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The Virgin Mary

Lawrence S. Cunningham

in From Trent to Vatican II: Historical and Theological Investigations

This chapter explores the Protestant reaction against the Marian tradition of Catholicism, which was addressed by the reform of the Council of Trent. Topics discussed include the Catholic Reformation ... More

This chapter explores the Protestant reaction against the Marian tradition of Catholicism, which was addressed by the reform of the Council of Trent. Topics discussed include the Catholic Reformation and two conspicuous events which characterized the Marian character of Catholicism in the 19th century: the definition of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in 1854 and the rise of Marian apparitions and subsequent pilgrimage locations, most conspicuously at Lourdes in France.Less

The Mother Stood at the Foot of the Cross: Mary’s Suffering as Incentive to Feel

Susan C. Karant-Nunn

in Reformation of Feeling: Shaping the Religious Emotions in Early Modern Germany

This chapter focuses on sermons about the Virgin Mary by Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist preachers. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, preachers spoke to their human flocks again and ... More

This chapter focuses on sermons about the Virgin Mary by Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist preachers. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, preachers spoke to their human flocks again and again about the swords through Mary's heart. Catholic homileticians virtually seamlessly attached their pulpit-rhetoric to this well-established precedent. As in their treatment of the Passion as a whole, they sought to enable their hearers so acutely to envision the painful events of the Crucifixion that they could be said to be present at it. A striking difference between Catholic and Protestant Passion homiletics is the diminution of attention in the latter toward the mother of Jesus. Luther wrote in connection with the celebration of Christ's nativity that it is certain that if there is a birth, a mother is there. But we want to give our notice to the Christ child and not to the mother. He nevertheless did deal with her in every suitable context, praising her for undergoing ritual purification even though she was not impure, or criticizing her for pressing Jesus prematurely to perform a miracle at Cana. In common with their Lutheran brethren, Zwinglian and Calvinist preachers reduce the Virgin to a peripheral figure. Indeed, she is barely a presence in their excursus on the Passion.Less

Anonymous Renovators of Icons

Karin Vélez

in The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto

This chapter begins by examining how two peripheral artworks of the Virgin of Loreto, the eighteenth-century wooden statue from the Moxos missions and the seventeenth-century Roman painting by ... More

This chapter begins by examining how two peripheral artworks of the Virgin of Loreto, the eighteenth-century wooden statue from the Moxos missions and the seventeenth-century Roman painting by Caravaggio, each tapped into outside streams of Marian art. The same impetus for transformation is observed for the original icon of the Madonna of Loreto at the Italian shrine. Updates to this icon were spurred by an awareness of the world outside Loreto. The chapter concludes with a return to the frontier, to Canada, to consider some significantly named but lesser known Huron women converts who contributed to Mary's global public image. Overall, these case studies of modifications to the Virgin of Loreto reflect what mattered to people on both sides of the Atlantic about Mary at this time: she was alien, yet she was accessible; she moved, and she could also be moved.Less

Introduction

Beth Kreitzer

in Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the Sixteenth Century

This introductory chapter begins with an explanation of why sermons were selected as source material for this study. It presents evaluations of Martin Luther’s ideas and writings, and discusses the ... More

This introductory chapter begins with an explanation of why sermons were selected as source material for this study. It presents evaluations of Martin Luther’s ideas and writings, and discusses the situation of Marian devotion and theology on the “eve” of the Reformation to develop a context for the presentation of Virgin Mary by Luther and his followers. An overview of the chapters included in the volume is then presented.Less

Mary and Virgin Promise

David Brown

in Discipleship and Imagination: Christian Tradition and Truth

Two competing ways of understanding Mary's role are observed in the New Testament, one of her as a purely passive instrument of promise and the other (more hidden) as a struggling disciple. The ... More

Two competing ways of understanding Mary's role are observed in the New Testament, one of her as a purely passive instrument of promise and the other (more hidden) as a struggling disciple. The doctrine of the immaculate conception is seen as the illegitimate culmination of the former trend and that of the assumption as an appropriate terminus of the latter. A number of secondary themes are also explored, such as the impact of inadequate christologies (both ancient and modern) and the use of virginity to effect freedom for women.Less

Difunta Correa

Frank Graziano

in Cultures of Devotion: Folk Saints of Spanish America

This chapter explores the devotion to Difunta Correa, a prominent folk saint in western Argentina. It examines myth development, particularly in relation to Difunta Correa’s miraculous breast; ... More

This chapter explores the devotion to Difunta Correa, a prominent folk saint in western Argentina. It examines myth development, particularly in relation to Difunta Correa’s miraculous breast; religious tourism; penance; relation to the Catholic Church; and contemporary devotion to Difunta Correa at her shrine complex in San Juan.Less

The Protestant Virgin Mary

Freda Harcourt

in Victorians and the Virgin Mary: Religion and Gender in England 1830 - 1885

This chapter describes the contrasting portrait of the Protestant Virgin Mary as an ordinary and even erring woman whose maternal role was very limited. Catholics most often defended Marian devotion ... More

This chapter describes the contrasting portrait of the Protestant Virgin Mary as an ordinary and even erring woman whose maternal role was very limited. Catholics most often defended Marian devotion on religious grounds. They argued that, sanctioned by Scripture and tradition, it promoted a close relationship with God. This woman, who was a more negative figure than the woman envisioned by the reformers, also emerged beginning in the 1830s, partly as a response to the Catholic Virgin Mary. This Virgin Mary was an expression of Protestants' religious beliefs, particularly the emphasis on sola Scriptura and a direct relationship between the divine and the devout, yet it also had a polemical purpose. In promoting this figure and denouncing the Catholic Virgin Mary, Protestants could argue that Catholicism was a corrupt form of Christianity and that Protestantism was the biblical religion. In addition, by describing a woman whose motherhood gave her no special prerogatives, Protestants could counteract the popular perception that women were innately maternal and that this characteristic gave them an influence over the public sphere.Less

Miracle of the Rose

Frank Graziano

in Wounds of Love: The Mystical Marriage of Saint Rose of Lima

Rose and flower tropes are pursued into “deflowering,” paradise-garden and edenic imagery, the odor of sanctity, and the miracle after which St. Rose of Lima’s name was changed. The discussion ... More

Rose and flower tropes are pursued into “deflowering,” paradise-garden and edenic imagery, the odor of sanctity, and the miracle after which St. Rose of Lima’s name was changed. The discussion references Venus, the Virgin Mary as the “Rose without Thorns,” the Romance of the Rose, and Christ as the New Adam, among other topics.Less

Other Marian Holidays and Herrenfesten

Beth Kreitzer

in Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the Sixteenth Century

This chapter explores Lutheran sermons on texts in which Mary appears. In the Christmas story from Luke 2:1-20, Jesus as the promised messiah is the focus of sermons despite Mary’s vital role in the ... More

This chapter explores Lutheran sermons on texts in which Mary appears. In the Christmas story from Luke 2:1-20, Jesus as the promised messiah is the focus of sermons despite Mary’s vital role in the events that took place. In the story of Jesus’ passion, the significance of Mary at the cross is minimized, and the growing devotion to Mary as coredemptrix is ignored. Sermons on the three important holidays celebrating Mary’s conception, birth, and assumption appear only in the earliest postils.Less

A Woman at a Well

Michael Peppard

in The World's Oldest Church: Bible, Art, and Ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria

This chapter concludes a procession around the baptistery at the southwest corner, arguing that the female figure drawing water from a well is not the Samaritan Woman, an infamously sinful convert, ... More

This chapter concludes a procession around the baptistery at the southwest corner, arguing that the female figure drawing water from a well is not the Samaritan Woman, an infamously sinful convert, but more likely the Virgin Mary, the famously holy mother of Jesus. Through detailed analysis of textual sources and an original, extensive survey of artistic depictions of the Annunciation in late ancient and Byzantine art, this chapter proposes that the earliest depiction of Mary outside of the Roman catacombs likely resides now at the Dura-Europos Collection. Sources from Syria and its environs corroborate the ritualization of spiritual pregnancy and new birth in Christian initiation. Like Mary, these initiates have a divine encounter at a water source and receive the illumination and incarnation of the Holy Spirit. Yet just as in chapter 4, polysemic interpretations may be appropriate in the end. Ancient authors blended their analyses of various virgins, brides, and water-well seekers from biblical narratives, such that the threads of purity, marriage, birth, and death were not often easy to separate.Less

Lucrezia Marinella's Life of the Virgin Mary, Empress of the Universe

in Who Is Mary?: Three Early Modern Women on the Idea of the Virgin Mary

The Life of the Virgin Mary, Empress of the Universe was Lucrezia Marinella's third major work, and consists of her first sacred prose narrative, or historia, and an epic poem in ottava rima on the ... More

The Life of the Virgin Mary, Empress of the Universe was Lucrezia Marinella's third major work, and consists of her first sacred prose narrative, or historia, and an epic poem in ottava rima on the same subject, the two published under the collective title. First published in 1602, an enlarged (“molto ampliata”) and revised edition was published in 1604, and reprinted in 1610 (the text here translated), with a further edition appearing in 1617 with new material, clearly showing its popularity. The first edition has an engraved title page and illustrations, which are included in this translation. Dedicated to the Doge and Senate (“al serenissimo Prencipe et all'eccelsa Signoria”), the ruling body of patricians of Venice, Marinella signs herself their “most devoted subject and servant” (“di Vostra Serenità Divotiss. Suddita, & Serva”). With such a dedication she is celebrating the link between Venice, the city, “La Serenissima,” and the Virgin Mary, “la serenissima Imperatrice dell'Universo.” Her decision to write on the subject may have had raisons d'état as well as those of conventional piety and the upsurge in Marian devotion after the Counter-Reformation.Less

The Visitation

Beth Kreitzer

in Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the Sixteenth Century

This chapter explores Lutheran sermons on the Visitation text. Mary is portrayed as the faithful believer, the inspired witness to God’s word, the humble Christian servant. Her goodness in the ... More

This chapter explores Lutheran sermons on the Visitation text. Mary is portrayed as the faithful believer, the inspired witness to God’s word, the humble Christian servant. Her goodness in the theological virtues strengthens her role as a model of good social behavior. The complexity of her image in these sermons allows the authors to honor an ideal in Mary that is not only true to the scriptural text, but also avoids the pitfalls of her medieval portrait.Less

The Annunciation

Beth Kreitzer

in Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the Sixteenth Century

This chapter explores Lutheran sermons on the text of the Annunciation. Mary is portrayed as an example of the faithful believer, representing the Lutheran virtue of Christian faith over the ... More

This chapter explores Lutheran sermons on the text of the Annunciation. Mary is portrayed as an example of the faithful believer, representing the Lutheran virtue of Christian faith over the “worldly” virtue of human reason. She is seen not so much as the model believer, but as a fruitful model for believers, whose real importance lay in her role in bringing Christ into the world.Less

Coming to Terms

Philip Jenkins

in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity

This chapter discusses the impact of demographic change (Southern population growth and Northern population decline) on the form of Christianity that is likely to be practiced in the future and ... More

This chapter discusses the impact of demographic change (Southern population growth and Northern population decline) on the form of Christianity that is likely to be practiced in the future and points out that claims that the Southern churches have strayed from older definitions of Christianity are greatly exaggerated. However much Southern Christian types have diverged from older Christian orthodoxies, they have in almost all cases remained within recognizable Christian traditions. The first part of the chapter looks at various aspects of inculturation (interpreting the Christian proclamation in a form appropriate for particular cultures) in relation to determining what are the core beliefs and what are the cultural accidents of Christianity; these aspects include architecture, liturgy and religious language, changes in patterns of worship and their underlying beliefs, and the implications of the emphasis on popular belief and tradition for the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Southern Catholic communities. The second part of the chapter discusses patterns in the emerging Southern churches that go beyond familiar Christian traditions, even as far as a thinly disguised paganism, which is manifested in belief in spirits and spiritual powers (which have their strongest impact on terms of healing and miracles and exorcism) and the concept of spiritual welfare (confronting and defeating demonic forces). The third part of the chapter discusses the cultural conflict over literal interpretations of exorcism and spiritual healing in the Bible, the acceptance by the Southern churches of the Old and New Testaments as documents of immediate relevance, their emphasis on aspects of Christianity that have become unfamiliar, and their revival of ancient customs. Last, the Southern churches – the ‘new’ Christianity – are discussed in terms of their sectarian character, and how this is likely to change in the future as they grow and mature, and become more like the major churches.Less

The Leaping Child: Imagining the Unborn in Early Christian Literature

Catherine Playoust and Ellen Bradshaw Aitken

in Imagining the Fetus: The Unborn in Myth, Religion, and Culture

Christian literature of the first and second centuries CE contains few references to unborn children; where they are found, however, the unborn become an important rhetorical site for constructing ... More

Christian literature of the first and second centuries CE contains few references to unborn children; where they are found, however, the unborn become an important rhetorical site for constructing relationships between competing religious groups. The Gospel of Matthew’s genealogy for the unborn Jesus provides him with a rich and contended heritage that displays his destiny as well as his origin. In the Gospel of Luke, the narrative of the joyful recognition of the unborn Jesus in Mary’s womb by the unborn John the Baptist establishes not only the relationship between Jesus and John as adults but also the place of John’s disciples within the Christian movement. The second-century Protevangelium of James tells of Mary’s perception of “two peoples” in her womb, one lamenting and the other rejoicing; these “peoples” signify divergent social and religious responses to Jesus. The practices of joy and lamentation as projected onto the unborn provide a means for negotiating religious differences and shaping a genealogy of religious origins.Less

Chiara Matraini's Brief Discourse on the Life and Praises of the Most Blessed Virgin and Mother of the Son of God

in Who Is Mary?: Three Early Modern Women on the Idea of the Virgin Mary

Chiara Matraini's Brief Discourse on the Life and Praises of the Most Blessed Virgin and Mother of the Son of God was her most widely read work. First published in Lucca, it was reprinted in Venice ... More

Chiara Matraini's Brief Discourse on the Life and Praises of the Most Blessed Virgin and Mother of the Son of God was her most widely read work. First published in Lucca, it was reprinted in Venice in an undated edition of ca. 1650, with a slightly different title, and was illustrated with woodcuts. Dedicated to the author's cousin Juditta, abbess of the monastery of San Bernardo in Pisa, the first edition also contains annotations in an appendix and a sonnet to the author by Don Giuseppe Mozzagrugno, a Neapolitan and canon regular of the church of San Salvatore, Lucca, as well as a reply from Matraini. Matraini wrote much poetry addressed to the Virgin in other later writings such as the Dialoghi spirituali, and a further work on the Virgin, which was published in her volume of letters in 1597, in fact in the form of a letter to Mary. Written as a kind of long personal prayer, Matraini's prose narrative of the Virgin's life concerns God's providence and “unconquerable love,” first in creating humanity and second in sending his own son to earth for its salvation, through the instrument of the Virgin Mary. The Redemption plan is stated from the outset, with Lucifer's envy of the human race prompting the rest of the action, and with Mary always in God's mind, before time and before the Creation. Throughout the work runs the imagery of water in its different manifestations, symbol of the Redemption, specifically through the sacrament of Baptism.Less