Alone of all Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary

by Marina Warner

religion

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Christianity, Mythology, Art

423 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Marina Sarah Warner is a British novelist, short story writer, historian and mythographer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth.

She is a professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre at the University of Essex, and gave the Reith Lectures on the BBC in 1994 on the theme of 'Managing Monsters: Six Myths of Our Time.'

Reviews

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 4 out of 5]

You are my light; my life’s illumination: you are my refuge, O mother!
Please don’t forsake me, Virgin Mary, you abode of kindness...

So runs one of the popular film songs from my youth – and it pretty much symbolises what the Virgin means to me.

Kerala, unlike other states of India, contain a sizeable Christian population who trace their pedigree back to Saint Thomas, who is purported to have come to the state in A.C.E 52. So Christianity as a religion is as common for us Keralites as Hinduism or Islam. And in the districts where the Christians are mainly Catholics – like the town of Thrissur, where I reside – the Virgin Mary is as important an icon as Jesus Christ. Many a time I had gazed at her smiling visage, beaming down upon all human beings in unadulterated benevolence from her pedestal: for a mother’s boy like me, she was infinitely preferable to the frightening image of the crucified Christ. Also, as a Hindu, the Mother Goddess was part and parcel of my mythical orientation. It was only natural that I would identify the Virgin with her, as one of her avatars.

It was only later that I came to know that the Virgin Mary is not part of Christianity as a whole, but particular to Catholicism – that in fact, Protestants actually frown upon her worship! This was a shocker; but then I also came to know that she was worshipped even greater fervour in many other countries, like Latin America and Ireland. This whetted my appetite to learn more about her cult, especially after I discovered Joseph Campbell and the field of comparative mythology. So this book by Marina Warner was a godsend.

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Ms. Warner, in this book, gives an exhaustive historical analysis of the cult of the Virgin Mary – how it started, spread, was opposed, fought the opposition and triumphed. What it lacks is the mythological perspective, except for tracing the connections between Osiris, Isis and Horus to the Virgin and the child and for the casual references to Jung’s concept the divine feminine (which she actually debunks). For Marina, Mary is the conscious creation of the Church to sublimate the feminine into the fold of patriarchal religion.

In the gospels, the mother of Jesus is practically nonexistent. Marian knowledge is concentrated only in the two gospels of Matthew and Luke – later additions in the opinion of most scholars. Matthew crafts the story of Jesus to closely resemble the tale of the great prophet of the Old Testament, Moses: however in his gospel, Mary does not play centre stage. For that, we have to look to Luke: as the author says, “Luke’s infancy Gospel is the scriptural source for all the great mysteries of the Virgin; the only time she is in the heart of the drama in the Bible is in Luke’s beautiful verses.” Historical information (to the extent that we can call the Bible history) regarding Mary is meagre.

The Virgin

The cult of the Virgin was enhanced in the west was the apocryphal Book of James, “the Lord’s brother”. It is this book which sets forth the story of the mother of Jesus in romantic detail, adding flesh to all the bare bones of suggestion in the principal gospels: it is also the one which gave rise to the enduring myth of Mary’s intact virginity.

The virgin birth of heroes is actually adapted from the Hellenistic world: Pythagoras, Plato and Alexander were all believed to be born of woman by the power of a holy spirit (one can see this pattern also in the birth of the Buddha). While the pre-Christian faiths were happy with the metaphorical nature of this belief, Christianity had to concretise it, to contend that Mary was a virgin both before and after childbirth. While a virgin begetting a child was an acceptable belief in the ancient days (when the male contribution to conception was not well understood), a woman remaining a virgin after giving birth was problematic. This dichotomy is still rampant within Catholicism.

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Why this insistence on virginity? Well, it’s all due to Eve.

According to the Church, sexuality and desire were the fatal flaws which lead to sin, the gateway to hell – and these entered human destiny when the first woman enticed the first man to eat the forbidden fruit. The Fathers are quick to assert that sex is not sinful in itself; rather, concupiscence which leads to lust and the “tendency to sin” is. This is the original sin not remitted in baptism, and Eve was responsible for it. (This leads to the curious conclusion that sex is OK as long as you don’t enjoy it.)

In the Christian world as well as the Roman Empire before it, the evils of sex were particularly identified with the female. As childbirth was woman’s function, and the pangs of the same God’s special punishment after the fall, the womb was evil and any child born of it was tainted with original sin. Therefore, to prevent the Son of God from being tainted by it, the Church hit upon the brilliant solution of removing the taint of sex from his mother.

Thus the elevation of Mary to purity was not due to any victory of the divine feminine: rather, it was to invest Jesus with purity not accorded to the rest of mankind, especially in the face of Gnostic threats which claimed that Jesus was just another human being.

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The obsession of the church with the “sins of the flesh” was so severe that it virtually revelled in abnegation and self-torture. There is no other faith which has revelled so much in the distress of its followers. Marina writes

In Christian hagiography, the sadomasochistic content of the paeans to male and female martyrs is startling, from the early documents like the Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity into the high middle ages. But the particular focus on women’s torn and broken flesh reveals the psychological obsession of the religion with sexual sin, and the tortures that pile up one upon the other with pornographic repetitiousness underline the identification of the female with the perils of sexual contact.

So the solution for normal women, if not to attain the status of the virgin, was at least to forgo the main failing of the human race – sex, for which she was held responsible – in the hope of bliss in the hereafter. Hence – the institution of the nunnery.

Thus the nun’s state is a typical Christian conundrum, oppressive and liberating at once, founded in contempt of, yet inspiring respect for, the female sex. It is, in this regard, a mirror image of the Virgin Mary herself, the sublime model of the virginal life, the inventrix virginitatis, according to Hroswitha, and the patroness of countless orders of monks and nuns. She is a preeminent and sublime example of woman, who excites love and awe.

Thus, the myth of the Fall and the need for redemption from the same are the main drivers of the creation of the myth of the Virgin.

The arguments operating on the idea of virginity control the entire structure of the myth of the Virgin Mary. For after the Fall, God did not only curse womankind to suffer childbirth in sorrow; he also sentenced all mankind to corruption in the grave. Since Adam and Eve’s sin, sex is tainted by concupiscence, and death disfigured by mortal decay. As a symptom of sin, putrefaction is concupiscence’s twin; and a woman who conquered one penalty of the Fall could overcome the other.

The Assumption

Another crucial pillar to the myth Mary, in addition to her perennial virginity, is the belief that she ascended to heaven bodily. As with all things concerning the virgin, this is also mostly apocryphal. Yet over the years, the Catholic Church enthusiastically adopted it – and it is not difficult to see why. Death and its accompanying putrefaction of the physical body is one of the worst nightmares of the devout Christian. The final judgement, during which all the dead bodies will be made whole again, is an article of faith. So it is unthinkable that the Mother of God, who is without sin, will be subject to the same indignity.

In a precise and literal way, the Virgin embodies the Christian ideals of homogeneity and independence. Through her virginity and Assumption, she expresses the particular interpretation of wholeness of the Catholic Church, and reflects two of its most characteristic aspects: its historical fear of contamination by outside influence, and its repugnance to change. In Buddhism created things at their highest point of fulfilment merge and flow back into nothingness, where all form is obliterated. This is one view of wholeness. The Catholic world’s view could not be more opposite. It longs for the formal, immutable, invincible, constant, unchanging perfection of each resurrected individual. For its most sublime example, it looks to the assumed Virgin.

So the Virgin, whose tomb is still practically untraceable, is said to have been resurrected after her death by Jesus himself, in a sequence of events closely resembling his own resurrection. There she reigns as queen beside her son.

This royalty was conferred on Mary due to strictly utilitarian needs of the Catholic Church, according to the author. During the Middle Ages, the clergy was facing many threats from a variety of sources such as the iconoclast heresy. To enshrine its place on earth as God’s mouthpiece, it identified itself symbolically with the Virgin, placed her on a throne in heaven, and started pulling their theological weight. However, this policy backfired.

Secular imagery was used to depict the Virgin Mary in Rome by the popes in order to advance the hegemony of the Holy See; and her cult was encouraged because she was in a profound manner identified with the figure of the Church itself. But this triumphalism fostered by the Church was turned on its head in the later middle ages, when temporal kings and queens took back the borrowed symbolism of earthly power to enhance their own prestige and give themselves a sacred character. The use of the emblems of earthly power for the Mother of God did not empty them of their temporal content: rather, when kings and queens wore the sceptre and the crown they acquired an aura of divinity.

The faith which took off from the ideas of the seer who was against all forms of authority and money power had been appropriated by the followers of the people who sent him to the cross.

It would be difficult to concoct a greater perversion of the Sermon on the Mount than the sovereignty of Mary and its cult, which has been used over the centuries by different princes to stake out their spheres of influence in the temporal realm, to fly a flag for their ambitions like any Maoist poster or party political broadcast; and equally difficult to imagine a greater distortion of Christ’s idealism than this identification of the rich and powerful with the good.

Precisely.

The Virgin as Bride

The sacred marriage of the Goddess and her lover was a staple of pagan, pre-Christian Europe. The tale of the king of the sacred grove, married to the Goddess for a year after which he was sacrificed is familiar to everyone through Fraser’s The Golden Bough. By the Middle Ages, the Virgin was also transformed into the Bride of God. However, the church cleverly inverted this metaphor, following the methodology followed by the Jews.

Thus marriage was the pivotal symbol on which turned the cosmology of most of the religions that pressed on Jewish society, jeopardizing its unique monotheism. It is a symptom of their struggle to maintain their distinctiveness that the Jews, while absorbing this pagan symbol, reversed the ranks of the celestial pair to make the bride God’s servant and possession, from whom he ferociously exacts absolute submission.

Even the courtly love of the troubadours, explicitly sexual and ribald initially, transformed into the chaste love an unattainable ideal woman in the Middle Ages: this ideal slowly shaped itself into that of the Madonna, and the Virgin had yet another avatar. However, according to Ms. Warner, this transforming of earthly love into heavenly adoration was just another deception of the church, like the transformation of the virgin into the queen.

The icon of Mary and Christ side by side is one of the Christian Church’s most polished deceptions: it is the very image and hope of earthly consummated love used to give that kind of love the lie. Its undeniable power and beauty do not heal: rather, the human sore is chafed and exposed.

The Immaculate Conception

One of the biggest pillars of the cult of Mary, along with her virginity and the assumption, is the Immaculate Conception – that is, the virgin too was born without the taint of sex like Jesus Christ. From the viewpoint of a literal believer in the Bible, a woman born with the taint of sex can hardly give birth to an untainted son of God, so this transformation is reasonable. However, this became dogma only in the nineteenth century.

First originating in the apocryphal Book of James, which exalts St. Anne, the concept of the Immaculate Conception was brought to the west from the east. Jesuits took it up vehemently in their arguments with Dominicans. If one follows the history which has been fascinatingly set forth by Marina, this was one concept where myth became dogma through sheer political pressure!

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Ms. Warner examines many more aspects of the Virgin as mother, the one who provides milk and tears, who wears the sun and the moon for garments, and who intercedes with Jesus and God on the behalf of sinners... in fact, each chapter of this book can be reviewed separately! The author’s comparison of the virgin with the whore, Mary Magdalene, is extremely intriguing:

Together, the Virgin and the Magdalene form a diptych of Christian patriarchy’s idea of woman. There is no place in the conceptual architecture of Christian society for a single woman who is neither a virgin nor a whore.

However, since I need to close this review at some point, I am stopping here. Hopefully I have whetted future readers’ appetite for this seminal work.

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Marina Warner is not a fan of the cult of the Virgin. As I said before, she does not see Jung’s archetype of the Great Mother in Mary.

Under the influence of contemporary psychology—particularly Jungian—many people accept unquestioningly that the Virgin is an inevitable expression of the archetype of the Great Mother. Thus psychologists collude with and continue the Church’s operations on the mind. While the Vatican proclaims that the Virgin Mother of God always existed, the Jungian determines that all men want a virgin mother, at least in symbolic form, and that the symbol is so powerful it has a dynamic and irrepressible life of its own.
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But unlike the myth of the incarnate God, the myth of the Virgin Mother is translated into moral exhortation. Mary establishes the child as the destiny of woman, but escapes the sexual intercourse necessary for all other women to fulfil this destiny. Thus the very purpose of women established by the myth with one hand is slighted with the other. The Catholic religion therefore binds its female followers in particular on a double wheel, to be pulled one way and then the other, like Catherine of Alexandria during her martyrdom.
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The Virgin Mary is not the innate archetype of female nature, the dream incarnate; she is the instrument of a dynamic argument from the Catholic Church about the structure of society, presented as a God-given code.

She sees the myth of the Virgin enduring in the years to come, but slowly losing its symbolic power.

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This book was written in the seventies. The Catholic Church, and Christianity, has come a lot of way since then. Even though there is still the lunatic fringe of Bible literalists vociferously present in the religious arena, metaphorical readings of the Gospels have gained popularity. Maybe this is why Ms. Warner says in her foreword to the new edition:

It’s a long time ago that I lost my faith in Mary, a long time since she was the fulcrum of the scheme of salvation I then believed in, alongside Jesus the chief redeemer. But I find that the symbolism of mercy and love which her figure has traditionally expressed has migrated and now shapes secular imagery and events; Catholic worship and moral teaching no longer monopolize it or control its significance.

As a Hindu child who stared absorbedly at her smiling countenance, or felt his heart wrench at the site of the weeping mother holding the body of her crucified son in her lap, I can identify with that. Totally.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

An informative book, possibly the definitive book on Mariology - scholarly, comprehensive, and surprising objective. Wagner begins with a textual analysis of what little is written about Mary in the New Testament - and then, using her impressive knowledge of ecclesiastical and cultural history, tells the story of the two thousand year evolution of Marian thought and devotional practices, tracing the exuberant growth of this tradition as it was influenced by the demands of popular piety, theological controversy, or cultural change. The real joy of the book is in the descriptions of this evolution, its exuberant growth, its strange fruits - especially the beliefs developed in the patristic or middle period, that are no longer mentioned, are forgotten - e.g. the fact that she was a virgo intacta post-partem - that drops of her milk had wonder-working powers, were given as gifts - that Joseph was a lifelong virgin, nothing less (according to St. Jerome) being worthy of a step-father of divinity -that the conception of Jesus was through Mary's ear, that being the obvious way to receive the Word. Whatever the reader thinks about these and similar stories, Wagner is always respectful - explains the origins of the beliefs, their purpose, their value in popular piety. This is fascinating, little known material - at least, unknown to me. Kept me turning the pages. A subsidiary theme of the book is the social implications of the Mary tradition, the significance of Mary as the ideal woman - of her character as normative - the influence that this has had on the status and role of women in western culture. Wagner provides a thoughtful survey of this influence - free of polemics. This is a wonderful book.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

An accessible, engaging, and fascinating read! Marina Warner's argument is a compelling summary of and commentary on the Catholic Church's deployment of the Virgin Mother to its own ever-changing and self-serving ends. Among other points, Warner highlights how the Church has held up Mary as an ideal for women to aspire to -- fully aware that it's a wholly unattainable ideal. Virgin AND mother? We mere female mortals are doomed from (immaculate?) conception.

Warner's ideas challenge conventional thinking about womanhood as well as mythology. Furthermore, her analysis of sanctioned Biblical and papal texts, apocryphal gospels, historical information, and art history is adroit. She teases out the plethora of contradictions that still permeate Catholic dogma.

Catholicism alternately idealizes or demonizes women -- virgins, mothers, saints, sinners, whores, temptresses. Choose your lot wisely, ladies. Not that it matters. Eve may have doomed us to the Fall, but Mary has fated us to forever fail in comparison to her paragon.

Mary is arguably the most beloved and esteemed of the Christian world's (few acknowledged) women. Pity that there is hardly any substantial evidence to confirm that Mary was even her real name. Holy moly, tool of God, pray for us.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered the feminist literature scholar and art critic Marina Warner’s work early in my PhD via her book Managing Monsters, a collection of her 1994 Reith lectures. The lecture on childhood, ‘Little angels, little devils: keeping childhood innocent’ was especially influential for my own work. Warner’s argument that children are identified both with purity and with savagery is not exactly new to anyone who knows anything about the history of childhood, but the way she develops the point is arresting: children, she argues, cannot live ‘innocent lives on behalf of adults’, who ‘fear that children might grow up to be even more like us than they already are’. Even more importantly, Warner’s prose showed me that you can express important, complex academic ideas in simple, direct language. Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary was Warner’s second non-fiction book. Published in 1976, when she was only thirty years old, it’s a text that both came out of second-wave feminism and, as Kathryn Hughes writes, was influential within it. Like her arguments about childhood, Warner’s thesis – that the veneration of the Virgin Mary across millennia largely serves to enshrine patriarchal belief about women rather than challenging it – does not feel new today. But this book is still an illuminating, if overlong and uneven, take on the history of Mary as a symbol within Catholicism, and the many different stories that have been told about her.

For me, the most vital chapters of Alone of all Her Sex were those in which Warner gets to grips with the incredibly limited mentions of Mary in the New Testament, the richer stories that have been told about her in the Apocrypha, and the ways in which these stories have been retold in later centuries to fit the changing doctrinal requirements of the Catholic Church. As good Catholics will know, Mary only speaks four times in the Bible, and all of these times occur in the gospels of Luke and John. She talks with the angel during the Annunciation; she speaks to Elizabeth when she goes to report what the angel has told her; and she speaks to Jesus twice in conversations that feel blunt and abrupt. One of these takes place when she finds a twelve-year-old Jesus preaching in the temple at Jerusalem and tells him off, because she and Joseph have been looking for him for three days and were worried (‘Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing’). Another happens when they seemingly disagree over whether Jesus should perform a miracle at the wedding at Cana (Jesus: ‘Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come’), although he eventually relents and turns water into wine. The relationship between Mary and Jesus and the history of Mary herself is developed much more richly in the apocryphal Book of James, although Jesus’s childhood is not described in terms that resonated with later Christians. Indeed, he sounds more like one of the uncanny children that pop up in 1950s British SF. ‘When the son of a scribe destroys a series of pools and dikes Jesus is building in the mud, Jesus strikes him down dead’, Warner writes. ‘Jesus angrily rejects Joseph, saying he is not his father and has no authority over him. At school he knows everything and leaves his teachers dumbfounded. He works more miracles… [stretching] the planks Joseph has sawn too short.’

Because there is so little orthodox textual evidence that relates to Mary, her key functions in the Catholic Church are matters of later doctrine rather than scriptural authority. Warner writes, ‘Four dogmas [about Mary] have been defined and must be believed as articles of faith [in the modern Catholic Church]: her divine motherhood… her virginity… the immaculate conception [of Mary herself], sparing her all stain of original sin*… and her assumption, body and soul, into heaven.’ But of these four dogmas, ‘only the first can be unequivocally traced to Scripture, where Mary of Nazareth is undoubtedly the mother of Jesus’. The last two were only adopted officially by the Church in 1854 and 1950 respectively, and Mary’s virginity, which seems so central to the miracle of Jesus’s birth, is in fact called into doubt by some of the Gospels. Warner traces a fascinating rewriting of early ideas about Mary as a virgin that reflected the shifts in the social meaning of virginity itself. Mary may have been a virgin when she was visited by an angel, but the Gospels suggest that she did not remain a virgin for the rest of her life; obviously, she was married to Joseph and Matthew tells us that he ‘knew her not until she had brought forth her first born son’, implying they had sex thereafter. Jesus’s brothers are also mentioned in the Gospels, which suggests that Mary had sons through normal means after giving birth to Jesus.

This was less of a problem in the very early days of Christianity, where the virgin birth, in the context of pagan beliefs, was understood as a miraculous sign of Jesus’s divinity rather than as a judgment on the moral status of Mary. In pagan cults such as that of the vestal virgins in Rome, chastity rather than virginity was key: abstaining from sex was ‘powerful magic and conferred strength and ritual purity’, but this was a temporary state. In contrast, as Christian thought developed, it was seen as crucial that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life, as she was imagined as an unbroken, unsullied vessel, never touched by the sin of sex. This led to some entertaining retcons about Jesus’s brothers (reimagined as Joseph’s sons from an earlier marriage) and how Mary managed to give birth and yet retain an unbroken maidenhead (she felt no pain because she was not affected by original sin and hence free of the curse of Eve; there’s a brilliant quote from The Meditations on the Life of Our Lord (c.1300) where Mary is standing up in the stable and Jesus basically drops out of her womb onto some hay).

Although Warner is rightly critical of the legacy of Catholicism in controlling women’s sexuality and social roles, I appreciated how she emphasised the vitality of popular piety, refusing to buy into later Protestant mockery about superstition. An interesting chapter on relics quotes the historian Peter Brown, whom I know as the author of a great biography of St Augustine, and who is another academic who writes with brilliant clarity. As Brown explains, icons, images and relics might seem ridiculous to us nowadays but for medieval Catholics, ‘The icon was a hole in the dyke separating the visible world from the divine… icons were active’. Mary retained such an important role for ordinary Catholics because she was seen as an intercessor with Jesus, a more human figure who could appeal to her son on behalf of her worshippers because she possessed his affection as his mother. As Warner makes clear, Mary’s position as Theotokos, a human woman who gave birth to a god, was crucial in refuting Gnostic heresies from the late first century onwards and shaped the development of the Western Catholic church, which needed to insist that Jesus was both human and divine.

While I found the chapters where Warner focuses on these beliefs and their development absolutely fascinating, much of Alone of All Her Sex is more interested in symbolism. Warner traces the symbolic importance of Mary’s milk; her tears; her representation as ‘star of the sea’ or as the moon; her depiction as the queen of heaven; and the association with the colour blue. These chapters become list-like, and although I appreciated how Warner tied the cult of Mary back into earlier pagan symbolism, I simply didn’t think this art-history material needed so much space. If I was to re-read this book, I would concentrate solely on the first five chapters, which are more text-based, and on the chapters that deal with key doctrines such as the assumption, the immaculate conception and the rise of the rosary. About half of Alone of All Her Sex, therefore, could in my opinion have been massively condensed. But I was so gripped by the other half of it that I’m immediately inspired to seek out more reading, returning to the material on early Christian thought and the Reformation that I covered as part of my undergraduate history degree, but venturing into the vast medieval histories as well. Who knows, perhaps I will FINALLY finish Diarmaid MacCulloch’s excellent A History of Christianity.

*the doctrine of the immaculate conception gave rise to possibly my favourite geeky theological joke of all time: Jesus, standing in front of an adulterer confronted by an angry crowd, proclaims: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” A stone whizzes out of the crowd and strikes the adulterer. Jesus, annoyed: “Mum!”.

[Ygraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

reading holy feast and holy fast has given me Reservations about how easily warner assumes a continuity between medieval and contemporary understanding of symbology, and like. a stability of identification with gender symbols from medieval to contemporary christianity ? i am not a medieval scholar & i am definitely not a theologian, so this is entirely pieced together from bits of bynum's criticism and my own Sense that this is a familiar flavour of too-easy feminist history; i just feel Dubious about the idea that mary-as-symbol and the endless theological squabbling over her aspects, meaning and status can generate a coherent history of the condition of women in christian early modern europe.

which is not to say that this isn't Really interesting in places, and a v impressive consolidation of religious and mythological thought. also not to say that i didn't enjoy it, because i did, especially the revelation that my personal favourite piece of Horrifying religious art, the right panel of the melun diptych, may actually be a weird little blasphemous portrait of the king's dead mistress. that comes in at only the third most interesting thing about that painting, the first and second being that apparently the painter had never seen a tit before and believed all babies were made of pvc.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warner's books on culture, sociology, history, and folklore almost always top my list of favorites, and this book is a splendidly erudite history of the concept of the Virgin Mary.

My only real quibble with the book is that Warner clearly has feminist Opinions about how the Church and society as a whole has used Mary to oppress women. This is not a problem; I hold similar Opinions, and would be interested in reading more about Warner's. The real problem is that her incisive cultural criticsm tends to appear in the book in short, jarring bursts that don't flow smoothly with the rest of the text. At times it was almost as though there were really two books she wanted to write -- one straight-up history, one cultural criticism -- and she couldn't quite make up her mind which she was writing. This is not a fatal flaw in the book, by any stretch, but it does call attention to how much Warner's writing style has improved in the decades since this book was first published.

[Mary Overton]

I am in love with the Virgin!
Her 4 dogmas: the paradox of her divine motherhood and virginity; the Immaculate Conception; her assumption, body and soul, into heaven; and her mediating position, as a creature of both heaven & earth.
"A myth of such dimension is not simply a story, or a collection of stories, but a magic mirror like the Lady of Shalott's, reflecting a people and the beliefs they produce, recount, and hold." (xxiii)
"the Platonic yearning towards the ideal ... is the core of the cult of the Virgin Mary.... Of course the belief that man should constantly aspire to higher things has been fundamental to western moral philosophy since Plato.... Metaphysical mysteries must defy reason, for if the human mind could compass them, they would lose their sacred character. So Christ the God-Man and Mary the Virgin-Mother blot out antinomy, absolve contradiction, and manifest that the impossible is possible with God." (Epilogue)

[Magie Dominic · Rating 5 out of 5]

My copy of Marina Warner’s “ALONE OF ALL HER SEX” was a loan from a writer friend, the understanding being that I’d return the book upon completion. But “ALONE OF ALL HER SEX” is not a book easily completed.
It is a mammoth, inspirational, exceedingly detailed portrait of a woman named Mary, inspiration for some of the world’s greatest paintings, iconic symbol of Christian religion, mother of Jesus himself, a woman who represents an ongoing cult lasting 2,000 years.
Warner has written an encyclopedia for those who are interested in Mary/Madonna, and I am. Mary – Maria Regina –Virgin Mother - rosary-bringer, the one we pray will be with us at the hour of our death - is the sole subject of “ALONE OF ALL HER SEX”. It’s not a book one would complete, but would savor forever, reference forever. However, a promise being a promise, I’ll return my borrowed copy – someday.

[Judyta Szacillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a major flaw in this book, especially for the readers who, like myself, prefer to be able to retrieve data easily. The matter of the book is sorted by widely defined cultural motifs, and in each chapter the reader is taken on a road that jumps madly across countries and through centuries, linked only by loosely connected themes. That alone would more often than not make me quit the book after a few chapters, but this one is just too good. Beautifully written, adventurous, direct and poetic at the same time. I enjoyed my every moment with it.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been lucky to do a lot of traveling through European cathedrals and museums of religious art. It became a bit of an obsession when I first moved to Germany almost three years ago. I am from an American protestant background so I was previously unaware of how thoroughly the Virgin was entrenched in European Catholic (especially Roman Catholic) theology and culture. She is everywhere, even in my small town of Hochheim there is a beautiful statue in front of our favorite Italian restaurant. So when I came across Warner's "Alone of All Her Sex," I was intrigued. I had already discovered through my adventures how she had ultimately replaced the pagan goddess when Christianity spread throughout the continent, wiping out pagan traditions, or subsuming them for their own purpose. Warner discusses the different ways that the Virgin's story has moved from history to myth, and eventually will become legend. She also discusses the many different interpretations of Mary's power. Each chapter talks about one of these interpretations. She is Virgin, Queen, Bride, Mother, and Intercessor. The Four Dogmas of the Vatican are: divine motherhood and virginity, the immaculate conception, and her bodily assumption into heaven. Grown men are seriously arguing to this day about if Mary experienced death or was taken alive into heaven.

Some of the theology discussions seem inane and overly specific. People from across the centuries hotly debate her role in Christianity and Salvation. The aspects of her virginity are a major issue. What about the other kids that are mentioned in the Bible? It is decided that they are Joseph's from another wife, but there is no evidence for this. But then it is decided that Joseph would be a virgin as well. And how was Mary impregnated? Warner makes the point that by putting Mary on this pedestal of virginity and virtue, all other women are condemned as guilty somehow. This has resulted in the mysogynistic treatment of women throughout history. Our childbirth is painful because we are not Virginal like Mary, etc. I agree with her statement from the prologue, "... in the very celebration of the perfect human woman, both humanity and women were subtly denigrated" because no one can stand up to this impossible standard, especially other women.

Warner also talks about the different personalities that Mary has had. She has been the great loving mother, loving not only Christ, but also all of humanity so she intercedes for us to him. This Mary is depicted in many paintings and statues as suckling or cuddling with baby Jesus. This shows her motherly sacrifice and love. The pietas show her grief as she holds her dead son's body, after bearing him so he could be our savior. This Mary is relatable and beautiful.

During the Renaissance Mary is a haughty queen, not personable anymore. This Mary is lavished with gifts and shrines and is worshiped rather than revered. She has power over fertility, "It is of course her very immunity that women plead to obtain, especially in Catholic countries, where the ban on contraception condemns them to childbearing without respite." This is one of Warner's pointed remarks. I found Warner to be compassionate and respectful to believers and common people, but rather disdainful to the Church and its doctrines and theologies. She points out absurdities and hypocrisies, but fully realizes the comfort that different Mary beliefs give to millions of people. She gives the example of how on one of Mary's feast days in Lourdes, they don't even do the feast because they are preparing for the summer crowds of pilgrims; it doesn't get more ironic than that.

Another major role Mary plays is an Intecessor. Warner makes clear that the Vatican is adamant that her role as co-savior is not a divine role, Jesus is God, Mary is blessed because of being his mother and He can't say no to her. This role gives the most comfort to people. When they pray to Mary for intercession they are relieved by their belief that she will take care of them. This was the most interesting part of the book because Warner lists all kinds of folk tales where Mary goes down to compete with the devil to save souls promised to him. She also records all kinds of miracles that Mary performs. Some of these stories are sacrilegious. In one, an abbess gets pregnant and when the Bishop finds out she prays for help from Mary and Mary gets rid of the child. The Virgin Mary. Disappears a child. The earlier fertility discussions and this section, really show how Mary has usurped roles that are older and far beyond her rightful place as a peasant woman who gave birth to a prophet 2,000 years ago.

"For she can be good without being right." This statement of Warner's sums up the fanatic love that people have for Mary. Jesus may be their Savior, God the Father may be the Creator, but Mary is on their side, she has their back.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The role of the Virgin Mary within the Catholic faith is a curious one. In many respects she is treated as almost as Christ's equal, the 'Mother of God', almost a goddess in her own right, worshipped, prayed to, honoured, venerated. And yet the scriptural evidence to support this position is almost non-existent. Almost all aspects of, as the title goes, the myth and cult of the Virgin Mary are non-Biblical accretions, Church traditions, that have been accumulating over two thousand years of history. Indeed, the bodily 'Assumption' of the Virgin Mary into heaven was only decreed as dogma in 1950!

This book is effectively the story of those accretions, how bit by bit, layer by layer, the position of the Virgin Mary within the Church has been established and solidified. Along the way, Marina Warner looks at nigh on two thousand years of art, poetry, sculpture, architecture, devotions, traditions, visions, miracles, all of which have shaped and have been shaped by the perception of Mary in relation to the predominant culture of the time. Images of the Virgin have risen and fallen in direct correlation to cultural and societal mores - at times she was depicted as regal and queenly, other times meek and humble. Sometimes she has been very human, other times mighty and goddess-like. Sometimes she has bowed her head, and sometimes she is seen smiting Satan and other enemies. In many ways, the Virgin has been depicted in precisely the way a culture or society needs her to be - and the very lack of any scriptural dogma has been at the very root of this.

What I found most fascinating in this book was Warner's exploration of how the very act of elevating a human woman almost to the position of a goddess, which you might assume would indicate a respect and veneration for women, has actually served to degrade and oppress the rest of womankind. In making Mary so perfect, so otherworldly, so divine and unstained and untainted, the Church has made her an icon that no woman can ever live up to, has created standards so unattainable that every woman is doomed to failure in comparison. The Virgin Mary is the ideal of womanhood, that no woman can or will ever emulate. And in celebrating Mary as a wife and mother above all else, the Church has solidified this as the central purpose of women's lives.

I don't know how Catholics would respond to this book. I hear it was controversial when first published. After all, if you believe in the Catholic dogmas and tenets of faith, then I don't really see how religious truth can change, adapt or alter over the centuries - and yet Warner quite clearly demonstrates how it has, at least in relation to the Virgin Mary. Personally, coming it from an agnostic position, I'm far more interested in religion from an anthropological standpoint, so this book is right up my alley. When you believe religion is a construct created to satisfy some deep-seated unconscious need in the human psyche for order, stability and a sense of righteous justice in the universe, then it's no stretch at all to believe that we adapt our religious beliefs to suit a given need at any given time. But if it's, forgive the pun, gospel truth, then what is must always have been. And yet...

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating exploration of the figure of the Virgin Mary, and how she has evolved as a cultural symbol across the centuries. Marina Warner displays an amazing breadth of knowledge of her subject, starting with the depiction of Mary in the gospels and exploring how she has been re-purposed and adapted to suit the needs of different times - from an early church struggling with the idea of a perfect being having been born to an imperfect human; to the age of chivalry when elite women could indulge themselves with literature and lovers; to the Age of Enlightenment when the religious establishment became ever more fervent in proclaiming the importance of ancient and logic-defying traditions.

Warner explores depictions in literature and art with scrupulous attention to detail, and makes some genuinely fascinating and thought-provoking observations about how the Virgin Mary can never be detached from the context in which she is being invoked.

I'm a thoroughly secular person, but I nonetheless find the history and evolution of religious belief fascinating as it allows us penetrating insights into humanity's deepest fears, anxieties and hopes. This is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the Virgin Mary, especially those open to the idea that she is far from representing a rigid and eternal truth.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marina Warner closely examines the history and influence of the idea of the Virgin Mary. This is not a biography. Instead, Warner looks at how society has viewed and even used the Virgin. Warner starts with the gospels and works her way up the early twentith century.

What I found most intersting was the similarities between the Virgin and anicent myths and legends. While I knew that certain holy days occured during certain "pagan" feast days, I wasn't not aware of (or never really thought about) the closeness in stories between some of the Mary stories and the ancient myths of Greece. It is very interesting.

While the book does have a feminist bent or slant, it is not over the top or off putting. Warner at times get a little dull, almost list like in some brief pages, but overall the read was enjoyable.

[Hesper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cue this video to 3:23. Watch the 40 sec montage.

That's it. That's this book, but instead of JC it's all about the creation of the Virgin myth, and the immense, yet never surprising, amount of sexism and misogyny that went into that endeavor. Warner elegantly unpacks both the history and the symbolism; there's probably no better book on the subject.

[Mary Mycio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love anything that Marina Warner writes, but this book was the first to open my apostate Catholic eyes to how the Virgin Mary went from being a footnote in the Gospels, to a passively powerful substitute for the pre-Christian goddesses that evidently (judging by art and archaeology) ruled many religions. A fascinating, highly readable history.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched book that is both fascinating and informative. However, I feel that it could be quite a difficult book for the average reader.

[l · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting, eminently readable, well-sourced.

[Porter Sprigg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating analysis of Catholic mariology. I disagree with its conclusions a good amount but its research and anecdotes are invaluable.

[mysterygif · Rating 4 out of 5]

My perspective is fairly limited as I am neither a marioligist nor historian but this is a richly detailed sociological and historic assessment of the unique evolution of the virgin Mary in Christian cultures, and how the Mary as a supra-female icon has oft been weaponised in societal psychology to augment and cement the gender constraints of women. Warner writes beautiful copy and her vivid, sensate descriptions are highly engaging. Comparisons to prototypical mother-goddess figures and myth cycles in pre-Christian religion and to Mary Magdalene in this text are both nuanced and critical. Although this is a daunting text to attack without ecumenical context, recommended to anyone interested in Christian mythology and/or the history and legacy of goddess worship.

[Lilly Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read enough of this to add it to my 2023 goal lmao and you know what? Marina Warner kinda ate with this one ngl

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A monumental work of research, a literary feat, and the most extensive and authoritative book on Mariology to date.

"The Virgin Mary has inspired some of the loftiest architecture, some of the most moving poetry, some of the most beautiful paintings in the world; she has filled men and women with deep joy and fervent trust; she has been an image of the ideal that has entranced and stirred men and women to the noblest emotions of love and pity and awe. But the reality her myth describes is over; the moral code she affirms has been exhausted... As an acknowledge creation of Christian mythology, the Virgin's legend will endure in its splendour and lyricism, but it will be emptied of moral significance, and thus lose its present real powers to heal and to harm."

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suspect the author wrote the first chapter and the last chapter first and then ran out of time writing the other chapters. The first and last chapter are beautifully written, cohesive, and fascinating. The other chapters include interesting ideas, but there are no transitions between ideas. Instead, the author jumps around, strings quotations together in inexplicable ways, and if all else fails she throws in some poetry.

That being said, the book is worth reading just for the passages on how the Virgin Mary is the redemption of Eve and this delightful excerpt:

"In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ retort is matched in a later episode, when a woman cries out from the crowd: 'Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.'”

Thanks for the paps Mary!

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like an appealing art gallery guide, Warner conducts a grand tour of the legends, literature, and imagery concerning Mother Mary. Along the way she exposes vast differences in the messages these artists convey. On one hand, Warner shows the church moving to emphasize a host of pre-Christian rules about the ranking of males over females, and enforcement of taboos concerning sexual pollution -- to a point where all contact between men and women was a sin to be forgiven, and all love for women was a form of idolatry. As Matfré Ermengaud put it in the 1200s, "Satan, in order to make men suffer bitterly, makes them adore women; for instead of loving as they should, the creator with fervent love, with all their heart, with all their mind, ... they sinfully love women". (p. 153.) Only males who had no part in such sin could mediate forgiveness for it.

On the other hand, Warner shows the rising popular devotion to women and mothers, taking form as troubadour art and as the great cult of Mother Mary. What did it mean to love her? Countering a rise of romantic ideals, the monastic artists promoted Mary as an expression of devotion for chastity. While formally shunning all earthly females, they pointed the parishioners toward a more worthy object for their devotion -- the chaste and non-physical woman of their spiritual dreams in heaven. In the "counter-romance" of clerical poetry about Mary, chastity was actually marriage to the Virgin in heaven. The Virgin called all men to love her, and was offended if they spurned her for mortal females. In a French clerical story of the 1300's, the "Miracles de Notre Dame par Personnages", a young man considers monastic vows, but then falls in love with a woman. The Virgin Mary appears and rebukes him in his bedroom:

"How can this be, since I am who I am, that you are leaving me for another woman? It seems you're badly underrating my worth and my beauty. ... You must be drunk to give your whole heart and all your love to a woman of this earth? And to leave me, the lady of heaven?" (p. 156.)

Warner's juxtaposition of troubadour and clerical lore shows a marvelous, artfully conducted argument over what is good, what is beautiful, and what we can aspire to.

[Robert]

I'm new to scholarship about the Virgin Mary, but Marina Warner's Alone of All Her Sex, a feminist history of the myth & the cult of the Virgin Mary, has become a fast favourite. Her writing is elegant and engaging, her arguments are clear and convincing, and her erudition and perceptiveness as an historian are evident in every page.

As a woman with a Catholic boarding school education, Warner's perspective is informed by personal experience of the oppressive influence of the Marian cult. She rails against the misogyny of the paradoxical role model of a virgin mother, whilst appreciating the monumental beauty of Marian art and literature, and the sincerity of simple faith and piety. These contrasts animate Warner's arguments and are finely balanced throughout.

The book is structured thematically rather than chronologically: each chapter focuses upon a particular manifestation of Mary—such as her appearances in the Gospels, her depiction as the Queen of Heaven, and the cult beliefs regarding her breast milk. As the historic development within each of these foci is treated separately, Warner necessarily jumps hither and thither in time and space throughout the book; this might sound like a recipe for dizzying reading, but in fact it brings the diverse visions of Mary into sharp focus and allows Warner to draw conclusions on each subject individually.

This thirtieth anniversary edition also opens with a new introduction in which Warner describes the circumstances that brought her to write the book, and informed her perspective in doing so. From the distance of time, she is critical of her own youthful "hubris in taking on such a vast subject", and notes that the book is very much "the work of a young woman absorbed in questions of sexuality, transgression and obedience, purity and pollution, far less interested in motherhood, or in grieving and solitude, ageing and loss." I think that these youthful preoccupations are part of the soul of Alone of All Her Sex, and while I would love to read a sequel from a maturer Warner, I wouldn't want to have been without this book as it is.

[Raul Ortega · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alone in All Her Sex; The Myth and the cult of the Virgin Mary, is another comprehensive, almost encyclopedia work by Marina Warner. In this one she traces the adorationof Mary chronologically beginning with her mention in the New Testament. Warner then takes the varios implications of each style of Marian adoration. This it seems is a two edged sword, the mother virgin conundrum male attitude toward women is examined in detail. How do women use and see it? And more particularly how church clergy use it to foster a glamourous but repressive image among the faithful. Not the 49er Faithful, although they are surely among the crowd. Very informative. Even just browsing made me realize how closely mefievla painters had followed St. Luke's art as models for their own images of the Virgin Mary. The chapters are very detailed, as is usual for Warner. Warner a fallen away Catholic is very open and honest about the role of Mary in her discussion and in own upringing. Highly recomended.

[Jeremy Deedes]

I went to Lourdes on pilgrimage for the first time in 1972 at 17. I saw a lot, got involved a lot and understood very little, so when Marina Warner's book Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary was published in 1976, I read it from cover to cover

By 1978, I was going through my own personal crisis. I lost my faith and interest in the Church and Our Lady, and the book sat in my bookcase, a little battered and sun-bleached, where it has remained unopened—until now.

Reviving faith, deepening understanding

By the mid-2000s, my faith and interest were returning, and since 2014, I have been to Lourdes nine times, six with the Ampleforth Lourdes Hospitalité and three times as a Stagiaire. Our July 2019 pilgrimage was fulfilling hard work as usual, comprising long days spent with our sick and long nights in the bars in deep conversation with fellow pilgrims. However, this year, I felt less pressured, more at home and able to take much more notice of the Marian experience.

Faith, vulnerability, companionship, healing, the role of Our Lady in Jesus’s life, especially on his journey to his crucifixion, which a small group of us retraced at the High Stations of the Cross, the powerful kiss of peace celebrated by the 20,000 strong congregation at the International mass on Sunday, the singing of the Salve Regina at the end of the Marian Torchlight Procession or our own sung Compline at the end of the day, the baths, the late night trips to the Grotto to join the silence and the deep faith of those who may spend much of the night in prayer there. All these things became more meaningful to me this time, leading to a more inquisitive approach to what was going on.

In 2019, I avoid the stressful pilgrimage return flight to Stansted and travel back to Yorkshire alone by train, which allows me rare time for reflection. I have a deep need to know more and to understand more, and I remember Warner's book. I purchase the Kindle edition on the TGV travelling to Paris and start to read it. Given my tiredness, deep emotion and need to explore every unknown word or event Warner writes about, I only get as far as reading her 2012 Preface to the new edition during my journey. However, even this is enough to deepen my understanding and explain what happened during the last week.

Changing roles

A theme of this important book seems to be Our Lady's different and changing roles, often in response to the pressures of modern life. While some may find that a difficult concept, I see it as adding hugely to Our Lady's power. Two of the roles Warner describes seem to be fully present in Lourdes.

It is no surprise that Warner connects her experience at Trang Bang in 1972 to her exploration of the cult of the Virgin Mary.  In Lourdes, we constantly see the connection between suffering and Our Lady. Indeed, we are occasionally joined by wounded members of the armed forces or pilgrims disabled by the violence of others (see Sacred Journeys). So Warner's description of the Madonna’s message as being on the side of pilgrims to help them as they are buffeted by change and the pressures of modernity rings absolutely true. And indeed, as all of us, sick and well alike, come to Lourdes to find healing and meaning, her description of Mary as ‘protectress of the wretched, the guardian of sinners and prodigals’ could not be more appropriate.

And a countercultural peace symbol? Peace, certainly. We know Our Lady as the Queen of Peace. The theme of peace is ever present in our pilgrimage. Twenty thousand strangers offering ‘peace be with you’ to each other with genuinely generous handshakes and hugs at the international mass or the end of the Marian Torchlight Procession touches the heart and invokes a powerful gift to take back home.

A countercultural peace symbol

Countercultural? I certainly think so and in more ways than one. Warner offers Pussy Riot as an example. I offer Florence Welch’s album ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’, which includes her song ‘Queen of Peace’ and seems to contain elements of Marianology (as much of the rest of the album seems to have undertows of Christianity behind it). But where is the counterculture these days? Since Warner wrote her preface to the second edition in 2012, it seems to me that Western religion and faith have become ostracised. That is partly due to the Church’s involvement in child sexual abuse scandals. It is also, I suspect, due to the onward march of materialism and rationalism and their increasing popularity over spirituality.  People with faith are seen as strange and different. Perhaps it is we at Lourdes who are now the counterculture, in which case Warner's description of Mary as a countercultural peace symbol is spot on.

With its daily rituals of congregations and processions, Lourdes unites different cultural and linguistic approaches to Catholicism. To this end, Lourdes displays a ‘religion of the spirit, grounded in events’. However, I don’t believe this is at the expense of religious tenets, as Warner argues. It is interesting to note the comparison between the events surrounding the death of Princess Diana and the ceremonies at Lourdes. Diana’s death certainly gave rise to genuine and deep emotions, not least shock and sorrow, which could not be dismissed out of hand. Her funeral had the power to briefly unite a country, even the world. But with no underlying tenets, the experience faded quite quickly.

The processions at Lourdes bear similarities, not least the raw emotion and the feeling of being part of something extraordinary. But I believe Lourdes continues because of its underlying tenets, not despite them, and it is these tenets that make Lourdes ‘the most phenomenal sacred site of modern Christendom’.

The Church and the role of women

As I re-read Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (and Ruth Harris's Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular AgeLourdes), I become more aware of the impact of the Church’s influence on the place of women in society. I will not deny that my feelings about the Church remain conflicted. On the one hand, its tenets of spirituality, love, compassion and help for the disadvantaged (the Beatitudes and the Mercies) seem to me to be more critical than ever in this time of egotism, materialism and self-centredness; our annual pilgrimage to Lourdes is our opportunity to immerse ourselves in this message and Our Lady's role here, and to take it back home with us on our return. However, the influence of the church and the cult of the Virgin on women that Warner describes so well (and which Harris also addresses from a slightly different viewpoint), as well as the child sexual abuse scandal, takes the edge off the shiny side of the coin.

I thoroughly recommend reading Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary. Take time to explore the many tributaries that flow into the book. For people such as myself, trying to find a way through the puzzle of life, death and faith, it is a huge help, and from now on, it will always remain downloaded on my Kindle.

(This post was first published in July 2019 and updated in July 2020 and January 2025)

[Chesna · Rating 4 out of 5]

p. 336 Mary establishes the child as the destiny of woman, but escapes the sexual intercourse necessary for all other women to fulfil this destiny. Thus the very purpose of women established by the myth with one hand is slighted with the other. The Catholic religion therefore binds its female followers in particular on a double wheel, to be pulled one way and then the other, like Catherine of Alexandria during her martyrdom. ... The twin ideal the Virgin represents is of course unobtainable. Therefore, the effect the myth has on the mind of a Catholic girl cannot but be disturbing, and if it does not provoke revolt (as it often does) it deepens the need for religion's consolation, for the screen of rushes against the perpetual frost of being carnal and female.

[Walt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although a bit long-winded, this is an excellent study of the cult of St. Mary. The author describes the importance of the Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages before showing how the Cult of Saints went into decline with the Cult of St. Mary becoming the focal point of prayer and inspiration assumed the role formerly held by many obscure female saints.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting book about the 'cult' of the Virgin Mary. It's about the impact of religion on societies over time, with particular focus on gender relationships. Thought provoking, but tough to read.

[Bob Towner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very good book. Reflects the concerns of the women's movement which was VERY lively at the time of publication. Cleared the decks for me, washing out a lot of patriarchal rubble, and leaving room for deep appreciation, and in my dotage, love for the mother of Jesus.