Did Blessed Virgin Mary hide her pregnancy from public eye?

It is common for women during their first pregnancy to not "show" (i.e. be noticed as pregnant) for the first three or four months. There is no need to "hide" it--it simply would not be visibly apparent. So if you are thinking that Mary needed to hide her pregnancy for three months, think again.

However, it is common in Asian cultures, and the Jewish culture resembles those of Asia, for women to largely withdraw from society during their pregnancy. In Spanish, the word "pregnant" is "embarazada"--a false cognate of "embarrassed". In fact, it is the English word that used "pregnant" to mean "embarrassed"--as we derived this word from French, which in turn had gotten it from the Spanish. So in theory, English speakers may have once felt embarrassed about pregnancy.

Pregnant women tend to be shy about making a public appearance--in some cultures more than in others. It's not a matter of actual shame, nor is it taboo to be seen pregnant, it's just that women don't appreciate being ogled. And that is inherent to human nature.

Were they hiding the pregnancies? I would say no. They were not ashamed to be pregnant. Both of these women were quite happy to be blessed by God in this manner. Were they avoiding unwelcome gazes? I would say yes.

Did Blessed Virgin Mary hide her pregnancy from public eye?

Normally, most woman will not show that they are pregnant for the first few months. I know of a mother that almost never showed the entire pregnancy.

Certainly the Mother of Jesus was a very reserved individual and prayed often in her home.

I would say that Mary did not at all hide her pregnancy from others.

In the beginning she even visited her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of St. John Baptist. The ”visitation is the visit of Mary”, who was pregnant with Jesus, to Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, in the Gospel of Luke, Luke 1:39–56.

39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

46 And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me

holy is his name.

50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones

but has lifted up the humble.

53 He has filled the hungry with good things

but has sent the rich away empty.

54 He has helped his servant Israel,

remembering to be merciful

55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,

just as he promised our ancestors.”

56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

Mary travelled to Bethlehem with Joseph where Christ was born.

Thus I doubt Mary hide the fact she was pregnate. People would naturally assume Joseph was the Father.

Origen gives us yet another reason why Mary and Joseph married one another. Mary’s virginity was not noticed by Satan due to her marriage with St. Joseph.

To begin in the East, in his Homilies on the Gospel of Luke, Origen considers the perpetual virginity of Mary already a settled point of doctrine, fully consistent with the biblical testimony (see Homily 7.4). He also points out that the reason Mary was frightened by the greeting of the angel, “Hail, full of grace,” is that she, as a good student of the Law, knew that this form of address was unprecedented in Scripture (Homily 6.7). In other words, Origen is pointing out that Mary’s participation in grace is unique, and this conviction continues in both Eastern and Western Christianity, a grace of sinlessness in the East, and Immaculate Conception in the West. For Origen, however, the uniqueness of Mary is not isolated from her marriage to Joseph. His comments on her uniqueness come immediately after a discussion of the divine dispensation which committed the Incarnation to a woman who was already betrothed. In Origen’s reading, then, the marriage of Mary and Joseph is not accidental to the divine plan, but part of it, and so itself becomes theologically significant. It is not Teresa of Ávila, but Origen, who first makes the mystery of St. Joseph and his marriage to Mary an intrinsic part of the mystery of the Incarnation Origen reports:

I found an elegant statement in the letter of a martyr - I mean Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch after Peter. During a persecution, he fought against wild animals at Rome. He stated, "Mary’s virginity escaped the notice of the ruler of this age." It escaped his notice because of Joseph, and because of their wedding.

Origen continues to ponder the mystery of St. Joseph, pointing out that it is because he is the husband of Mary that the devil does not suspect that the Savior “had taken on a body.” Origen connects the mystery of St. Joseph with Paul’s reference in 1 Cor 2:6-8, where, as Origen reports, Paul comments that:

We speak wisdom among the perfect, but not the wisdom of this age or the wisdom of the rulers of this age. They are being destroyed. We speak God’s wisdom, hidden in a mystery. None of the rulers of this age knows it. If they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.

The marriage of Mary and Joseph is thus an intrinsic part of God’s Wisdom, an intrinsic part of the logic of the Incarnation, which is the logic of God’s philanthropia, a logic of foolishness, invisible to the ruling powers because it is, to them, foolishness and not wisdom. Origen invites us to contemplate the marriage of Joseph and Mary as an outcropping, one might say, of this foolishness.