Isaac Merritt Singer and his famous Machine

Isaac Merritt Singer was born in the hamlet of Johnsonville, in the town of Pittstown, Rensselaer County, NY, on 27 October 1811. He was the youngest son of Adam SINGER and his first wife, Ruth BENSON. Adam SINGER is said to have been a German immigrant from Saxony whose birth name was Adam REISINGER. One German source says that Reisinger was a Jewish family. It is not known how many children Adam Singer and Ruth Benson had, but there were at least two sons and a daughter; the daughter's name was Elizabeth.

Isaac was married for the first time in 1830, to Catharine Maria Haley. Then, they moved to New York City, probably in 1831. They seem to have lived there with her parents for a time. By the summer of 1833 they had again moved, this time to Otsego County, New York. Isaac had worked in his older brother's machine shop before marriage and learnt the machinists trade there; in Otsego in the village of Fly Creek Isaac was again working in a machine shop, this time owned by George Pomeroy.

Isaac had two children by Catharine: William, born in 1834, and Lillian, born in 1837. In 1835 he moved with Catherine and their young son William to New York City, working in a press shop. In 1836, he left the city as an agent for a company of players, touring through Baltimore, where he met Mary Ann Sponsler, to whom he proposed marriage. He returned with Mary Ann to New York in 1837. That year Isaac had two children born: his wife Catherine gave him Lillian, and Mary Ann gave him a son. His domestic life with Catharine did not prosper after this, but they were not officially divorced until 1860.

After Mary Ann arrived in New York and found out that Singer was already married, she and Singer returned to Baltimore, presenting themselves as a married couple.

By 1850, when Singer saw his first sewing machine, it had been "invented" four times. All sewing machines before Walter Hunt's produced a chain stitch, which had the disadvantage of easily unravelling. Hunt's machine produced a lock stitch, as did all subsequent machines including Lerow and Blodgett's, which Singer in turn improved in Phelps's shop. Elias Howe independently developed a sewing machine and obtained a patent on September 10, 1846.

War broke out between Howe and Singer, with each claiming patent primacy. Singer set out to discover that Howe's improvements had been reinventions of existing technology, and found one of Hunt's old machines, which indeed created a lock-stitch with a shuttle. Hunt applied in 1853 for a patent, claiming priority to Howe's patent, issued some seven years earlier. A lawsuit, Hunt v. Howe, came to trial in 1854, and was resolved in Howe's favor. Howe then brought suit to stop Singer from selling Singer machines, and protracted litigation ensued.

In 1856, manufacturers Grover, Baker, Singer, Wheeler, and Wilson, all accusing the others of patent infringement, met in Albany, New York to pursue their suits. Orlando B. Potter, a lawyer and president of the Grover and Baker Company, proposed that, rather than sue their profits out of existence, they pool their patents. This was the first patent pool, a process which enables production of complicated machines without legal battles over patent rights. They agreed to form the Sewing Machine Combination, but for this to be of any use they had to secure the cooperation of Elias Howe, who still held certain vital uncontested patents which meant he received a royalty on every sewing machine manufactured by any company. Terms were arranged, and Howe joined on. Sewing machines began to be mass produced: I. M. Singer & Co manufactured 2,564 machines in 1856, and 13,000 in 1860 at a new shop on Mott Street in New York.

Sewing machines had until now been industrial machines, made for tailors, but smaller machines began to be marketed for home use. I. M. Singer expanded into the European market, establishing a factory in Clydebank, near Glasgow, controlled by the parent company, becoming one of the first American-based multinational corporations, with agencies in Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

The financial success gave Singer the ability to buy a mansion on Fifth Avenue, into which he moved his second family. In 1860, he divorced Catherine, on the basis of her adultery with Stephen Kent. He continued to live with Mary Ann, until she spotted him driving down Fifth Avenue seated beside one Mary McGonigal, an employee, about whom Mary Ann had well-founded suspicions, for by this time Mary McGonigal had borne Isaac Singer five children. The surname Matthews was used for this family. Mary Ann (still calling herself Mrs. I. M. Singer) had her husband arrested for bigamy. Singer was let out on bond and, disgraced, fled to London in 1862, taking Mary McGonigal with him. In the aftermath, another of Isaac's families was discovered: he had a "wife" Mary Eastwood Walters and daughter Alice Eastwood in Lower Manhattan, who both adopted the surname "Merritt". By 1860, Isaac had fathered and recognized eighteen children (sixteen of them remaining alive), by four women.

In 1863, I. M. Singer & Co. was dissolved by mutual consent, with the business continued as "The Singer Manufacturing Company," enabling the reorganization of financial and management responsibilities. Singer no longer actively participated in the firm's day-to-day management, but served as a member of the Board of Trustees (even though he now lived in Europe) and was a major stockholder.

He now began to increase his new family: he would eventually have six children with his wife Isabella. Unable, probably because of Isaac's chequered marital past, to enter New York society, the family emigrated to Paris, never to return to the United States. Fleeing the Franco-Prussian War, they resided first in London, then in Paignton, (near Torquay) on the Devon coast where he built a large house, Oldway Mansion. He brought some of his other children to live there. Nine days after the wedding of his daughter Alice Merritt to William Alonso Paul La Grove, Isaac Singer died of "an affection of the heart and inflammation of the wind-pipe." He was interred in Torquay cemetery.

Singer left an, leaving some out for various reasons. Suits followed, with Mary Anne claiming to be the legitimate "Mrs. Singer". In the end Isabella was declared the legal widow. Isabella remarried in 1879 with Dutch musician Victor Reubsaet and settled in Paris. After his death in 1887, she remarried in 1891 with Paul Sohège.

Isaac's 18th child Winnaretta Singer married Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard in 1887, when she was 22. After annulment of this marriage in 1891, she married Prince Edmond de Polignac in 1893. She would become a prominent patron of French avant-garde music, e.g., Erik Satie composed his Socrate as one of her commissions (1918). As a lesbian she became involved with Violet Trefusis from 1923 on. Another of Isaac's daughters, Isabelle-Blanche (born 1869) married Jean, duc Decazes (Daisy Fellowes was their daughter). Isabelle committed suicide in 1896. A brother to Winnaretta and Isabelle, Paris Singer, had a child by Isadora Duncan. Another brother, Washington Singer, became a substantial donor to the University College of the southwest of England, which later became the University of Exeter; one of the university's buildings is named in his honour.

Isaac M. Singer 1811-ben született az amerikai Pittstownban, a varrógép legsikeresebb fejlesztője.
Singer színésznek ugyan nem volt kiemelkedő tehetség, viszont félelmetes érzéke volt mindenféle műszaki dologhoz. Sok találmánya és sok szabadalma volt, de a balszerencse is üldözte, így negyven éves koráig csak tengődött. 1851-ben azonban egy elromlott varrógép javításával bízták meg, ő pedig Howe masinája alapján 11 nap alatt kifejlesztett egy sokkal hatékonyabb, folyamatos varrásra is alkalmas eszközt. A szabadalom miatt hosszú éveken át pereskedett Howe-val, viszont a procedúrának köszönhetően találkozott az ügyvéd Edward Clarkkal, akit felvett cégéhez. A családcentrikus, becsületes Clark tökéletes ellentéte volt a bohém, csapodár Singernek. Magánemberként nem jöttek ki jól, de üzletileg remekül kiegészítették egymást. Clark reklámkampányainak és üzleti érzékének köszönhetően 1865-re a vállalatnak 29 országban voltak gyárai, Singer tehetségéből pedig 20 szabadalmaztatott találmányra futotta. Nagyjából 15 millió dolláros vagyonát halála után 23 gyermeke között osztották fel.

Faludy György

György Faludy (September 22, 1910, Budapest - September 1, 2006, Budapest), sometimes anglicized as George Faludy, was a Hungarian-Jewish poet, writer and translator.
Faludy's translations of the ballads of François Villon, and even more prominent rewritings (as he admitted several times), brought him huge popularity on their initial publication in 1934, and have been since published about forty times. He could have hardly expressed these ideas in any other way in his time. He wrote several volumes of poetry as well, some of which were published in English. – His other outstanding success was My Happy Days in Hell (Pokolbéli víg napjaim), an autobiographical novel first published in 1962 in English translation, which was translated to French and German as well, but did not appear in the original Hungarian until much later.

Faludy completed his schooling in the Fasori Evangélikus Gimnázium and studied at the Universities of Vienna, Berlin and Graz. During these times he developed radical liberalist views, which he maintained till the very last days of his life.

In 1938, he left Hungary for Paris, and then for the U.S. During World War II, he served in the American forces. He arrived back in Hungary in 1946. In April 1947 he was among a group that destroyed a Budapest statue of Ottokár Prohászka, a Hungarian bishop who is respected by many but who is often considered antisemitic. [1] He only admitted his participation forty years later.

In 1949 he was condemned with fictitious accusations and was sent to the labor camp of Recsk for three years. During this time, he lectured other prisoners in literature, history and philosophy. After his release he made his living by translation. In 1956 (after the Revolution) he escaped again to the West. He settled in London, and was the editor of a Hungarian literary journal.

It was during his stay in London that Faludy wrote the novel, which was soon translated to English, by which he is still best known outside Hungary: My Happy Days in Hell. (It was only published in his native tongue in 1987, and since then in several further editions.) He moved to Toronto in 1967 and lived there for twenty years. He gave lectures in Canada and the U.S. and was the editor of Hungarian literary journals. In 1976, he received a Canadian citizenship and two years later was elected as an honorary doctor of the University of Toronto where he regularly taught. His poems were published in New York in 1980 (see below with the other collections).

In 1988 Faludy returned to Hungary. After the change of regime, his works, which were forbidden, confiscated, destroyed and distributed as samizdat during the Communist period, were at last published in Hungary. New collections of poems appeared in the 1990s, and several translations. In 1994 he received the most prestigious award in Hungary, the Kossuth Prize. In 2000 he published the sequel of My Happy Days in Hell: "After My Days in Hell" in Hungarian (no data available about any English translation), about his life after the labour camp. In the years preceding his death, Faludy was considered not only as a poet, a writer and a translator but as a living legend as well in Hungary.Renowned for his anecdotes as well as his writing, he was a celebrated wit whose life story attracted the attentions of many a foreign author. Besides the many European based authors who visited Faludy, there was the Canadian author George Jonas who penned Munich as well as the columnist and playwright Rory Winston, and Finnish author [H.M. Marttila].

Faludy's second wife, Zsuzsa Szegő, died in the 1960s. They had a son, Andrew. In 1963 Eric Johnson (1937-2004), a US ballet dancer and later a renowned poet in contemporary Latin poetry, read the novel My Happy Days in Hell, which captivated him, and he decided to seek Faludy in Hungary. He started to learn Hungarian and found Faludy three years later in Malta. He became his secretary, translator, co-author and partner for the next 36 years. In 2002, Faludy married a 26 year old poet, Fanny Kovács.^[1] Johnson left for Kathmandu, Nepal, and died there in February 2004. Faludy published poems written jointly with his wife.

By 2006, a memorial park will be built in his honor designed by the architect Scott Torrence, facing his former apartment. It was initiated by the Toronto Heritage Project to commemorate the outstanding cultural figures of the city. A bronze plaque will be placed in the park with his portrait, made by the Hungarian-born sculptor Dora de Pedery-Hunt. His poem Michelangelo's Last Prayer, chosen by the poet, will be carved on the plaque in English and in Hungarian.

Faludy György (Budapest, 1910. szeptember 22. – Budapest, 2006. szeptember 1.) magyar költő, műfordító, író.

Budapesten született zsidó polgári családban. Édesapja Faludy Jenő, vegyész, édesanyja Bieringer Erzsébet Katalin volt. 1928-ban érettségizett a fasori Evangélikus Főgimnáziumban. Ezután a bécsi (1928-1930), a berlini (1930-1931), a párizsi (1932), és a grazi (1932-1933) egyetemen tanult. 1933-1934-ben katonai szolgálatot teljesített zászlósi rendfokozatban, amelytől később megfosztották. 1937-ben jelentette meg a Villon-átköltéseket, mely jó időre meg is határozta pályáját.

1938-ban elhagyta Magyarországot, erre többek között az kényszerítette, hogy úgy érezte hazájának az a legrosszabb, ha a háborút a hitleri Németország nyeri meg, igy a németek oldalán semmiképp sem akart volna harcolni. Párizsig menekült, itt találkozott többek között Koestler Artúrral és az emigráns magyar művészek közösségével. Később a német megszállás miatt innen is távozni kényszerült. Marokkón keresztül az Amerikai Egyesült Államokba jutott, ahol a Szabad Magyar Mozgalom titkáraként és lapszerkesztőjeként tevékenykedett, majd három évig az amerikai hadseregben szolgált tisztként. Eközben húga az országban maradt, nem élte túl az ostromot.

1946-ban tért haza, a Népszavánál helyezkedett el. 1947-ben megjelent az Őszi harmat után című verseskötete, illetve a Villon balladák már a 14. kiadásnál tartottak. Noha baloldali érzelmű maradt (vezetésével döntötték le kommunista munkások 1947. április 26-áról 27-re virradó éjjel Prohászka Ottokár Károlyi-kertbéli szobrát), a kommunista hatalom is ellenségesen viszonyult hozzá, további művei nem jelenhettek meg. 1949-ben hamis vádak alapján 3 évre a recski kényszermunkatáborba zárták. Az itt írt versei 1983-ban Münchenben jelenhettek meg Börtönversek 1949–1953 címmel. Szabadulása után fordításokkal kereste meg a kenyérre valót, majd 1956-ban ismét elhagyta az országot.

Londonban települt le, ahol 1957-től az Irodalmi Újság szerkesztője. 1961-1962-ben írta a Pokolbéli víg napjaim című önéletrajzi visszaemlékezéseit, amely azonban először angol fordításban jelent meg 1962-ben. A könyv 1987-ben jelent meg először Magyarországon az AB Független Kiadónál – a kommunista cenzúra által betiltott, szamizdat kötetként. 1963 és 1967 között Firenzében és Máltán élt. 1967-ben költözött át Torontóba. Kanadában és az Egyesült Államokban különböző egyetemeken tartott előadást, miközben a Ötágú síp és a Magyarok Világlapja című lapok munkatársaként dolgozott. 1980-ban New Yorkban jelentek meg összegyűjtött versei. Közben Magyarországon tiltott költő volt, a könyvtárakban még a katalógusból is kiszedték azokat a cédulákat, melyen a neve szerepelt.

1988-ban másodszor is hazatelepült. A rendszerváltás után korábban szamizdatban terjedő műveit is ki lehetett adni. Új verskötetei és fordításai is megjelentek. Faludy 1994-ben a Kossuth-díjat is megkapta. 1998-ban alapító tagja volt a Digitális Irodalmi Akadémiának. Személyét többnyire érdeklődés övezte, bár 90 éves kora felett sem szűnt meg polgárpukkasztónak, meghökkentőnek lenni. Pokol tornácán című kötetének bemutatóját már nem érhette meg, a Kossuth-díjas költőt 2006. szeptember 1-jén, otthonában érte a halál.

Tiszteletére 2006. október 3-án, Torontóban, a közvetlenül az egykori ottani otthona melletti parkot hivatalosan is George Faludy Place-re keresztelték át. Bár az elnevezési procedúra még életében elkezdődött, a névadási ünnepségre időközben bekövetkezett halála miatt már nem tudott elutazni.

Díjak és kitüntetések:

• A Magyar Köztársaság rubinokkal ékesített Zászlórendje, 1991.
• A Soros Alapítvány Életműdíja, 1993.
• Nagy Imre-emlékplakett, 1993.
• Budapest Főváros Díszpolgára, 1993.
• Kossuth-díj, 1994.
• A MÚOSZ örökös tagja, 1997.
• Pulitzer-emlékdíj, 1998.
• Aranytoll, 2000.
• Don Quijote-díj, 2001.
• Obersovszky emlékplakett, 2002.
• Gundel Művészeti-díj, 2002.
• A Magyar Köztársaság Érdemrend Középkeresztje a Csillaggal, 2002.
• A Magyar Köztársaság Érdemrend Nagykeresztje 2006.

Adam Brody

Adam Jared Brody (born December 15, 1979) is an American film and television actor and part time musician. He began his career in 1995, appearing on the Gilmore Girls and other series and subsequently came to fame for his role as Seth Cohen on The O.C., establishing his defining screen persona. Joel Stein of Time magazine has described Brody as creating an "Adam Brody type", a screen persona of a "nerdy, sarcastic, obscure-reference-laced Jew".^[1] Brody has also appeared in several film roles, including Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Thank You for Smoking, and In the Land of Women.

Brody was born in Carlsbad, San Diego County, California, the oldest son of Jewish parents Valerie (née Siefman), a graphic artist, and Mark Brody, a lawyer.^[2][3] He has younger twin brothers, Sean and Matt. Brody attended Wangenheim Middle School and Scripps Ranch High School, receiving "poor grades",^[4] and grew up in suburban San Diego, spending time surfing.^[5] He has said that while he was not a "Casanova", he had "cute girlfriends" and "pretty much lived at the beach".^[4] Brody attended community college for one year and dropped out at the age of nineteen, moving to Hollywood in order to become an actor.^[1] He subsequently hired an acting coach and signed with a manager.

After a year of training and auditioning, Brody landed the role of Barry Williams in the 2000 TV movie Growing Up Brady. He was cast in recurring roles on Gilmore Girls as Dave Rygalski, Lane's bandmate and love interest, and the Canadian comedy television series The Sausage Factory. In 2001, he played a small role in American Pie 2, named as "high school guy". He was one of two high school guys who get chased away from Steve Stifler's party. In 2003, he wrote "Home Security" (a short film),^[5] appeared in the feature film Grind, and began playing his most famous role to date, Seth Cohen, a slightly awkward teenager, on the television show The O.C. The role turned Brody into a teen idol, with the character having been described by the Los Angeles Times as "TV's sexiest geek"^[5] and by Time as having "redefined" the screen persona of "unapologetic" nerdiness;^[1] his character (defined by director Jon Kasdan as the "new kind of nerdy Jewish guy: both self-deprecating and self-obsessed")^[1] has since inspired scripts to describe particular characters as "Adam Brody types".^[1] The role also developed Brody a female fan following and as a result, Brody was ranked No. 17 in Independent Online's "100 Sexiest Men Alive", was twice placed on Teen People's annual list of "25 Sexiest Stars under 25", and was the first male on the cover of Elle Girl.^[1][6][6] Brody improvised some of the character's comic dialogue.^[5]

During the show's run, Brody appeared alongside Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in 2005's film Mr. & Mrs. Smith and played a Hollywood studio assistant in the 2006 film adaptation of Thank You for Smoking. Brody was signed to a seven-year contract for The O.C., playing the role of Seth Cohen, where he acted much like himself. The show was eventually canceled in 2007 and ended its run in February of that year; Brody has said that he is "not unhappy" with the show's cancellation^[6] and that although he was "fortunate" to be on a successful series, he was also glad to "not be on it for 10 years".^[1] After the end of The O.C.'s run, Brody turned to a full-time film career.^[5] His next role was the film In the Land of Women, a romantic comedy co-starring Meg Ryan and Kristen Stewart and released on April 20, 2007. In the film, Brody plays the lead role, a writer who returns to his mother's Michigan hometown in order to take care of his sick grandmother. Brody did not have to audition for the part, but was almost unable to appear in the film because of scheduling conflicts with the second season of The O.C.; the film's director pushed filming back eight months because he wanted Brody to star.^[5][6] The same year, Brody also appeared in supporting roles in the lower budget films Smiley Face, playing a pot dealer, and The Ten, as a skydiver.^[5] He also guest appeared in the Smallville episode "Crush".

Brody, along with actor Zac Efron, was in consideration for the lead part in the film Speed Racer, a role which was eventually given to Emile Hirsch.^[1] Brody was also set to produce a remake of Revenge of the Nerds, which was canceled early during filming.^[7]

Brody was also in the music video of a song called "Too Bad About Your Girl" by The Donnas. He and Josh Lucas have signed onto the Boaz Yakin directed drama, Death in Love. As of March 2008, he is also in Academy Award winner Diablo Cody's new horror flick Jennifer's Body, co-starring Megan Fox.

Brody lives in Los Angeles. He dated The O.C. co-star Rachel Bilson, a three-year^[5] relationship that ended in December 2006. Their relationship was both on screen and off screen.

Brody plays drums for the band Big Japan^[5] with actor Bret Harrison. He writes screenplays and songs during his spare time^[1] and has co-written, along with Danny Bilson (father of ex-girlfriend Rachel Bilson) and Paul DiMeo, a comic book miniseries for Wildstorm Comics called Red Menace. Brody has also volunteered as an actor with the Young Storytellers Program, which is dedicated to developing literacy, self-expression and self-esteem in elementary school children.

Brody has described himself as a "fake intellectual" and his sense of humor as sarcastic.^[1] He is a secular Jew^[8] and has stated that he "couldn't be less religious".^[2] Brody has said that when he moved to Hollywood he became "more nerdy" and embraced his "neurotic side".

Adam Brody a kaliforniai San Diegóban született zsidó szülők legidősebb fiaként. Anyja Valerie grafikus művész,apja Mark Brody ügyvéd. Van két fiatalabb ikertestvére Sean és Matt. Adam a családjával San Diego elővárosában lakott,ahol a Scripps Ranch középiskolába járt és szörfözéssel töltötte a szabadidejét. A középiskola után egy évig főiskolára járt,majd 19 évesen Hollywoodba költözött,ahol lakókocsit bérelt és szerződött egy menedzserrel.
Kisebb szerepeket kapott a például a "Growing Up Brady"-ben,"Gilmore Girls"-ben vagy a "The Sausage Factory”-ban.
2003-ban megírta a Home Security rövidfilmet, játszott a Grindben majd megkapta Seth Cohen szerepét a Narancsvidékben.
Az Independent Online megválasztott a 100 legszexisebb férfiét, ahol Adam a 17.helyen végzett.
2005-ben egy kisebb szerepet kapott Angelina Jolie és Brad Pitt oldalán a Mr. & Mrs. Smith-ben.
2007-ben felbontották a hétéves narancsvidére szóló szerződését. Ezt követően az In the Land of Women romantikus vígjátékban játszott Meg Ryan és Kristen Stewart oldalán.
Ugyanabban az évben Adam több alacsonyabb költségvetésű filmben, mint a Smiley Face, vagy a The Tenben kapott szerepet, de feltűnt a Smallville "Crush" epizódjában is.

Adam 2006 decemberéig egy párt alkotott a narancsvidékbeli partnerével Rachel Bilsonal. Jelenlegi barátnője Hanna Elfner,aki egy skandináv modell. A Big Japan zenekarban dobol.

Miriam - Mother of Jesus

Mary (Aramaic, Hebrew: מרים, Maryām Miriam Arabic:مريم, Maryam), usually referred to by Christians as the Virgin Mary or Saint Mary, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, identified in the New Testament^[2] as the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Muslims also refer to her as the Virgin Mary or Syeda Mariam which means Our Lady Mary. In Islam she is the mother of the Prophet Jesus, Issa عيسى in the Arabic language. The New Testament describes her as a virgin (Greek parthénos)^[3]. Christians and Muslims believe that she conceived her son miraculously by the agency of the Holy Spirit. This took place when she was already the betrothed wife of Saint Joseph and was awaiting the concluding rite of Jewish marriage, the formal home-taking ceremony. Mary is also described in the Qur'an, the 19th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an Sura Maryam.

The New Testament begins its account of Mary's life with the Annunciation, the appearance to her of the angel Gabriel heralding her divine selection to be mother of Jesus. However early non-biblical writings state that she was the daughter of Joachim and Saint Anne. The Bible records Mary's role in key events of the life of Jesus from his virgin birth to his crucifixion. Other apocryphal writings tell of her subsequent death and bodily assumption into heaven.

A number of important doctrines concerning Mary are held by Christian churches. Primary among these are that Mary lived a sinless life, and that as mother of Jesus, she became Theotokos, literally the "God-bearer", or "Mother of God". This doctrine was confirmed by the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in the year 431. Christians of the major ancient traditions including the Catholic and the Orthodox offer prayers to God through Mary and venerate her as intercessor and mother of the church. Many Protestants, however, dislike these devotions. Mary is also honoured in Islam as the virgin mother of Jesus. In Jewish Toledot Yeshu Jesus was recorded as the son of Mary and Joseph ben Pantera.

Mária a Biblia (Újszövetség) és a Korán egyik alakja, Jézus édesanyja. A magyarság körében Boldogasszony, és Nagyboldogasszony néven^[1] is ismert.

Az első, akit Máriának, héberül Mirjamnak hívnak a héber Bibliában, Mózes nővére. Később kedvelt női név, Mária kortársai közül is sokan viselték. A név jelentést hordoz, de ma már nehéz pontosan meghatározni, mert közel 60 lehetőség kínálkozik.

Mária születéséről és gyermekkoráról apokrif források mesélnek. Édesanyja Anna volt, édesapja Joákim. Egész idősek voltak, mikor Isten megajándékozta őket Máriával.

Kifogyhatatlan gazdagságban ábrázolják Máriát a kis Jézussal a nyugat-eurázsiai művészetekben. A születés utáni boldog pillanatot bemutató alkotások mellett az élet másik pólusán is gazdag az ábrázolása: a Golgotán a kereszt alatt álló Mária és a fiát ölében tartó és gyászoló anya (Pieta) is világszerte ismert művészeti alkotások.