Presentation in the Temple

The bringing of the infant Jesus by Mary and Joseph to the Temple in Jerusalem to be "consecrated to the Lord." (Not to be confused with the CIRCUMCISION.) Mosaic law required that the firstborn of all living things be sacrificed to the Lord, children being redeemed by the payment of 5 shekels (Num. 18:15–17). The rite commemorated the slaying of the firstborn in Egypt when the Jews were spared (Ex. 13:11–15). It was adopted as a Christian feast by the early Church. According to Luke the Jewish rite of the "purification" of the mother—requiring the sacrifice of la pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons' (Lev. 12)—was celebrated simultaneously, and this also later became a Christian festival (in the Anglican prayer book it is called the Churching of Women). From early times the feast of the Purification incorporated a procession of candles, hence its name Candlemas. To the Temple came Simeon, a devout man to whom it had been disclosed that he would not die until, he had seen the Messiah. He took the infant Christ into his arms saying "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace..." (Nunc dimittis, Domine). At the same time he prophesied that through her child Mary would be pierced to the heart. In art of the 14th century onwards St Simeon is usually identified with the high priest of the Temple, and wears priest's vestments, sometimes with the saint's halo. (According to the apocryphal Book of James, or Protevangelium, Simeon had succeeded to the office on the death of Zacharias the former high priest, the father of John the Baptist.) The central figures are Mary and the high priest. She holds out the infant to him, or he is in the act of handing it back to her. A pair of doves, in allusion to the theme of the Purification, are carried by Joseph or by a female attendant or, in early Renaissance pictures, by Mary herself. Joseph may be seen reaching for his purse or counting out the 5 shekels. Also present, according to Luke, was Anna an aged prophetess who may be seen, more often in Italian than in northern painting, with her right hand raised and finger pointing, the gesture of prophecy. Candies are usually carried by the principal figures, or by acolytes, in reference to Candlemas. The theme may form one of the series of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin because of Simeon's prophecy.