Woman of the Apocalypse

The Woman of the Apocalypse (or the woman clothed with the sun, Greek: γυνὴ περιβεβλημένη τὸν ἥλιον; Latin: Mulier amicta sole) is a figure–often considered to be a reference to the Virgin Mary in Catholic theology–described in Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation (written c. AD 95).

The woman gives birth to a male child who is threatened by a dragon, identified as the Devil and Satan, who intends to devour the child as soon as he is born. When the child is taken to heaven, the woman flees on eagle’s wings into the wilderness at a "place prepared of God" for 1,260 days. This leads to a "War in Heaven" in which the angels cast out the dragon. The dragon attacks the woman, but the woman escapes on her wings for "a time, times and a time and a half". The dragon then attacks her again with a flood of water from his mouth, which is subsequently swallowed by earth. Frustrated, the dragon initiates war on "the remnant of her seed", identified as the righteous followers of Christ. The Woman of the Apocalypse is widely identified as the Virgin Mary. Some Catholic commentaries, such as Thomas Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary (1859), allow for the interpretation of the woman as either the Church or Mary. The commentary of the New American Bible states that "The woman adorned with the sun, the moon, and the stars (images taken from Genesis 37:9–10) symbolizes God’s people in the Old and the New Testament. The Israel of old gave birth to the Messiah (Rev 12:5) and then became the new Israel, the church, which suffers persecution by the dragon (Rev. 12:6, 13–17); cf. Is. 50:1; 66:7; Jer. 50:12."

The past president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America, Robert Karris in his Collegeville Bible Commentary on Revelation 12, believed that the woman clothed with the sun would directly remind the audience of the Roman story of the sun deity Apollo. In the myth, Python the serpent was seeking to kill Leto who was pregnant with Apollo, however Zeus would use the north winds to rescue Leto, by having her taken to an island. Bible scholar John H. Walton would instead recognize the myth of Artemis, who was a virgin that protected women giving birth. Statues would portray her as a queen of heaven, with the moon in the background of her three tiered crown, where she is also identified as the moon goddess and twin sister of Apollo. Walton notes that in other depictions, she adorns an elaborate necklace with 12 signs of the Zodiac.

Among Protestants, including particularly among those with more Reformed theology and Evangelicals, the Woman of the Apocalypse tends to be seen as the Church or Israel.

Arsène Heitz, one of the designers who submitted proposals for the flag of Europe and the European Union, suggested that the twelve stars in the current design is derived from the twelve stars above the Woman's head.