This is the story of the Virgin Mary’s miraculous birth Philip Kosloski | Sep 08, 2018 According to tradition, Mary's parents were barren until God answered their prayers. Little is known authoritatively about the Virgin Mary’s early childhood and family. However, an ancient text from the year 145, called The Protoevangelium of James, provides a narrative that many saints have turned to when wanting to learn more about the Virgin Mary. According to the unknown author, a man named Joachim was saddened at not being able to conceive a child with his wife, Anne. It’s recorded, “Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and did not come into the presence of his wife; but he retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying in himself: I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink.” Similarly, Anne “mourned in two mournings, and lamented in two lamentations,