Alma mater (Latin: alma mater, lit. 'nourishing mother'; pl. [rarely used] almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase currently used to identify a school, college, or university that one formerly attended. The phrase is variously translated as "nourishing mother", "nursing mother", or "fostering mother", suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to her students. Before its current use, alma mater was an honorific title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. Later, in Catholicism, it became a title of the Virgin Mary.