The earliest document commemorating this feast comes from a hymn
written in the sixth century. The feast may have originated somewhere in
Syria or Palestine in the beginning of the sixth century, when after
the Council of Ephesus, the cult of the Mother of God was greatly
intensified, especially in Syria
The first liturgical
commemoration is connected with the sixth century dedication of the
Basilica Sanctae Mariae ubi nata est, now called the Church of St. Anne
in Jerusalem. The original church built, in the fifth century, was a
Marian basilica erected on the spot known as the shepherd's pool and
thought to have been the home of Mary's parents. In the seventh century,
the feast was celebrated by the Byzantines as the feast of the Birth of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since the story of Mary's Nativity is known
only from apocryphal sources, the Latin Church was slower in adopting
this festival. At Rome the Feast began to be kept toward the end of the
7th century, brought there by Eastern monks.
The church of Angers in France claims that St. Maurilius instituted this feast at Angers in consequence of a revelation about 430. On the night of 8 September, a man heard the angels singing in heaven, and on asking the reason, they told him they were rejoicing because the Virgin was born on that night; but this tradition is not substantiated by historical proofs.
