The role and place of Virgin Mary and the women saints

B.Zirsangliana

Introduction:
Ever since the early Christianity women played a very crucial role in the life of the Church. They made outstanding contributions in Church-ministry and particularly in the sphere of Christian mysticism. Inspite of their significant place and contributions; they were always ignored and overlooked. Their place and contributions are ignored even in the Christian literature. But here in this paper the place and role of women saints, Virgin Mary and the women saints are re-narrated in order to reflect upon the women issue.

The Place and role of Virgin Mary :
The Blessed Virgin Mary, sometimes shortened to The Blessed Virgin or The Virgin Mary, is a traditional title specifically used by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, some Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics, and others to describe Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. The term carries not merely belief in the virginity of Mary but of her continuing role within the church and in the life of all Christians.

Biblical depiction of Mary:
Little is known of Mary’s personal history from the Bible. The Bible records that she was the cousin of Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist), and that she was betrothed and, later, married to Joseph. After giving birth to Jesus in a stable at Bethlehem, where she had gone with Joseph to register for a government census. Mary returned to Nazareth to live a quietly and humbly with her family (Luke 2:1-20). Little is known about Mary after the crucifixion of Jesus, although Acts 1:14, the last reference to her in the New Testament, places her among the Disciples. From this time, she disappears from the Biblical accounts and even her death is not recorded in Scripture.

The New Testament states that Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit and thus without losing her virginity (Matt 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35). Despite Biblical references to Jesus’ “brothers,” the idea of Mary’s the idea of Mary’spetual virginity appeared in the early Church.

Mary—Mother of Christ as the Mother of Church :
In the early Christianity Nestorianism regarded Mary as the only source of Jesus’ humanity. Since the Virgin Mary's role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is decent now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. "The Virgin Mary is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer she is ‘clearly the mother of the members of Christ'. Since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head." After Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist and his temptations by the devil in the desert, Mary was present when Jesus worked his first public miracle at the marriage in Cana by turning water into wine at her intercession. Subsequently there are events when Mary is present along with Jesus' "brothers" (James, Joseph, Simon and Judas) and unnamed "sisters". Mary is also depicted as being present during the crucifixion standing near "the disciple whom Jesus loved" along with her sisters. According to Acts, Mary is the only one of about 120 people gathered, after the Ascension, in the Upper Room on the occasion of the election of Matthias to the vacancy of Judas, to be mentioned by name, other than the twelve Apostles and the candidates (Acts 1:12-26, especially v. 14) though it is said that "the women" and Jesus' "brothers" were there as well, their names are not given.

Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. "This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death"; it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion: Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: "Woman, behold your son.”

After her Son's Ascension, Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers." In her association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation.” Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death." The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and Devotion to the Blessed Virgin;

In the history of the Church devotion to Mary appears on two levels. There is the Mary of the official theology and of the monks, which venerate her as the virgin who was docilely obedient to the divine will. So doctrines about her were shaped in antisexual mold. But there is also the Mary of the people who is still the earth mother. She is venerated for her helping power in natural crises, who assures new rain, new grain and many more blessings. "All generations will call me blessed": "The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship." The Church rightly honors "the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,' to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. This very special devotion differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration." The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.

Mary as the Mediator of Grace
The Church fathers and even protestant Reformers like Martin Luther believed that Mary is the woman prophesised in Genesis3 who was united with her son in their struggle against the serpent. The early Church Fathers like Irenaeus, Justin Martyr and Tertullian held that Jesus is the new Adam and Mary the new Eve. This ancient and time honored identification of Mary as the new Eve the foundation of all Marian Doctrines, in particular the Doctrines concerning Mary’s Immaculate Conception, assumption and mediation.

In medieval theology Mary becomes the representative of redeemed humanity, purified of sin, the heart of the Church, the new Israel, the queen of heavenly congregation and the first fruit of general resurrection. In later medieval thought the paradox of the just and the merciful God is dissolved in to divine wrath (Jesus) and a human woman (Mary) representing mercy. She, like the understanding mother, can make allowances for the inadequacies of human nature. As Christ becomes to be feared, trust is transferred to Mary. It was considered that Mary’s son would not refuse any favour asked him by his mother. In this way Mary becomes the mediator of all graces, the centre of popular piety. Persons dare not to hope to find their way to heaven except through her mediation.

Mary as the Church’s model of faith
By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus she is a "preeminent and wholly unique member of the Church"; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" of the Church. Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. "In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace.” This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it." "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source."

The Women Saints :
St. Joan of Arc ( 1412 – 1431 AD )
Joan of Arc is the most famous fighting woman in European history. She was born on 6th, Jan.1412 in Domremy (France). She did not go to school and never learned to read or to write. At the age of thirteen she experienced supernatural vision. As time went on, she identified the voices she heard as those of St.Michael, St.Catherine, St.Margaret, and others who, she claimed revealed to her that her mission was to save France. At the beginning the French commander and others laughed at her attempt. But when the prophesy she made came true she was allowed to lead an expedition to Toulouse and, clad in a suite of white armor, led her forces to victory.

Joan was a woman possessed of high virtues. Centuries before women joined together to seek full recognition of their rights, Joan moved, assured and determined because she was confident in God, in a man’s world

St. Matilda of Canossa (104 – 1115 AD)
Matilda (Matildela Gran Contessa) was born in 1046; the assassination in 1052 of her father, Boniface of Canossa, and the deaths of her older brother and sister left her the sole surviving heir to the extensive holdings of the House of Attoni, founded by her grandfather Atto Adalbert. Two years later Matilda's mother, Beatrice, married Godfrey, duke of Upper Lorraine, an enemy of the emperor Henry III. Henry seized Beatrice and Matilda as hostages in 1055 and took them to Germany, but the following year he became reconciled with Godfrey and released them a few months before his own death.

When Godfrey died in 1069, Matilda married his son Godfrey the Hunchback, with whom she resided in Lorraine. After the death of their child in infancy, she returned to Italy, reigning with her mother until Beatrice's death in 1076. Matilda's father, for many years a supporter of the German emperors, had moved toward the papal side in the factional struggle dividing Italy, and Matilda remained loyal to the popes. She became a close friend of Pope Gregory VII, lending him important support in his struggle against the emperor Henry IV, and it was at her castle at Canossa that in January 1077 Gregory received the barefoot penance of the Emperor. After Henry's excommunication in 1080, Matilda was intermittently at war with him until his death (1106), sometimes donning armour to lead her troops in person. In 1082 she sent part of the famous treasure of Canossa to Rome to finance the Pope's military operations.
In 1089, at the age of 43, Matilda married the 17-year-old Welf V, duke of Bavaria and Carinthia, a member of the Este family. They separated six years later, Henry IV taking the Este side in the resulting quarrel. Matilda encouraged Henry's son Conrad to rebel against his father in 1093 and seize the crown of Italy. She finally made peace with Henry IV's son and successor, Henry V, in 1110, willing her private territorial possessions to him, although she had already donated them to the papacy, an act that later provoked controversy between papacy and empire.

St. Adelaide ( 931 – 999 AD ):
Saint Adelaide (German Adelheid die Heilige, French Sainte Adelaide, Italian Santa Adelaide) was born in c. 931. Adelaide, the daughter of Rudolf II, king of Burgundy, was married (in 947AD) to Lothar, who succeeded his father, Hugh of Arles, as king of Italy in the same year. After Lothar died in 950 AD, and Berengar of Ivrea, his old rival, seized the Italian throne and imprisoned Adelaide (in April 951) at Garda. After her escape four months later, she asked the German king Otto I the Great to help her regain the throne. Otto marched into Lombardy (in September 951), declared himself king, and married her. They were crowned emperor and empress by Pope John XII in Rome in 962. She promoted Cluniac monasticism and strengthened the allegiance of the German church to the emperor, playing an important role in Otto I's distribution of ecclesiastical privileges and participating in his Italian expeditions.

After Otto's death (in May 7, 973), Adelaide exercised influence over her son Otto II until their estrangement in 978, when she left the court and lived in Burgundy with her brother King Conrad. At Conrad's urging she became reconciled with her son, and, before his death in 983, Otto appointed her his regent in Italy. With her daughter-in-law, Empress Theophano, she upheld the right of her three-year-old grandson, Otto III, to the German throne. She lived in Lombardy from 985 to 991, when she returned to Germany to serve as sole regent after Theophano’s death (991). She governed until Otto III came of age and when he became Holy Roman emperor in 996, she retired from court life, devoting herself to founding churches, monasteries, and convents. Adelaide died in Dec. 16, 999.

St. Catherine of Siena ( 1347 – 1380 AD) :
St.Catherine of Siena (Originally called, Caterina Benincasa) was born in March 25, 1347, Siena, Tuscany and died in April 29, 1380. At the age of sixteen she took the habit of the Dominican tertiary. At the end of three years she underwent the mystical experience known as ‘Spiritual espousals’. She joined her family and started to tend the sick, serve the poor and labour for the conversion of sinners. She was usually going without food (except sacrament) for a long time as a result suffered physical pains. A number of Disciples, both men and women joined her. And formed a wonderful fellowship Catherine became a tertiary (a member of a monastic third order who takes simple vows and may remain outside a convent or monastery) of the Dominican order in 1363, joining the Sisters of Penitence of St. Dominic in Siena. She rapidly gained a wide reputation for her holiness and her severe asceticism. When the rebellious city of Florence was placed under an interdict by Pope Gregory XI (1376), Catherine determined to take public action for peace within the church and Italy and to encourage a crusade against the Muslims. She went as an unofficial mediator to Avignon with her confessor and biographer Raymond of Capua. Her mission failed, and she was virtually ignored by the Pope, but while at Avignon she promoted her plans for a crusade.

It became clear to her that the return of Pope Gregory XI to Rome—an idea that she did not initiate and had not strongly encouraged—was the only way to bring peace to Italy and thus facilitate a crusade. Catherine left for Tuscany the day after Gregory set out for Rome (1376). At his request she went to Florence (1378) and was there during the Ciompi Revolt in June. After a short final stay in Siena, during which she completed her Dialogo (begun the previous year), she went to Rome in November, probably at the invitation of Pope Urban VI, whom she helped in reorganizing the church. From Rome she sent out letters and exhortations to gain support for Urban; as one of her last efforts she tried to win back Queen Joan I of Naples to obedience to Urban, who had excommunicated the Queen for supporting the antipope Clement

St. Bernadette of Lourdes( 1844 – 1879 AD):
Saint Bernadette of Lourdes original name Marie-bernarde Soubirous was born on Jan,7,
1844, in Lourdes, and died on April 16, 1879, Frail in health, Bernadette was the eldest of nine children from a poverty-stricken family. She contracted cholera in the epidemic of 1854 and suffered from asthma and other ailments throughout her life. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, at the age of 14, she had a series of visions of the Virgin Mary, who revealed her identity with the words “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette steadfastly defended the genuineness of these visions despite strong opposition from her parents, the local clergy, and civil authorities, and she faithfully transmitted Mary's messages. To escape public attention she became a boarder in the local school run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. In 1866 she was granted admission into the novitiate in the mother house at Nevers. There she completed her religious instruction and passed her remaining years in prayer and seclusion, happy and loved for her kindliness, holiness, and wit, despite almost constant sickness and pain. She died in agony, willingly accepting her great sufferings in faithful fulfillment of her “Lady's” request for penance. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI. Celebration of her feast is optional in the Roman calendar. The chapel of the St. Gildard convent, Nevers, contains her body.

St. Helena :
Saint Helena also called, Helen bornc.248, Roman empress who was the reputed discoverer of Christ's cross. Helena was married to the Roman emperor Constantius I Chlorus, who renounced her for political reasons. When her son Constantine I the Great became emperor at York (306), he made her empress dowager, and under his influence she later became a Christian. She was devoted to her eldest grandson, Crispus Caesar, whom Constantine made titular ruler of Gaul, but a mysterious embroilment in the imperial family culminated with the execution of Crispus and Fausta, Constantine's second wife and Crispus's stepmother. Thereafter, the story became current that Fausta had accused Crispus of attempting to seduce her—hence Crispus's execution. Fausta, in turn, was denounced by the grief-stricken Helena and was executed shortly afterward. Immediately after the double tragedy Helena made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She caused churches to be built on the reputed sites of the Nativity and of the Ascension.

Before 337 it was claimed in Jerusalem that Christ's cross had been found during the building of Constantine's church on Golgotha. Later in the century Helena was credited with the discovery. Many subsequent legends developed, and the story of the “invention,” or the finding of the cross, enhanced by romances and confusions with other Helens, became a favourite throughout Christendom. The story was told again in Cynewulf's 9th-centurypoemElene.

St. Bridget of Sweden (1303 – 1373 AD):
Saint Bridget of Sweden (Bridget also spelled Birgit, or Brigid, Swedish Sankta Birgitta AvSverige) was bornc.in 1303,in Sweden and died on July 23, 1373, Rome, Italy; canonized Oct. 8, 1391; Patron saint of Sweden, founder of the Brigittine Order, and a mystic whose revelations were influential during the European Middle Ages. In 1999 Pope John Paul II named her as one of the patron saints of Europe.The daughter of Birger Persson, governor of Uppland, she had from an early age remarkable religious visions that influenced her entire life and outlook. In 1316 she married Ulf Gudmarsson, later governor of the province of Nericia, and bore eight children, including St. Catherine of Sweden.

On the death of her husband in 1344, Bridget retired to a life of penance and prayer near the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra on Lake Vetter. To the prior, Peter Olafsson, she dictated the revelations that came to her, and he translated them into Latin. One was a command to found a new religious order, which she was not able to fulfill until near the end of her life, receiving papal permission in 1370. She went to Rome in 1350 and, except for several pilgrimages, remained there for the rest of her life, constantly accompanied by Catherine. She exercised a wide apostolate among rich and poor, sheltering the homeless and sinners, and she worked untiringly for the return of the pope from Avignon to Rome. Spurred by a vision to visit the Holy Land (1372), she died soon after her return to Rome.

St. Anne Marie Javouhey (1779 – 1851 AD):

St.Anne was Born at Jallanges, (Burgundy, France) on November 10, 1779; and died in Paris, France, on July 15, 1851; Anne Marie was the fifth of ten children of a wealthy farmer, Balthazar Javouhey, and his wife, Claudine. She grew up during the terror of the French Revolution. She received her First Communion about a week before the Constituent Assembly in Paris that moved to confiscate all Church property and required that clergy swear an oath of allegiance to the secular state. Practicing priests who refused to take the oath were considered to be criminals; those who took it, including four of 135 bishops and about half the priests, were excommunicated. Throughout her teen years she became accustomed to hiding and caring for persecuted priests. She would keep watch as they said Mass.

At an early age, she decided that she wanted to devote her life to the poor and the education of children. When the persecution had ended, she took the veil. At a convent in Besançon in 1800, she had a vision of Negro children, which was to influence her later life. After failing to adjust to life in several convents, she and eight companions founded the Institute of Saint Joseph of Cluny at Cabillon in 1805.

They were clothed by the bishop of Autun in 1807. Seven years later (1812), they purchased a friary and moved the congregation to Cluny. The Sisters of Saint Joseph gained renown for their successful teaching methods. Fired with apostolic zeal, she sent her nuns to work in far distant regions. She heroically labored for several years (1828-1832) in French Guyana. In 1834, she was again sent their, this time by the French government to educate 600 Guyanan slaves who were to be emancipated. She finally left French Guyana in 1843 and spent her remaining years establishing new house in Tahiti, Madagascar, and elsewhere (Benedictines, Delaney).

Apart from what we have mentioned so far, there are other women saints who left their imprints in life of individuals and the Church such as St Anna, St.Sophia, St.Elizabeth, St.Thekla, St.Noona, St. Mother Teresa and others. However, few of the Saints which are mentioned could clearly indicate how the women Saints led an exemplary life for us today. More over, they also showed us the women’s religious experience and their position in the past.

The significance of the lives of women saints to our contemporary;
If we speak of all the women saints as our "mothers" in the faith, certainly Mary has functioned most obviously and most consistently as the Christian maternal image par excellence. Christian imagination has been free to turn Mary into a variety of images and models. Although devotion to Mary began with restrained affirmations of her unique relationship to Christ, it was not long before the figure of Mary was turned into the model of particular virtues and of particular states of life, often at variance with even the little historical information known. But most often she became the image of perfect womanhood, on a pedestal and beyond the tensions and violence of daily life.

The women saints of the past played a model role for us today. We are in the age of confusion. We are not certain of what we valued. The whole spectrums of our existing cultures have been defiled by immorality, injustice and individualism. In this generation, what view of marriage, motherhood, and family is presented to us when they observe the lives of some of the popular female entertainers today? We are in the age where the real image of women is distorted by the Mass Media. We hear about several abortions of pregnancies out of wedlock. Great numbers of other prominent women are divorced indulge themselves in sex and luxury. This is a phenomenon we see not only in the entertainment world but increasingly in our own neighborhoods. Thus, lives of women- saints showed us a right direction in life.

Conclusion:
As we have discussed women saints played a remarkable role in the life of the Church and nation. Through their lives we see how to lead one’s life and how to live for others. It is now time for us to re-narrate the stories to our daughters, to tell them the stories of the women saints of the Church who bore witness to Christ under every conceivable circumstance. They were rich women, poor women, former prostitutes, virgin martyrs, empresses, deaconesses, seamstresses, healers, noblewomen, peasant women, young, old, wives, mothers, monastics, women from all walks of life. Therefore, each one of us, (no matter who and what we are) can relate ourselves to them and imitate them to build a new humanity and a new social order.

BIBLIOGRAPHY :
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