Annunciation in the context of Messiah

Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist and Baptist churches believe that Mary, as mother of Jesus, is the Mother of God. The Church of the East historically regarded her as Christotokos, a term still used in Assyrian Church of the East liturgy. She has the highest position in Islam among all women and is mentioned numerous times in the Quran, including in a chapter named after her. She is also revered in the Baháʼí Faith and the Druze Faith.

The synoptic Gospels name Mary as the mother of Jesus. The gospels of Matthew and Luke describe Mary as a virgin who was chosen by God to conceive Jesus through the Holy Spirit. After giving birth to Jesus in Bethlehem, she and her husband Joseph raised him in the city of Nazareth in Galilee, and she was in Jerusalem at his crucifixion and with the apostles after his ascension. Although her later life is not accounted in the Bible; Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and some Protestant traditions believe that her body was raised into heaven at the end of her earthly life, which is known in Western Christianity as the Assumption of Mary and in Eastern Christianity as the Dormition of the Mother of God.

The terms anno Domini (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used when designating years in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. The term anno Domini is Medieval Latin and means "in the year of the Lord" but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", taken from the full original phrase "anno Domini nostri Jesu Christi", which translates to "in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ". The form "BC" is specific to English, and equivalent abbreviations are used in other languages: the Latin form, rarely used in English, is ante Christum natum (ACN) or ante Christum (AC).

This calendar era takes as its epoch the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus. Years AD are counted forward since that epoch and years BC are counted backward from the epoch. There is no year zero in this scheme; thus the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525 by the Eastern Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus but was not widely used until the 9th century. Modern scholars believe that the actual date of birth of Jesus was about 5 BC.

An angel is a spiritual heavenly, or supernatural entity, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in various traditions like the Abrahamic religions. Other roles include protectors and guides for humans, such as guardian angels and servants of God. In Western belief-systems the term is often used to distinguish benevolent from malevolent intermediary beings.

Emphasizing the distance between God and mankind, revelation-based belief-systems require angels to bridge the gap between the earthly and the transcendent realm. Angels play a lesser role in monistic belief-systems, since the gap is non-existent. However, angelic beings might be conceived as aid to achieve a proper relationship with the divine.

The Biblia pauperum (Latin for "Paupers' Bible") was a tradition of picture Bibles beginning probably with Ansgar, and a common printed block-book in the later Middle Ages to visualize the typological correspondences between the Old and New Testaments. Unlike a simple "illustrated Bible", where the pictures are subordinated to the text, these Bibles placed the illustration in the centre, with only a brief text or sometimes no text at all. Words spoken by the figures in the miniatures could be written on scrolls coming out of their mouths. To this extent one might see parallels with modern comics.

The tradition is a further simplification of the Bible moralisée tradition, which was similar but with more text. Like these, the Biblia pauperum was usually in the local vernacular language, rather than Latin.

The Annunciation is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1472–1476. Leonardo's earliest extant major work, it was completed in Florence while he was an apprentice in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio. The painting was made using oil and tempera on a large poplar panel and depicts the Annunciation, a popular biblical subject in 15th-century Florence. Since 1867 it has been housed in the Uffizi in Florence, the city where it was created. Though the work has been criticized for inaccuracies in its composition, it is among the best-known portrayals of the Annunciation in Christian art.
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The Feast of the Annunciation (Greek: Ο Ευαγγελισμός της Θεοτόκου, romanized: O Evangelismós tis Theotókou, lit. 'the Annunciation of the Mother of God') commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, during which he informed her that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is celebrated on 25 March; however, if 25 March falls either in Holy Week or in Easter Week, the feast is postponed to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter.

Other names for the feast include the Solemnity of the Annunciation, Lady Day, Feast of the Incarnation (Festum incarnationis), and Conceptio Christi (Christ's Conception).

Palaiochori (Greek: Παλαιοχώρι, old form Palaiochorion, Παλαιοχώριον) is a village on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. It is situated on a mountainside 12 km NW from the town of Plomari. The church of the village was built in 1864 and is dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. The beach of Melinda is located 3 km south of the village.

Our Lady of Tinos (Greek: Παναγία Ευαγγελίστρια της Τήνου, Panagía Evangelístria tēs Tēnou, lit. "The All-Holy Bringer of Good News", and Μεγαλόχαρη της Τήνου, Megalócharē tēs Tēnou, lit. "She of Great Grace") is the major Marian shrine in Greece. It is located in the town of Tinos on the island of Tinos.

The complex is built around a miraculous icon which according to tradition was found after the Virgin appeared to the nun Pelagia and revealed to her the place where the icon was buried. The icon is widely believed to be the source of numerous miracles. It is by now almost completely encased in silver, gold, and jewels, and is commonly referred to as the "Megalócharē" ("[She of] Great Grace") or simply the "Chárē Tēs" ("Her Grace"). By extension the church is often called the same, and is considered a protectress of seafarers and healer of the infirm.

The royal doors, holy doors, or beautiful gates are the central doors of the iconostasis in an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic church. The sanctuary (sometimes called the Altar, which contains the Holy Table) is separated from the nave by a wooden screen called the iconostasis. The iconostasis represents Christian continuity from the veil of the Temple in Jerusalem which separated the people from the Holy of Holies that housed the Ark of the Covenant. Normally, the iconostasis has three doors in it. The two single doors to the right and left are called "deacons' doors" or "angel doors" and they usually have on them icons of either sainted deacons (Saint Stephen, Saint Lawrence, etc.) or the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. These are the doors that the clergy will normally use when entering the sanctuary. The central double doors are the "holy doors" (Slavonic: Svyatýa Vratá), which are considered to be most sacred, and may only be entered at certain sacred moments during the services, and only by ordained clergy (deacons, priests, bishops).

The term Royal Doors (Greek: Ωραία Πύλη: Slavonic: Tsárskiya Vratá) is commonly used to describe the Holy Doors, because Christ passes through these gates during the Great Entrance at the Divine Liturgy (and most especially during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts). More properly, however, these doors should be called the "Beautiful Gate", and in Greek this is the only term used, although the official English sites of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Orthodox Church in America and the Antiochian Orthodox Church all use the term "Royal Doors". In Russia, they are sometimes called the "Red Gates", red being synonymous with beautiful.