While on an excursion in Mexico, our tour guide made a claim that they (meaning the Mayan-Catholic Christians) “worship Mary’s sister,” but he made other claims about Catholic Christians that were inaccurate, so I am going down a few rabbet holes this week : )
If I ever move to Mexico, who knows, maybe I can become a tour guide ; )
Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich reveals that Mary’s elder sister is another Mary, married with Cleofas, father of one of the disciples of Emaus.
If anybody is interested in the 200 anniversary free Congress on Emmerick, please write to f.nazar at gmail
St. Jerome identified this “sister,” adelphe, as the sister-in-law of the Blessed Virgin (the Wife of St. Joseph’s brother).
Sacred Scripture doesn’t really tell us about Mary’s family. Tradition claims that Saint Joachim and Saint Anne (Mary’s parent’s) experienced infertility prior to giving birth to our Blessed Mother. It is possible that they gave birth to another Mary after her, but I’m not sure that I believe this.
There is another Mary, mentioned in Mark 15:40, who was the mother of St. James.
Sadly, this sounds like a mistaken notion—the “worship” part. It’s either a mistranslation, since I assume the guide was a Mexican(perhaps he didn’t know the term for veneration) or a tragic error in belief. I pray it was the former rather than the latter. It is unfortunate that guides often get things wrong, in my experience.
He is just very ignorant of the Faith. He started off by saying, “Catholics say that they are monotheistic, but then they worship all these Saints…” (which is not true). My Wife thinks that maybe he thinks Our Lady of Guadalupe is Mary’s Sister.
John 19:25 refers to Mary’s sister at the foot of the cross. It’s not clear whether Mary of Clopas is that sister or another person.
To answer the original question, we don’t know. The Gospel writers gave us what we need to know for salvation; maybe in Heaven we will get the whole of history in detail if we want it.
Another thought about things mentioned (or not) in the Gospels. I was listening to Arlo Guthrie’s album Outlasting the Blues. “Wedding Song” mentions Joseph and Mary and their wedding; the Gospels mention the fact of their marriage but have no description of their wedding. There’s a lot more about the wedding at Cana, I guess because that is instructive for our faith but the details of Joseph and Mary’s wedding might not be.
Mary of Clopas is explicitly mentioned only in John 19:25, where she is among the women present at the crucifixion of Jesus: Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
Even Mary was a Disciple, “Ecce Mater Tua”, all of His disciples are brothers and sisters of the eternal flesh with Jesus from the cross. Mary is Mother of Jesus who is God, and Mary, like US are brothers and sisters of Christ in the eternal flesh. The eternal flesh comes from Him through Him by Mary and The Holy Spirit.
Well one thing I will point out that at the heart of the Hail Mary prayer is Jesus - blessed is the fruit of thy womb “Jesus”. The First part of the prayer is reciting scripture greeting Mary as she was in the bible. Jesus is the heart of the prayer and the last part of the prayer you are asking her to pray for you.Where are you worshipping Mary?I pray the rosary and its also about Jesus in the mysteries which you are to focus on while praying.
Some Christians see Mary as simply a vessel for the Lord and a terrible sinner. They are not paying attention if you spent your life at the side of Jesus serving him from his birth to his death on the cross what would you be like?She had knowledge right from the beginning and believed.
A woman cries out “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
Jesus answers “rather blessed are those who hear and follow the word of God” hes changing why Mary is blessed - not because she is his mother but rather because she heard and followed the word of God which is exactly why she is blessed.
When Jesus died on the cross everyone left thinking it was over - not Mary she was keeping vigil expecting him to rise and return.She is the greatest example of faith to Christians our mother and the Queen of heaven.You could look at her as the Greatest Saint if the other does not work for you.
Mary is always pointing to Jesus not herself.
That is hard to know in The Bible if she ever did or not so we really don’t know.
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s revelation tells her whole story, being the elder sister of Mary by 19 years. Read them at archive.org or gloria.tv
I just discovered this interesting article about who possibly was related to whom and how they were related. Worth the read!