The Maiden of Nazareth

By Javier Suarez-Guanes

“When you love someone, you want to know all about his life and character, so as to become like him.” – St. Josemaria

St. Josemaria spoke these words about the Lord Jesus, but they also apply to his Blessed Mother, Mary. The more we love Mary, the more we will want to know everything about her so as to become like her.

The Maiden of Nazareth is a delightfully imaginative story that will help you get to know the Blessed Virgin Mary -- not as a statue in a church -- but as a living, breathing, human being. It follows her life from her immaculate conception and birth, up through her assumption into heaven, and it introduces you to the various characters that accompanied her along the way: her parents Joachim and Anne, various cousins and relatives, her husband Joseph, Jesus, his apostles, and various disciples and friends. You will feel like you know all of them much better after having read this book!

This story is the fruit of many years of contemplating the life of the Blessed Virgin. Its primary source is the author’s imagination – an imagination fired by the love of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

JAVIER SUÁREZ-GUANES WAS BORN in Madrid. He is of Asturian origin and Castilian heart. After receiving a degree in law from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, he received a doctorate in Rome in 1956. Following ordination as a priest, he went to Mexico to do priestly work in rural areas. In 1962 he went to Guatemala to work with students and members of a youth club.
Next came seven years in El Salvador in another student residence. Upon his return to Guatemala, where he lives today, he became chaplain of the church Nuestra Señora de la Paz (Our Lady of Peace). There he wrote this book in his free time. He has also published Respuestas de la Virgen (Answers of the Virgin).