Virgin Mary Trivia
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99 free Virgin Mary trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Mary of Nazareth gets only a handful of lines in the Gospels, yet two thousand years of devotion have grown around her: a council that argued over her title, four Catholic dogmas, a prayer said billions of times a day, apparitions that built basilicas in Mexico, France and Portugal, and a chapter of the Quran that bears her name. These 50 trivia questions about Mary, mother of Jesus move from Scripture to tradition. The biblical Mary: Gabriel's visit in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, the Magnificat, Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt, the wedding at Cana, the foot of the cross and the upper room in Acts. Then the Church's Mary: Theotokos at Ephesus in 431, Aeiparthenos in 553, Ineffabilis Deus in 1854, Munificentissimus Deus in 1950, the feast days of December 8, March 25, August 15 and October 7, Pius V's fifteen mysteries and John Paul II's five more. Then the apparitions: Juan Diego's tilma, Bernadette's grotto, the three shepherds of Fátima and the silent vision at Knock. The easy questions cover Joseph, Gabriel and Bethlehem; the hardest ask about the Sub tuum praesidium, Anne Catherine Emmerich and the Lateran Synod of 649. There is Catholic trivia about Mary here for a parish night or a religion class, and enough general history for any pub quiz. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation. Play it online or print it.
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Q 01In which town did Mary live when the angel announced she would bear Jesus?
Nazareth
Nazareth appears nowhere in the Old Testament, and in John's Gospel Nathanael's first reply on hearing of Jesus is: 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?'
Q 02Which angel told Mary she would conceive through the Holy Spirit?
Gabriel
Gabriel had a busy few months: Luke has the same angel appear first to the old priest Zechariah, promising him and his elderly wife a long-awaited son.
Q 03Mary's Hebrew name is usually rendered in English as what?
Miriam
Miriam: the Old Testament's famous Miriam is the sister of Moses, and by the Gospels so many women share the name that the writers have to tell their Marys apart.
Q 04Which couple does the apocryphal Gospel of James name as Mary's parents?
Joachim and Anne
Joachim and Anne appear nowhere in the Bible; they come from this second-century text, where a rich, childless couple are promised a child by an angel.
Q 05Elizabeth, Mary's relative, descended from Aaron and so belonged to which tribe?
Levi
Levi: Aaron, Israel's first high priest, was Levi's great-grandson, and Luke introduces Elizabeth as one 'of the daughters of Aaron', married to a priest.
Q 06Which canticle did Mary speak after Elizabeth called her 'the mother of my Lord'?
Magnificat
Magnificat is just the first word of the Latin text, 'My soul magnifies the Lord', and the song closely echoes Hannah's prayer in the first book of Samuel.
Q 07How did Joseph learn that Mary's child was conceived by the Holy Spirit?
An angel in a dream
An angel in a dream: Matthew says Joseph, unwilling to shame her publicly, had already resolved to end the betrothal quietly when the message came.
Q 08In Matthew's Gospel, to which country does the family flee to escape King Herod?
Egypt
Egypt: only Matthew tells the story, and he ties it to a line from the prophet Hosea, 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'
Q 09In John's Gospel, Mary first appears at which event?
The wedding at Cana
The wedding at Cana: she tells Jesus the wine has run out, prompting his first miracle, yet John never once calls her Mary.
Q 10In Acts 1, where is Mary named among those gathered after returning from Mount Olivet?
The upper room
The upper room: in the days after the Ascension she prays there with the disciples, and besides the eleven apostles hers is the only name in the list.
Q 11In John's Gospel, the dying Jesus entrusts Mary to the care of which figure?
The beloved disciple
The beloved disciple: from the cross Jesus tells Mary 'behold, your son', and this unnamed follower, by tradition John himself, takes her into his own home.
Q 12Searchers found the 'House of the Virgin Mary' in Turkey by following which bedridden nun's published visions?
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Anne Catherine Emmerich, an invalid in Germany from 1813, never went near the place; the ruins were sought out and found decades after her death, using a book of her visions.
Q 13What does the Greek title Theotokos mean?
God-bearer
Q 21Which pope defined the Assumption of Mary as dogma in 1950?
Pius XII
Pius XII worded it with care: Mary was taken up 'having completed the course of her earthly life', a phrase that leaves open whether she died first.
Q 22On which date is the Assumption celebrated?
15 August
15 August is a holy day of obligation and a public holiday in much of Catholic Europe; Italians know it as Ferragosto, the peak of the summer break.
Q 23What do Eastern Christians call the feast of Mary's death and taking up into heaven?
Dormition
Dormition means 'falling asleep': in the old tradition Mary died with the apostles gathered around her, and when her tomb was later opened it was found empty.
God-bearer: more literally 'the one who gives birth to God', so the title says as much about her son as about her, which is why it split the fifth-century Church.
Q 14Which council in 431 decreed that Mary is the Theotokos?
Ephesus
Ephesus: the bishops deposed the patriarch Nestorius for refusing her the title, reasoning that her son is one person, both God and man.
Q 15Which prayer to Mary survives on a Greek papyrus scrap that already addresses her as 'Mother of God'?
Sub tuum praesidium
Sub tuum praesidium, 'under your protection', became a hymn in both Catholic and Orthodox worship; the scrap's age is disputed, with guesses running from the third century to the eighth.
Q 16The Church of the East historically called Mary by what title instead of Theotokos?
Christotokos
Christotokos was the alternative championed in the late 420s by the patriarch Nestorius, who feared the rival title compromised Christ's full humanity.
Q 17The Immaculate Conception holds that Mary was free from what from the moment she was conceived?
Original sin
Original sin: the 1854 definition says she was spared it 'in view of the merits of Jesus Christ', so on this teaching even Mary was saved by her son, only in advance.
Q 18Which pope defined the Immaculate Conception as dogma in 1854?
Pius IX
Pius IX first asked the world's bishops for their views, found a large majority in favour, and then declared the doctrine in the bull Ineffabilis Deus.
Q 19In Luke's Gospel, what does Simeon warn Mary will pierce her own soul?
A sword
A sword: Simeon's warning in the Temple is counted first among Mary's Seven Sorrows, which is why Catholic art so often shows her heart run through with seven blades.
Q 20In the medieval dispute over the Immaculate Conception, which order's 'Scotists' argued in favour?
Franciscans
Franciscans: their theologian Duns Scotus argued that Mary was redeemed in advance, by a grace that kept sin from ever reaching her, answering Thomas Aquinas's worry.
Q 24Which council in 553 gave Mary the title Aeiparthenos, 'Perpetual Virgin'?
Second Constantinople
Second Constantinople: its decrees speak of 'the holy, glorious and ever-virgin Mary', and a Lateran synod in 649 spelled the idea out as before, during and after the birth.
Q 25Which Marian title has the Vatican called 'always inappropriate'?
Co-Redemptrix
Co-Redemptrix: some Catholics had long petitioned for it to be defined as dogma, but a 2025 doctrinal note said the word risks obscuring Christ's unique role as redeemer.
Q 26On what date is the feast of the Annunciation kept?
25 March
25 March: the feast marks the conception of Jesus, nine months to the day before Christmas; when it lands in Holy Week or Easter week, the Western feast moves to the Monday after the Easter octave.
Q 27Until 1752, the Annunciation marked the start of the year in which country?
England
England: the legal year began on Lady Day until 1752, which is why the British tax year ends in early April; Scotland had moved its New Year to 1 January in 1600.
Q 28In Annunciation paintings, which flower does the angel often carry?
Lily
The lily, a sign of her purity: painters put a white one in the angel's hand or in a vase beside Mary, and the species is commonly called the Madonna lily.
Q 29In Luke's Visitation story, which unborn child leaps at Mary's greeting?
John the Baptist
John the Baptist: his mother Elizabeth feels the child jump and greets Mary with words later taken into the Hail Mary, 'Blessed are you among women.'
Q 30Which Marian prayer do church bells traditionally announce at morning, noon and evening?
Angelus
Angelus: the bell sounds for it three times a day, and the evening one is what has stopped the two potato diggers, heads bowed in a field, in Millet's famous painting.