Church Tradition teaches that St. Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary, was the youngest daughter of the priest Nathan from Bethlehem, descended from the tribe of Levi. She married St. Joachim, who was a native of Galilee. For a long time St. Anna was childless, but after twenty years, through the fervent prayer of both spouses, an angel of the Lord announced to them that they would be the parents of a daughter, who would bring blessings to the whole human race. The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Anna took place at Jerusalem.

The PNCC does not accept the teaching that the Mother of God was exempted from the consequences of ancestral sin (death, corruption, or sin) at the moment of her conception by virtue of the future merits of Her Son. Only Christ was born perfectly holy and sinless, as St. Ambrose of Milan teaches in Chapter Two of his Commentary on Luke. The Holy Virgin was like everyone else in her mortality, and in being subject to temptation, although she committed no personal sins. Mary was not a deified creature removed from the rest of humanity. If this were the case, she would not have been truly human, and the nature that Christ took from her would not have been truly human either. If Christ does not truly share our human nature, then the possibilty of our salvation is in doubt.

“Let Mary be in honor, but let worship be given to the Lord.” — Sergei Bulgakov