Published: May 11, 2008 12:10 am            

Mothers are central to human history

Most people understand, at least implicitly in their hearts, how crucial their mothers are to their upbringing and to what defines their basic personality and who they are fundamentally as a person today. To a baby and small child, mother is their whole world, their entire universe. To a baby or small child, even into their teenage years, their life would seemingly come to a halt without their mother.

French playwright Honore de Balzac wrote, “The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.”

On the other hand, “The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific and torturous, involving and utterly tedious, all at the same time. The world is full of women made to feel strange because what everyone assumes comes naturally is so difficult to do—never mind to do well,” U.S. journalist Anna Quindlen wrote.

Most adults remember to recognize their mother — for all her devotion and hard work in raising them — at least once per year: On Mother’s Day, always the second Sunday of May, which is today this year.

Have you ever spent a moment and contemplated how key a figure mother is to human history? She permeates many of our cultural keystones: in books, articles, movies, television and poetry.

There have been many famous mothers in history who came to symbolize all the nurturing, powerful qualities of the ideal mother.

Perhaps no other mother typifies the ultimate nurturing qualities of the ideal mother as much as Mary, mother of Jesus Christ.

Often referred to as Virgin Mary, because of the Immaculate Conception of Jesus and Mary’s favored status in the eyes of God, there is actually not Biblical reference to Mary as “Virgin Mary” in terms of that being her name. The Bible makes clear Mary was a virgin at the time of Christ’s conception.

According to the Augustine Club of Columbia University, “Catholic Church teaches Mary, mother of Jesus, was a virgin before and after giving birth to Jesus. That Mary was ‘full of grace’ from the moment of her conception and that every grace received by Christians passes through her hands.”

According to the Bible, God sent the angel Gabriel to a city of Galilee called Nazareth. Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph (who descended from the house of King David).

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God,” Gabriel says to Mary.

“My soul magnifies the Lord,” Mary says, again, according to the Bible.

Mary raised Jesus, who trained to be a carpenter, like his adoptive father, Joseph.

When Jesus was crucified on the hill Golgotha, outside Jerusalem, his mother Mary was present during the entire crucifixion, according to the Bible.

“The body of Christian believers — the Church — are ‘Christ’s body’ and since Mary is the mother of Christ, Mary is the also the ‘mother’ of all Christian believers,” Augustine Club website states.

The celebration of mothers and mothering goes all the way back to ancient Roman and Greek times — both cultures held festivals to honor and celebrate their respective goddesses of motherhood and to honor mothers themselves. Early Christians celebrated Mothery Mary on the fourt Sunday of Lent with a feast day. That holiday eventually became “Mothering Sunday,” according to dayformothers.com.

Mother’s Day became a legal holiday in the U.S. in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the law proclaiming the second Sunday of May as the national holiday to honor mothers.

Some other famous mothers in history include:

Abigail Adams —

Lived from 1744 to 1818, and was the wife of America’s second president, John Adams, and the mother of the sixth president, John Quincy Adams. Abigail and John Adams had five children. According to The White House website, Adams is known for her love and devotion to her husband and their children.

“Her letters — pungent, witty, and vivid, spelled just as she spoke — detail her life in times of revolution. They tell the story of the woman who stayed at home to struggle with wartime shortages and inflation; to run the farm with a minimum of help; to teach four children when formal education was interrupted,” the White House website states.

Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton, nurses —

Florence Nightingale, a British nurse serving British soldiers during the Crimean War (1853-1856), and Clara Barton, nurse to soldiers during the American Civil War and the founder of the American Red Cross, are considered the symbolic “mothers” to all British and U.S. soldiers.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis —

Jackie Kennedy was revered by many as the ideal mother, the Queen of Camelot, during the presidency of her husband, John F. Kennedy. Though they only had two children who survived pregnancy, daughter, Caroline, and son, John Jr., Jackie Kennedy was romanticized by the American public as the perfect modern mother: Supportive of her husband, nurturing and loving to the children and independent and intelligent.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh —

Wife of famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh, Anne is a noted mother in history because she and Charles had six children, but Anne also is the mother of women in the aviation industry. In the early 1930s, Anne became the first female licensed glider pilot. In 1934, National Geographic Society awareded Anne it Hubbard Gold Medal for her achievements in over 40,000 miles of exploratory flying over five continenents. Anne was also a noted author and poet, publishing over 12 books.

Queen Mum (Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon) —

The widow of George VI and mother of Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth was so enormously popular with the British public, she was often referred to as the “Queen Mum,” and the term “Queen Mother,” used to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth, remains associated with her after her death, in 2002. Elizbeth Bowes-Lyon, born in 1900, is the only person to have been accorded the official title “Queen Mother.” Known for her engaging public appearances, she earned the nickname “Smiling Duchess,” and following her death was ranked 61st among the 100 Greatest Britons poll.