The Woman of the Apocalypse (or the woman clothed with the sun, ; ) is a figure–often considered to be a reference to the Virgin Mary in Catholic theology–described in Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation (written ).
The woman gives birth to a male child who is threatened by a dragon, identified as the Devil and Satan, who intends to devour the child as soon as he is born. When the child is taken to heaven, the woman flees on eagle’s wings into the wilderness at a "place prepared of God" for 1,260 days. This leads to a "War in Heaven" in which the angels cast out the dragon. The dragon attacks the woman, but the woman escapes on her wings for "a time, times and a time and a half". The dragon then attacks her again with a flood of water from his mouth, which is subsequently swallowed by earth. Frustrated, the dragon initiates war on "the remnant of her seed", identified as the righteous followers of Christ. The Woman of the Apocalypse is widely identified as the Virgin Mary. Some Catholic commentaries, such as Thomas Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary (1859), allow for the interpretation of the woman as either the Church or Mary. The commentary of the New American Bible states that "The woman adorned with the sun, the moon, and the stars (images taken from Genesis 37:9–10) symbolizes God’s people in the Old and the New Testament. The Israel of old gave birth to the Messiah (Rev 12:5) and then became the new Israel, the church, which suffers persecution by the dragon (Rev. 12:6, 13–17); cf. Is. 50:1; 66:7; Jer. 50:12."
The past president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America, Robert Karris in his Collegeville Bible Commentary on Revelation 12, believed that the woman clothed with the sun would directly remind the audience of the Roman story of the sun deity Apollo. In the myth, Python the serpent was seeking to kill Leto who was pregnant with Apollo, however Zeus would use the north winds to rescue Leto, by having her taken to an island. Bible scholar John H. Walton would instead recognize the myth of Artemis, who was a virgin that protected women giving birth. Statues would portray her as a queen of heaven, with the moon in the background of her three tiered crown, where she is also identified as the moon goddess and twin sister of Apollo. Walton notes that in other depictions, she adorns an elaborate necklace with 12 signs of the Zodiac.
Among Protestants, including particularly among those with more Reformed theology and Evangelicals, the Woman of the Apocalypse tends to be seen as the Church or Israel.
Arsène Heitz, one of the designers who submitted proposals for the flag of Europe and the European Union, suggested that the twelve stars in the current design is derived from the twelve stars above the Woman's head.
Narrative Revelation 12 describes "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars" (12:1).Jaskowak O.P., Maximilian Maria. "The Virgin of the Apocalypse", Dominicana, May 16, 2018 The woman is pregnant and about to give birth, "travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered" (12:2).
Then there is "a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads" (12:3) who is about to "devour her child as soon as it was born" (12:4). But her child is "caught up unto God" (12:5), and the woman herself is "fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." (12:6)
Then there is a description of "War in Heaven" of the angels against the dragon, and "the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (12:9)
The woman is again mentioned in 12:13, as she is persecuted by the dragon, and she escapes on her "two wings of a great eagle" (12:14). The dragon attempts to inundate her place of refuge, by "water as a flood" emerging from his mouth (12:15), but the flood is swallowed up by the earth (12:16), so the dragon went "to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (12:17).
Interpretation as the Virgin Mary
History The first ancient author to mention a Marian interpretation is Epiphanius, although he does not adhere to this perspective himself (Haer. 78.11: MG 42.716 C). This view may have been held by TychoniusTychonius, Complexiones in Apocalypsin; PL, 70, 1411 (he heavily influenced Augustine), but he is ambiguous. Other early authors who held this view include the unknown author of the History of Joseph the Carpenter, Quodvultdeus (a disciple of Augustine), Cassiodorus (Complexiones in Apocalypsi, written c. 570 AD), and the Greek Father Oikoumenios (6th c.), with his contemporary Andreas of Caesarea criticising him for believing so.
In modern times, the Marian interpretation has been affirmed by Pope Pius X,St. Pius X, Ad diem illum. ash 36. 458–59: "No one of us does not know that that woman signifies the Virgin Mary, who brought forth our Head with her virginity intact. But the Apostle continues: 'And being with child, she cried out, laboring in birth, and was in pain to be delivered. ' Therefore John saw the Most Holy Mother of God already enjoying eternal happiness, and yet laboring from some hidden birth. With what birth? Surely ours, we who, being yet detained in exile, are still to be brought forth to the perfect love of God and eternal happiness." Pope Pius XII,Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus. AAS 42. 762–63: "We frequently find theologians and preachers who, following the footsteps of the Holy Fathers, use words and events from sacred Scripture with some freedom to explain their belief in the Assumption... . And furthermore, the Scholastic doctors have considered the Assumption of the Virgin Mother of God as signified not only in the various figures of the Old Testament, but also in that woman clothed with the sun, whom the Apostle John contemplated on the island of Patmos." Pope Paul VI,Paul VI, Signum Magnum, May 13, 1967 AAS 59: "The great sign which the Apostle John saw in heaven, 'a woman clothed with the sun' is interpreted by the sacred liturgy, not without foundation, as referring to the most Blessed Mary, the Mother of all men by the grace of Christ the Redeemer." and Pope John Paul II.John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, March 15, 1987. Vatican Translation. #24: "... she who was the one 'full of grace' was brought into the mystery of Christ in order to be his Mother and thus the Holy Mother of God, through the Church remains in that mystery as 'the woman' spoken of by the Book of Genesis (3:15) at the beginning and by the Apocalypse (12:1) at the end of the history of salvation."
Theologians view the Woman of the apocalyse in Revelation 12:1–3 as a foresight to the Virgin Mary, both the mother of God and the mother of church; taking Revelation 12 as a reference to Mary, Israel, and the Church as a threefold symbolism through the Book of Isaiah and affirms Mary as the mother of Jesus Christ as the prophetic fulfilment described in Revelation 12 (cf. Isaiah 7:14, 26:17, 54:1, 66:7).Saunder, Rev. William. "Woman Clothed with the Sun", Arlington Catholic Herald, 2004. Catholic Education Resource Center. Retrieved July 6, 2011
Pope Pius X explicitly identified the "woman" of the Revelation with the Virgin in his encyclical Ad diem illum. Pope Benedict XVI also made this identification several times, associating the "crown of twelve stars" with Mary's authority among the saints. The same did Pope Francis.
Theological interpretation The woman's "male child" is a reference to Jesus (Revelation 12:5), since he is destined to "rule all nations with a rod of iron" (Revelation 12:5). The dragon trying to devour the woman's child at the moment of his birth (Revelation 12:4) is a reference to Herod the Great's attempt to kill the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:16). Through his death and resurrection and Ascension, Jesus "was snatched up to God and to his throne" (Revelation 12:5).
In the interpretation of Pius X (1904), the birth is not that of Jesus but "surely ours", (i.e. the Church Militant) "we who, being yet detained in exile, are still to be brought forth to the perfect love of God and eternal happiness". Pius XII (1950) makes explicit the reference to the Assumption of Mary. And John Paul II (1987) to the Protoevangelium interpretation of Genesis 3:15, and by extension the symbolic identification of the Woman with both Mary and Eve. see also James Akin, The Woman of Revelation 12 This Rock (Catholic Answers Magazine), Volume 8, Number 5 (May 1997). "The Woman in Revelation 12 is part of the fusion imagery/polyvalent symbolism that is found in the book. She has four referents: Israel, the Church, Eve, and Mary. [...] The Woman is Eve because she is part of the three-way conflict also involving her Seed and the Dragon, who is identified with the ancient serpent (the one from Eden) in 20:2. This mirrors the conflict in Genesis 3:15 between Eve, the serpent, and her unborn seed—which in turn is a symbol of the conflict between Mary, Satan, and Jesus."
Veneration Both Marian veneration and the interpretation of the Woman of the Apocalypse are recorded since at least the 4th century, but the specific veneration of Mary in this form becomes tangible only in the medieval period. Iconographically, Marian figures associated with the Revelation narrative are recognizable by the astronomical attributes, specifically her standing on a crescent moon, and the crown of twelve stars (while the description "clothed with the sun" is sometimes rendered by rays emanating from her figure).
Association of Mary with a single star is recorded from the early medieval period, in the hymn Ave Maris Stella.
Many depictions of Mary from the Gothic period (14th to 16th century) show her standing on a crescent moon inspired by the association of Mary with the woman of the Apocalypse. The motif became so popular in 15th-century Germany that pre-existing Madonna figures were refitted with a crescent (e.g. Madonna of Bad Doberan, c. 1300, refitted in the 15th century). The Virgin of Guadalupe was depicted as the Madonna of the Apocalypse since at least the 16th century.
The Madonna of the Apocalypse became associated with Our Lady of the Rosary, the "crown of twelve stars" being identified with a "rosary of twelve privileges" of Mary. The Virgin of the Rosary is frequently shown with the crown or halo of twelve stars (but not the crescent moon) in modern depictions (since the 19th century). A notable example is the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei.
An anecdote (first published in the 1980s) connects the design of the Flag of Europe (1955) to this aspect of Marian iconography.
Interpretation as the Church One early writer interpreting the woman as the church is Hippolytus of Rome who states said interpretation in On Christ and Antichrist.
The Catholic Church recognizes the "woman" as part of the polyvalent symbolism that is found in the book in four referents: Israel, the Church, Eve, and Mary.
Commentators who adhere to Protestant eschatology sometimes identify the woman as the Church, and the man-child she gives birth to are the saints. According to this interpretation, Revelation 12:17 describes the remnant of the seed of the woman as those who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The offspring of the Woman, the Woman's seed, then refers to the saints. The man child "who shall rule the nations with a rod of iron" is a symbol of the faithful members of the Church.