The Woman & the Dragon

The woman in Revelation 12 is a profound symbol representing not only the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God, but also God’s people, divine creation, and the hope of salvation, which challenges us to reflect on divine protection and spiritual perseverance.

“The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.” (Rev. 12:6)

St. Amadeus of Lausanne preached about the life of Mary after the resurrection and ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven. She spent the next several years in the desert, praying for the church, the body of Christ, in the company of the apostles, especially St. John the Beloved. He wrote in his homily Queen of the world and of peace:

So it was that she began to taste the fruits of her future reign while still in the flesh. At one moment she withdrew to God in ecstasy; at the next she would bend down to her neighbours with indescribable love. In heaven angels served her, while here on earth she was venerated by the service of men. Gabriel and the angels waited upon her in heaven. The virgin John, rejoicing that the Virgin Mother was entrusted to him at the cross, cared for her with the other apostles here below. The angels rejoiced to see their queen; the apostles rejoiced to see their lady, and both obeyed her with loving devotion.

Here is how the Vatican defines the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, as Mother of the Church, the Body of Christ, is one with all her children. The 1260 days pertains to all of us as a time of tribulation and purification to become true children of God. It also most likely refers to a literal 1260 days (forty-two months) in which the last head of the beast, the Antichrist, who receives his power and authority from Satan, works in haste “to wage war against the holy ones.”(Rev. 13:7)

The Most Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary “take care” of the Church as we journey to the promised land through this desert, detaching ourselves of the world and preparing for everlasting life in Heaven.