As of this writing I am halfway through preparation of Marian consecration and boy are my will, intellect, and passions tired!
Eh? Get it? It’s funny because Aquinas—never mind.
But no seriously, the past two weeks have been the interior version of basic training. Except instead of your body doing one-arm pushups while a sweaty, red-faced drill sergeant yells at you, it’s your soul doing them and the literal Queen of the Universe is quietly but firmly reminding you of Christ’s Passion and Death the whole time. As much as we make over the sweet and placid images of Mary (which are totally valid and beautiful and true), Marian consecration has shown me an entirely different side of Our Lady. A no-prisoners-taking, sword-swinging, serpent-crushing side that honestly I identify with much more deeply than the infant-swaddling, lullaby-singing side (and it’s totally okay if you’re more down with the latter). Sure, she doles out consolations aplenty, but she also calls us to repentance–which can get real ugly real fast, especially if we resist and harden our hearts. We often forget that, though Mary was literally the most faithful human being who lived aside from Jesus, and known for her meekness, girl went through some stuff. And that’s part of who she is, too.
At first I was a little dismayed, because I couldn’t seem to find any traditional images of these aspects of the Blessed Mother. I began to think that none existed. Ohhh was I wrong. Here are some images that prove the Mother of God isn’t just a sweet face, but a stone cold lioness who will not hesitate to wreck stuff if she has to.
1. The Woman Clothed With the Sun (or, That Time You Know the Demons Yelled “OH @!#% SHE CAN FLY.”)
This is a medieval depiction of that line from Revelation 12 we all know, of “the woman clothed with the sun” who appears in the heavens and wins the prize for literally the worst birth story in history, past, present, and future, when she gets attacked by a seven-headed dragon while in labor. Luckily she was “snatched up to God” (which, in this depiction, evidently means “flew away on her magnificent and terrifying apocalypse wings because ain’t nobody got time for that”), St. Michael showed up, and the dragon was a few heads short of a full abomination by the time all was said and done.
William Blake’s depiction is a shade more dramatic, because William Blake. Mary’s wings (WINGS, YOU GUYS) are now made of what I can only speculate is literal sun-fire, there’s lightning because reasons, and she is looking directly into the be-tentacled face of a Lovecraftian horror with a posture that’s less terror and more “can you please NOT while I’m having contractions?” Hail Mary, Mother of God and Pinnacle of #momgoals
2. Our Lady of La Salette (or, Pretty Sure Our Lady Is Also an Elven Warrior Maiden, Probably Kicked Morgoth in the Shins)
Our Lady of La Salette was one of a string of 19th Century French apparitions of Our Lady in which she basically told two bewildered Alpine shepherd children “My Son has noticed no one here is going to Mass. Like literally no one but that crazy old lady whose drawing room always smells like cough medicine and socks. You know, Ireland’s got some real nice potatoes. And Marseille is so lovely this time of year. It would be a shame is something were to…happen to them.” According to the children, her message wasn’t nearly so alarming as her actual appearance. When she showed up on top of the mountain, she was weeping “as though her heart were breaking.” When she stood up, the seers were immediately arrested by her strange manner of dress. She was covered in chains, and had on what I am going to describe as the war-helm of an ancient Elven princess. Seriously look at that thing. Look. At. It.
Our Lady, rocking the Queen of Thorns look while calling 19th century Europe to radical repentance. Get it, girl.
3. The Unburnt Theotokos (or, Mary of the House of David, Queen of the Universe and the Angels, Star of the Sea, The Unburnt, The Mother of God)
We’re going Eastern for this one. Are you ready?
That’s the Theotokos of The Unburnt Bush, or just The Unburnt Theotokos. Somewhere along the line of tradition, it occurred to various artists and theologians that Mary was and is, in a sense, a type of the burning bush that Moses encountered way back in Exodus. She is touched and filled with the fire of God’s divinity in its fullness, yet unconsumed by it, and the Word of God comes into the world through her. She is the unburnt, and the breaker of chains. She’s basically the khaleesi of the entire universe, is what I’m saying.
4. All those times Mary either stabbed or beat the daylights out of raging hell-beasts
Don’t let the big doe eyes and sweet face fool you…
…Mary will wreck stuff. Especially if it’s a demon-monster.
Like, you may be cool, but you will never be star-crowned Mary standing on the moon stabbing a demon-serpent through the skull with a cross-shaped spear cool.
Pictured: The Mother of God having no time for the games
Look at her face. She ain’t even bothered tho.
Then there’s this statue:
Yes, that is, in fact, Our Lady IN ARMOR urging Joan of Arc to swing her sword. Someone call Jerry Bruckheimer, because a Joan of Arc biopic including a training montage with Our Lady and a Kenny Loggins soundtrack desperately needs to happen. This is the faith-based movie the Catholic Church deserves.
This is really fun and well written…thanks, and nice to have discovered your project!
YES!
She’s my twelve-star general!
Loved it! Especially the whole “khaleesi of the entire universe” thing!
I found this post offensive and highly disrespectful to the Immaculate Mother of God. Joking is fine, but comparing our Lady to a character from a TV show filled with graphic sex and violence? Disgusting.
I meant no disrespect at all, and if you are offended, well, Game of Thrones is not for everyone and that’s okay. As I mentioned in a reply below, the character to whom I compared her is quite Marian in many of her themes, especially in the context of being consumed by a larger force and emerging “unburnt”.
I’m compelled to ask if you missed the part at the beginning where I made mention that I was halfway through my Consecration preparation, which I have since completed. I just gave over my entire self to Our Lady. I’m not about to turn back and take a flippant attitude toward who she is. These are ways and images with which I identify and live out my deep connection to the Mother of God, and I was merely offering a little-discussed alternative to popular images of her.
I would compare Mary to a character in a drama that included some of the most notorious murders, child molestors and rapists. Some of the cruelest military war criminals who routinely practiced genocide, fratricide, incest, and torture…
That drama was her own life and times and that character was herself. Game of thrones and other fictional works have nothing on the reality of man’s inhumanity to man, and she lived to see some of the worst.
While I don’t personally picture her as a warrior, I also see her as a very real woman of a God-forged steel will and courage filled with a trust and Faith I can only imagine, whose image I see faintly reflected on the Mother Theresa types in the world today.
Thanks for the visuals
Not cool. This treats the Holy Theotokos in a way that is disrespectful and cartoonish. I am also sad to see you left the Orthodox Church. Comparing the Blessed Virgin Mary to a warlord from a show known for its constant focus on rape and torture is not cool at all. Sorry, but this was just not in good taste.
Why are you sad to see that I left the Orthodox Church? Why did you feel the need to bring that up in your, ah, critique?
I don’t feel that my comparison was in bad taste at all. I did not compare Our Lady to the warlord in question. Perhaps you are thinking of Khal Drogo? I compared her to another character whose character arc has many rich Marian themes, especially in the context I used. Can you reference examples as to how I was “cartoonish?”
I was born pre-Vatican II, and it took something for me to get past all of the pop culture allusions and the “she bad!” attitude. But I did get past it, because this is an extremely original article as Catholic articles go, and that right there earns it points from me. It is obvious that no disrespect was intended in this article; quite the opposite, in fact. And this pop-culture, she-bad imagery may be, for all we know, the lens through which Catholics of the 22nd century will be viewing Our Lady.
But not entirely, I think. Truth be told, both before and after her Assumption into Heaven, Our Lady was possessed of a peace and a joy which no human besides her Son has ever possessed. This was because she wasn’t about herself, or about having attitude, or about kicking bad guys; she was about, like her Son, doing the will of the Father.
As warrior woman (but a holy, not a bloodthirsty warrior woman) is clearly a legitimate mode of depicting the Mother of God in Catholic art, and this mode, as this article shows, has a long and venerable history. But she would not be an ordinary warrior woman, who at the end of the day, is all about patting herself on the back and throwing back a few brewskis with her posse to relax. Instead, Mary is the sort of warrior woman who is all about serving the Father, and her way to celebrate and relax is nothing more than to spend time with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, in loving contemplation “treasuring all” the things about her Son “in her heart.” Entirely different sort of warrior woman; you can see that even before the armor is cast off and set aside!
It seems to me that all that are needed to Brooke Gregory’s very original article are maybe a few tweaks and tighenings-up.
As an endnote: For those who balk at seeing the sacred presented through the lens of pop culture, consider the fact that such saints as Francis of Assisi utilized the pop culture of their day to communicate their feelings and ideas the holy. It wasn’t uncommon for St. Francis to be found wandering the countryside singing little snatches of hymns modeled on the contemporary French romance songs that enchanted young men his age and vexed their elders. That form of expression is definitely not for everyone.
But I’m a 25 year old girl who loves Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Doctor Who. All of those movies and shows contain themes of sacrifice, redemption, love, and the powers of good warring against the powers of evil, and they’re a big part of my life. Of course I’m going to see my own Catholic spirituality mirrored in them, and vice versa. I mean, my husband and I have legitimate arguments over which Hogwarts House or which Game of Thrones family different Biblical characters fall into. This is who I am. This is what informs my writing. If it’s not for you, I encourage you to move along and find something else that you connect more deeply with.
Oh my gosh, this is amazing. Sharing now!
Wanted to share this with you: I shared your article with my daughters who are actively non-Christian. They loved it, and I’m hoping it’s planted the seeds. To Jesus through Mary!