Luke's Gospel narrates that shortly after the Annunciation, Mary traveled to visit her relative Elizabeth, described as already six months pregnant with the child who would become John the Baptist. According to the account, as Mary greeted Elizabeth, the unborn John is described as leaping in his mother's womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, greets Mary as blessed and as the mother of her Lord, recognizing the significance of Mary's pregnancy before it has been otherwise announced to her.
Mary's response, a hymn of praise known from its opening Latin word as the Magnificat, draws heavily on Hebrew Bible language, particularly echoing the song of Hannah in the first book of Samuel, and celebrates God's action in lifting up the lowly and bringing down the powerful, themes that recur throughout Luke's Gospel as a whole. The Magnificat has since become one of the most frequently recited texts in Christian liturgical life, incorporated into the daily evening prayer of the Western church and set to music by composers across the history of Christian sacred music.
The scene closes Luke's account of the period before John's and Jesus's births with the two women together, before the narrative moves on to describe John's birth directly in the episode Luke narrates immediately afterward.