The Feast of the Annunciation, contemporarily the Solemnity of the Annunciation, commemorates the visit of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, during which he informed her that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is celebrated on 25 March each year.
The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the earliest Christian feasts, and was already being celebrated in the fourth century. There is a painting of the Annunciation in the catacomb of Priscilla in Rome dating from the second century. Arguably, no subject has been more profoundly felt and more beautifully handled by the old painters, nor more vilely mishandled by the moderns than the Annunciation, of all the scenes in the life of Mary.
Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. The Annunciation has been a key topic in Christian art in general, as well as in Roman Catholic Marian art, particularly during the Middle Ages and Renaissance