as the Protoevangelium of James, written in the first half of the 2nd century. According to this text, Mary was presented in the Temple at the age of three. The feast was already being celebrated in the Byzantine world by the 8th century.
It is possible, however, that the origin of the feast is linked to the dedication—on this very date—of the “New Church of Saint Mary” in Jerusalem, built under Emperor Justinian in the year 543. In the West, the celebration began to spread during the 11th century and gradually became universal as it was adopted by various churches and religious orders.
In the 16th century, Pope Saint Pius V suppressed the feast, judging it to be based on apocryphal sources. Yet King Philip II of Spain obtained permission to keep it in his territories, and Pope Sixtus V later restored it to the universal Church. In the 18th century, Pope Benedict XIV planned to suppress it again as part of his reforms, but he died before carrying this out.
In more recent times, liturgical scholars have had mixed opinions about whether to keep this feast in the calendar, given its relatively late development as a celebration and its apocryphal origins. In the current calendar, it has been retained but reduced to the rank of a memorial.
