The parents of the Holy Mother of God: St. Hovakim and St. Anna, could not have a child for a long time and always prayed and asked God to grant them a child. Their pleas were heard. God granted them a daughter, whom they named Mariam, which means enlightened. In Jerusalem, on the site of St. Hovakim’s and St. Anna’s house, where the Holy Virgin was born, the Greek St. Anna monastery is built.
The Feast of the birth of the Holy Mother of God was settled in Jerusalem in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. That celebration was associated with the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin in Probatike.
In the Armenian Church, the feast of the birth of the Holy Virgin has been steadily celebrated since the 13th century.