The Blessed Virgin is indeed full of grace. We’ll explore in this article both the biblical and apparitional accounts that prove that not only was she full of grace, but also full of beauty.
Many priests and theologians have sited that if Jesus have created his own mother, wouldn’t he create her with such bountiful grace? The answer is of course a firm “yes!”. But Mary isn’t only the mother of God. She is also, in a way “trinitarian”. She is the mother of God (Jesus), the daughter of God (the Father), and the spouse of God (the Holy Spirit).
This makes me add to the previous question: If God was to create her daughter, wouldn’t he create her to be not just virtuous but also absolutely beautiful? And if he was to create his spouse, wouldn’t he also create her to be the most gorgeous woman that there ever was and will ever be? The answer is Yes!
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Mary’s beauty has actually been foreshadowed in the old testament. We can say that God has a thing for beautiful women. Not in a perverse way, but in a creative and glorifying way, a supernatural creativity where beauty can touch souls and inspire faith. The old testament has gorgeous women on which in their very characters foreshadows and predicts what kind of a woman Mary will be and what help she can provide to those who are faithful to God.
In theology, this is partly what we can describe as “Typology”, or “type of’s”. Example: Jesus is a type of Adam, or a type of Moses, or a type of King David and King Solomon, where these characters are redeemed, fulfilled, exalted, and perfected in the persona of Jesus Christ. Even the twelve apostles has their own typology. They are foreshadowed by their old testament counterparts as a type of twelve tribes of Israel, or a type of twelve district governors of Israel during King Solomon’s reign. So of course, Mary also has her own counterparts from the old testament. She’s foreshadowed by beautiful women such as Eve, Sarah, Judith, Bathsheba, and the ark of the covenant too. Of course, Mary’s virtues greatly outweighs what virtues these women had. What I’m trying to point out is, that God has used these imperfect but beautiful women to push forward with his plan to save humanity through a much more graceful and beautiful woman.
If these old testament women whom God has used as instruments to save bring about and save Israel in times of trouble were created beautiful, wouldn’t he also create Mary, the mother of our savior and advocate of all, as the most beautiful woman? She is indeed the most blessed lady who outweighs any woman’s grace and beauty.
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In scripture’s details, we are given a ton of ideas about Mary’s gracefulness and virtues. But nothing much is said in the New Testament about Mary’s physical appearance. Perhaps it’s because the Old Testament has already given us enough expectations of what she looks like through her “type of’s”. Here’s some characters that can give us an idea of her physical beauty:
1.) Eve When God created Eve out from Adam’s side in the book of Genesis, as soon as Adam woke up from his deep sleep, he is mesmerized by the person God created for him. In his amazement, he said “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman, ’ for out of man this one has been taken.” (Gen 2:23). We can definitely see Adam’s excitement and appreciation for Eve. Not just because he has found a companion in her, but also because of her beauty. Notice how he exclaims that the woman is bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. Adam saw a one of a kind beauty in her that he was only able to see in himself as a creature made in God’s image and likeness.
It is also important to take notice that Adam calls her as ‘woman’, the same thing Jesus the new Adam calls Mary in the wedding at Cana (John 2:4) and also at the foot of his cross (John 19:26). This reminds us of what has been declared by God upon the woman, an intensified and painful childbearing (Gen 3:16) “To the woman he said: I will intensify your toil in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.”. The death of Christ at the cross is the birth of the world. The pain that Mary felt before the cross is that pain of our childbirth. She became our mother at that moment as to why Jesus gave her to us as our mother (John 19:26-27).
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Before God has given her the name “Sarah”, together with his husband Abraham, they were first known as Sarai and Abram. Sarai was a very beautiful woman, so beautiful that Abram feared for his life when they went to Egypt to get provisions when a famine struck his land. He believed that the Egyptians would kill him if they found out that he was this beautiful woman’s husband so he asked her to pretend that she is his sister in order for his life to be spared (Gen 12: 10-20). In his words “Please say, therefore, that you are my sister, so that I may fare well on your account and my life may be spared for your sake.”. Notice Abram says “Please”, an indication that Sarai has rule over herself and her decisions. Her free will has enable her to practice true hospitality and piety for her husband which saved his life during their stay in Egypt.
Like Mary, Sarah will only bear a child by the grace of God. She wasn’t a passive character as Abraham’s wife. As a matter of fact, God showed real interest with her. When the Lord visited Abraham, appearing as three men, He looked for her saying “Where is your wife Sarah?… I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son.” (Gen 18: 9 -10).
This Sarah is from the Book of Tobit. She is a young and beautiful woman as described by the Angel Raphael to Tobiah (Tob 6:11-12). He says about her “…The girl is wise, courageous, and very beautiful; and her father is a good man who loves her dearly.” In fact, she’s so beautiful that the demon of lust, Asmodeus, has fallen in love with her and kills each man that she has married on the nights of her marriages, leaving her as an untouched virgin. Her prayers are also very dear to God as they were heard in His “glorious presence”, and God grants a speedy action for her prayers to save her against the demon by the Angel Raphael.
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Sarah’s character foreshadows Mary’s pure life and closeness to angels. She also shows similarities of beauty and favorable prayers to God the Father. For her eternal father is a good man who loves her dearly and would do everything to protect her from the demons who dare touch her.
The Book of Judith relates the story of God’s deliverance of the Jewish people. This was accomplished “by the hand of a female”. Judith as described in the book was “…beautiful in appearance and very lovely to behold.” (Judith 8:7).
I think it’s apparent that with so much more verses in this book telling the reader how beautiful she is, she was probably the most physically admirable woman in the entire Old Testament. Where ever she went, she was always adorned.
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Judith was also a young widowed woman. When her husband died, she devoted herself to religious duties like fasting all the days of her life, except on sabbaths and feastdays. No one had a bad word to say about her, for she feared God greatly. In times of trouble, the people asked for her prayers. They knew her devoutness to the Lord has earned her a special privilege with her prayers – “But now, since you are a devout woman, pray for us that the Lord may send rain to fill up our cisterns. Then we will no longer be fainting from thirst.” (Judith 8:31).
It was by her prayer, beauty, wisdom, faith, and God-given strength that she was able to behead the leader of the Assyrian army poised to invade Israel. Yes, you read that right. This book might be too gory for some of us. But the battle against the evil one is spiritually gory. Thus, the Book of Judith gives us the idea of the role of Mary as one who defeats evil by the head.
Judith foreshadows the Blessed Virgin as a prayerful woman to whom we can cling on to for help in times of troubles. She is someone who figures out ways and tactics to defeat the evil one for us. She gets her strength from God Almighty and by her own hands gives a powerful strike of victory for our sake. And just as Judith was countlessly adorned for her beauty, so must
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