When had come to her fourteenth year, the high priest announced to all that the virgins who were reared in the Temple, and who had reached the age of their womanhood, should return to their own, and be given in lawful marriage.

1490–1491, a predella scene for his Adoration of the Magi, with the discarded rods at left. Luca Signorelli, The Marriage of the Virgin, c. The betrothal legend in the Golden Legend The feast for the Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, now only celebrated by some parts of the Catholic Church, is on January 23. The lack of scriptural backing for the details, and the fall from fashion of predelle, led to it falling into disfavour in the Counter-Reformation. By the later Middle Ages and Renaissance the betrothal and marriage were often shown as a single scene, with the disappointed suitors holding their bare rods, or snapping them. Giotto's famous fresco cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel (1303) covers the story in four scenes. The wedding procession may also be shown, especially in the Early Medieval period. In art the subject could be covered in several different scenes, and the betrothal of Mary, with Joseph's blossoming rod, was often shown, despite its apocryphal origin. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, essentially the same scene, with very similar iconography, is considered to represent the earlier scene of the 'Entrusting of Mary to Joseph', with Joseph being made Mary's guardian by the temple authorities. Unlike many other scenes in Life of the Virgin cycles (like the Nativity of Mary and Presentation of Mary), it is not a feast in the church calendar, though it sometimes has been in the past. The wedding ceremony is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels but is covered in several apocryphal sources and in later redactions, notably the 14th century compilation the Golden Legend. The Marriage of the Virgin is the subject in Christian art depicting the marriage of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The Marriage of the Virgin (1304–1306) by Giotto ( Scrovegni Chapel)

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