Sally Cunneen - In Search of Mary: The Woman and the Symbol

A TOUR DE FORCE OF MARIAN THEOLOGY AND HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION

It gives new ground to Marian devotion in a world where feminism brings into question whatever constricts women in the name of religion. It breaks the plaster mold of the Marian model and makes Mary a real woman for the women of our own time.

SISTER J OAN C HITTISTER , OSB
Author of There Is a Season

In Search of Mary combines crisp scholarship and poignant anecdotes.

St. Anthony Messenger

Cunneen is at her best in her treatment of versions of Mary common in the 19th century, describing the discovery of Mary as a liberating figure by Protestant women writers such as Christina Rossetti and Margaret Fuller, and in her descriptions of the work of some modern artists fascinated by the figure of Mary.

Kirkus Reviews

By revisiting history and researching across cultural boundaries, Cunneen compels us to approach Mary through serious study. Within the diverse beliefs about Mary, the author discovers a woman who can speak to and guide us, regardless of our background, in our spiritual and intellectual growtha woman who is a profound reminder of the presence of the holy in everyday life.

The Family Friend Magazine

A LSO BY THE A UTHOR

Sex: Female; Religion: Catholic

Mother Church: What the Experience of Women Is Teaching Her

A Contemporary Meditation on the Everyday God

Copyright 1996 by Sally Cunneen

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

B ALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Permission acknowledgments can be found on

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 9696361

eISBN: 978-0-307-77561-0

www.ballantinebooks.com

v3.1

To Joe, always

INTRODUCTION
Rediscovering Mary

EPILOGUE
The End of Our Journey

PLATES

Study of the Virgin and Child, Matisse, from the Rosary Chapel at Vence, France. (Photo: Hlne Adant)

Sculpture of the Visitation, Church of St. Gabriel, Provence, France. (Photo: Zodiaque)

Madonna and Child, fourth-century Catacomb of the Cimitero Maggiore, Rome, Italy. (Alinari/Art Resource, NY)

Sculptured capital, The Just in the Bosom of Abraham, 1149, Muse dUnterlinden, Colmar, Alsace, France. (Photo: Octave Zimmermann)

Mater Misericordia, central panel, c. 1442, Jean Miralhet. Muse Massena, Nice, France. (Giraudon/Art Resource, NY)

Silver Chalice, Northern Syria, sixth-early seventh century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1986.3.2), Purchase, Rogers Funds, and Henry J. and Drue E. Heinz Foundation, Norbert Schimmel and Lila Achesen Wallace Gifts, 1986.

Detail of the Mother and Child from the nave capital of the Flight into Egypt, Gislebertus c. 1120, Autun, France. (Giraudon/Art Resource)

Dormition of the Theotokos. Used by permission of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery: Brookline, Massachusetts.

Birth of the Virgin, Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Duomo, Siena, Italy. (Scala/Art Resource)

Encaustic icon of Mary and Child enthroned sitting between Sts. George and Theodore, sixth-seventh century. St. Catherine Monastery, Mount Sinai, Sinai Desert, Egypt. (Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY)

Virgin and Child from TCD MS 58 fol 7v (The Book of Kells) in Trinity College Library, Dublin, with the permission of The Board of Trinity College, Dublin.

Virgin in Majesty, tenth-century drawing of the original Clermont-Ferrand Seat of Wisdom statue, Municipal Library, Clermont-Ferrand, France.

The Virgin of Marsat, twelfth-thirteenth century, Marsat, France. With permission of the Centre Regional de Documentation Pedagogique dAuvergne. (Photo: C.R.D.P., Auvergne)

Our Lady of Meymac, Meymac, Corrze, France. (Photo: Jean-Franois Amelot)

Madonna and Child (Notre Dame de La Belle Verrire). Stained glass window from south ambulatory, twelfth-century Cathedral, Chartres, France. (Giraudon/Art Resource)

Mother of God of Vladimir, twelfth century. (Photo: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, Massachusetts)

Notre Dame de Bon Espoir (Our Lady of Good Hope), Church of Our Lady of Dijon, Dijon, France. (Photo: Zodiaque)

The Leuven Piet, 166424 copyright IRPA-KIK, Brussels, Belgium (Institut Royal du Patrimonie Artistique)

Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and St. John at Calvary. Detail from the Isenheim retable, Mathias Gruenewald. Muse dUnterlinden, Colmar, France. (Photo: Octave Zimmermann)

The Education of the Virgin. Georges de La Tour. Copyright: The Frick Collection, New York.

Virgin of the Apocalypse, fifteenth-century German. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1982.47.1), Cloisters Collection, 1982.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico.

Sistine Madonna, Raphael. Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany. (Alinari/Art Resource, NY)

Madonna del Parto, Piero della Francesca, Cemetery Chapel, Monterchi, Italy. (Alinari/Art Resource)

Mother of the Desaparecidos. Robert Lentz. (Permission of Robert Lentz)

The Original Face, metal sculpture: closed. Frederick Franck, Warwick, NY. (Permission of Frederick Franck)

The Original Face, metal sculpture: open. Frederick Franck, Warwick, NY. (Permission of Frederick Franck)

The Nativity. Yaroslava Mills. Design for stained glass window in the Church of St. Demetrius, Weston, Ontario, Canada. (Permission of Yaroslava Mills)

The Resurrection. Yaroslava Mills. Design for stained glass window in the Church of St. Demetrius, Weston, Ontario, Canada. (Permission of Yaroslava Mills)