The Name of Mary

(In Scripture and in Catholic use)

New Testament, Mariam and sometimes Maria — it seems impossible, in the

present state of the text, to say whether the form Mariam was reserved by the

Evangelists for the Mother of Christ, and the form Maria used for all others of the

name. The form Mariam undoubtedly represents the Hebrew MRYM, the name of

the sister of Moses and Aaron (Num., xii, 1 sqq.). In I Par., iv, 17, it occurs

presumably as the name of a man, but the Septuagint has ton Maron. The

etymology of the name Miriam (MRYM) is exceedingly doubtful. Two roots are

proposed: (a) MRH meaning "to rebel", in which connection some have

endeavoured to derive the name of the sister of Moses from the rebellion against

him (Num., xii, 1). But this seems far-fetched, as her murmuring is by no means

the only, or the principal event, recorded of her; (b) MRA meaning "to be fat"; it is

thought that, since the permission of this quality was, to the Semitic mind, the

essence of beauty, the name Miriam may have meant "beautiful". But the

meaning "lady", which is so common among the Fathers of the Church, and

which is enshrined in the Catholic expression "Our Lady", has much to support

it. The Aramaic MRA means "Lord" as we see in St. Paul's Maranatha — i.e.

"Come Lord", or "the Lord is nigh". It is true the name Miriam has no aleph in our

Hebrew text; but through the Aramaic word for "Lord" always has an aleph in the

older inscriptions (e.g. those of Zenjirli of the eighth century, B.C.), yet in later

inscriptions from Palmyra the aleph has gone. Besides, the presence of the yodh

may well be due to the formative ending mem, which is generally the sign of

abstract nouns. The rendering "star of the sea" is without foundation except in a

tropological sense; Cornelious à Lapide would render "lady, or teacher, or guide

of the sea", the sea being this world, of which Christ Himself (Num., xxiv, 17) is

the Star. The frequency with which the name occurs in the New Testament (cf.

infra) shows that it was a favourite one at the time of Christ. One of Herod's wives

was the ill-fated Mariamn, a Jewess; Josephus gives us this name sometimes as

Mariamme, at others as Mariame or Mariamne. The favor in which the name was

then held is scarcely to be attributed to the influence her fate had on the Jews

(Stanley, "Jewish Church". III, 429); it is far more likely that the fame of the sister

of Moses contributed to this result — cf. Mich., vi, 4, where Miriam is put on the

same footing as Moses and Aaron; "I sent before thy face Moses and Aaron and

Mary." At a time when men like Simeon were "looking for the Consolation of

Israel", their minds would naturally revert to the great names of the Exodus. For

extra-Biblical instances of the name at this time see Josephus "Antiquities", iv,

6, XVIII, v, 4, and "Jewish War", VI, iv. In Christian times the name has always

been popular; no less than seven historically famous Marys are given in the

"Dictionary of Christian Biography". Among Catholics it is one of the commonest

of baptismal names; and in many religious orders, both of men and women, it is

the practice to take this name in addition to some other distinctive name, when

entering the religious state.

Besides the Biblical dictionaries and ordinary commentaries, see BARDENHEWER, Der Name Maria

in Bibl. Studien (Freiburg, 1885).

Hugh Pope

Contributed by John Francis MARY Freeman

Dedicated in honor of our Blessed Mother and Mary Magdalen.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IX

Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor

Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org