The Church has celebrated Mary’s birth since at least the sixth century. According to the apocryphal Protoevangelium, Anna and Joachim, an infertile couple, prayed for a child. In answer to their prayer, they were promised a child who would advance God’s plan of salvation for the world. Saint Augustine said of Mary: “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed.”