The Presentation of the Virgin
by CIMA da Conegliano, Wood
According to an apocryphal life of Mary, her parents, Anna and Joachim, were not blessed with child for twenty years and when at last their daughter Miriam or Mary was born, they were so grateful to the Lord that they gave her into the care of the church and she became a virgin of the temple. These maidens were educated and received moral instruction from the priests, an arrangement which to some extent foreshadowed the orders of nuns in the Middle Ages.
Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 22 minutes):
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata, BWV 82