Our Lady's Grandmother<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to an Irish scholar publishing in the\u00a0Journal of Medieval History. This is a story from late 2010,\u00a0but I hadn't heard about it, so pass it on.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/09\/our-ladys-grandmother\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Lady's Grandmother\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to an Irish scholar publishing in the\u00a0Journal of Medieval History. 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{"id":1012,"date":"2014-09-25T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2014-10-02T19:01:58","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T23:01:58","slug":"our-ladys-grandmother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/09\/our-ladys-grandmother\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Lady’s Grandmother"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

According to an Irish scholar publishing in the\u00a0Journal of Medieval History<\/em>. This is a story from late 2010,\u00a0but I hadn\u2019t heard about it, so pass it on. From Discovery News<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The great-grandmother of Jesus was a woman named Ismeria, according to Florentine medieval manuscripts analyzed by a historian [Catherine Lawless]. . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the legend, Ismeria is the daughter of Nabon of the people of Judea, and of the tribe of King David,\u201d wrote Lawless. She married \u201cSanto Liseo,\u201d who is described as \u201ca patriarch of the people of God.\u201d The legend continues that the couple had a daughter named Anne who married Joachim. After 12 years, Liseo died. Relatives then left Ismeria penniless.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure one is supposed to believe that it was either her dead husband\u2019s relatives or, less likely, her natal family,\u201d Lawless said. \u201cThe family of the Virgin Mary would not have been cast in such a light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ismeria then goes to a hospital where she finds refuge. She is said to perform a miracle, filling a shell with fish to feed all of the hospital\u2019s patients. After this miracle she prays to be taken away from the \u201cvainglory of this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story had a didactic and spiritual purpose, scholars suggest:<\/p>\n

While the author of the Ismeria legend remains unknown, Lawless thinks it could have been a layperson from Tuscany. During the medieval period, \u201cthe story may have been used as a model for continent wifehood and active, charitable widowhood in one of the many hospitals of medieval Florence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grandmother of the Virgin was no widow who threatened the patrimony of her children by demanding the return of her dowry, nor did she threaten the family unit by remarrying and starting another lineage,\u201d she added. \u201cInstead, her life could be seen as an ideal model for Florentine penitential women.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"