Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ. Prophets in the Nephite record named her and described her role centuries before the birth. About 600 years before that birth, Nephi saw her in vision in the city of Nazareth, a virgin “most beautiful and fair above all other virgins” (1 Nephi 11:13, 15). The angel told Nephi she was “the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh,” and Nephi then saw her bearing a child in her arms (1 Nephi 11:18, 20). In the same vision, after seeing Mary bear the child, the angel declared Jesus the Lamb of God and then asked Nephi the meaning of the tree his father had seen; Nephi answered that it is “the love of God” (1 Nephi 11:21–22).
King Benjamin learned her name from an angel, who said that the son “shall be called Jesus Christ” and “his mother shall be called Mary” (Mosiah 3:8). Alma later prophesied that Jesus would be born of Mary at Jerusalem, “the land of our forefathers,” she being “a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God” (Alma 7:10).