Angels-MARY

From her status as a lowly handmaiden in the
early Christian community, Mary, the mother of
Jesus, grew in popularity until by the early Middle
Ages she surpassed her son as a subject for
piety. As a compassionate intercessor between God and humanity,
Mary played a role that in certain ways resembled that of angels. This
link seems to have been at least partially responsible for her promotion
to “queen of angels” by the ninth century. In her role as ruler of the
angels, Mary is the source of the name of the city of Los Angeles (The
Angels), whose Spanish founders named their new settlement Nuestra
Senora, la Reina de los Angeles (Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels).
Mary has been countlessly depicted by artists throughout the centuries—
often represented in the company of angels. The various Marionic
legends, in particular, have served as popular themes.
The first legend, the Annunciation (Gabriel’s announcement to
Mary that she would bear the Messiah), has been a particularly
favored subject, and is one of the eleven scenes of the Bible collectively
known as The Acts of the Holy Angels.
Information about the birth of Jesus Christ is reported to a certain
extent only in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Luke interweaves
the story of Jesus’ birth with the account of the birth of John the Baptist,
whose parents were Zechariah and Elizabeth (a cousin of Mary’s).
According to Luke, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of John to
Zechariah even before conception took place.
Since both he and his wife were very old,
Zechariah was highly skeptical, and for this reason
he was struck mute.
When Elizabeth was six months pregnant,
the same angel visited Mary and announced
that she too would give birth to a son by the
Holy Spirit. The source of this material may
have been the followers of John the Baptist,
and if so, the annunciation originally came to
Elizabeth rather than to Mary. This would
explain how Elizabeth knows the name of
Mary’s child.
The heavenly actor again is Gabriel, and
the appearance occurs in Nazareth, a town in
Galilee. According to Luke (1:26–38):
In the sixth month, God sent the angel
Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a
virgin pledged to be married to a man
named Joseph, a descendant of David. The
virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to
her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly
favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was
greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of
greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be
afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with
child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the
name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the
Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his
father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;
his kingdom will never end.”
Some sources add the phrase “Blessed are you among women,”
which has contributed to the formulation of the “Ave Maria.”
The mission of Gabriel is to announce to Mary that she will bear
a son, whose name shall be Jesus, the Greek form of the ancient
Semitic name Joshua, meaning “the Lord is salvation.” When the
angel breaks into song, the main theme surrounds the messianic role
of the promised child, who will inherit the kingdom of David, and will
fulfill the Jewish hope of the reestablishment of the Davidic reign, the
resulting kingdom being eternal.
In earlier depictions, Mary is usually the submissive recipient of
Gabriel’s tidings. After the fourteenth century, however, Mary equals
the stature of her angelic host. Gabriel, who traditionally is pictured
holding a scepter, instead holds a lily, which becomes the symbol for
Mary’s purity, or a scroll bearing her good news.
Later in Luke Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem to pay the tax
decreed by Caesar Augustus. The journey to Bethlehem is an ancient
motif dating back to the early Church. The throne of the Roman
emperor Maximilian in Ravenna depicts an obviously pregnant Mary
seated on a donkey being led by an angel.
The second Marionic Legend surrounds the Nativity of Christ.
While in Bethlehem Mary gives birth, and because she and Joseph can
find “no room in the inn” she wraps Jesus in swaddling clothes and
lays him in a manger. The Nativity of Christ is one of the oldest
themes in the New Testament, as is the Adoration of the Magi:
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the
field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the
angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord
shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the
angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ
the Lord.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude
of the heavenly host praising God. . . . (Luke 2:8–13)
This legend has been represented in mosaics in Bethlehem’s
Church of the Nativity (fourth century). The Virgin, sitting or reclining
on a mattress, Joseph sitting, and Jesus in the cradle were joined
after the sixth century by shepherds and magi bearing gifts. The scene
was depicted in Byzantine churches because the Nativity of Christ is
one of the major feast days of the Eastern Church. From the fourteenth
century on, the Adoration of the Child became the most
sacred representation in the West. In this representation, the Virgin
kneels before the child, and there are often adoring angels hovering
above the scene, or like the Virgin, kneeling before him.
The third Marionic Legend is the Dormition and Funeral of the
Blessed Virgin. The various episodes of the dormition (death resembling
sleep) of Mary are inspired by apocryphal accounts. In Legends of
the Madonna (1903) Anna Brownell Jameson recounts an oriental legend
in which Michael has cut off the hands of a “wicked” Jewish high
priest who has attempted to overturn the funeral bier of the deceased
Mary; at the intercession of St. Peter, however, the hands of the
“audacious Jew” were reattached to his arms.
Attending angels are found in sacred art depicting the dormition
of Mary. The annunciation of her death is made by Gabriel, or more
often by Michael the psychopomp in his role as angel of the final
reckoning and the weigher of souls. Legends of the Madonna contains a
sketch by Fra Filippo Lippi showing Michael kneeling and offering a
taper to Mary as he announces her approaching death. The earliest
preserved monument to Mary’s annunciation, a fresco in S. Mario de
Gradellis, shows a rare instance in which Christ appears to his aged
mother, who is stretched out in bed. The Apostles appear in largescale
compositions of the tenth century and later. They are positioned
on clouds singly or in small groups and are usually escorted by angels.
(This scene is rarely found in Western art.)
The Death of Our Lady or the Dormition is a major theme in
Byzantine iconography, found in all churches celebrating the Great
Feasts. The event is also depicted on artifacts. On tenth-century carvings
Mary is shown reclining and surrounded by the apostles, with
Peter censing her. Christ stands behind her, holding aloft her soul in
the form of a doll swaddled in white, as one or two angels descend
from heaven to receive her.
The fourth Marionic Legend, which includes the Resurrection
and Assumption (the taking of the Virgin to heaven), is rarely treated
in early art. The scene of the disciples finding her tomb empty on
the third day does not commonly appear until the twelfth or thirteenth
century in Western art. As Mary rises from the tomb she is
assisted by angels.
The Assumption is a the more commonly held, and the most widely
depicted of the latter two legends. A beatific Mary is usually depicted
rising to heaven on a cloud borne by a multitude of angels. This
scene is countlessly represented throughout Italian art in particular.