One of the most interesting aspects of this study about Mary is something that I didn't find out. I have asked a half-dozen people about the incident of blessing the ox. Almost without exception, they had the idea in their mind that Mary had done it herself. So did I. That ox gets resurrected an amazing number of times in Church literature--at least a dozen times, by my hasty count. And in every version that mentions Mary's ox, Mary called on her brother and another elder to anoint the ox.

So why is there this residual fold memory that Mary did it herself? It indicates to me that we have a fatal fondness for the dramatic and a woeful weakness for the stereotype, a weakness that we must be on guard against at all times. We want Mary to anoint her own ox because it makes a more powerful story--Mary alone with her faith against the wicked Cornelius Peter Lott and the dead ox.