PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN, is a feast of the Romish church, celebrated on the 21st of November, in memory of the Holy Virgin's being presented by her parents in the temple, to be there educated. Emanuel Comnenus, who began to reign in 1143, makes mention of this feast in his Constitution. Some imagine it to have been established among the Greeks in the 11th century; and think they see evident proofs of it in some homilies of George of Nicomedia, who lived in the time of Photius. Its institution in the West is ascribed to Gregory XI. in 1372. Some think it was instituted in memory of the ceremony practised among the Jews for their newborn females; corresponding to the circumcision on the eighth day for males.