Introduction to Mary as High Priest in Early Christian Narratives and Iconography
Introduction to Mary as High Priest in Early Christian Narratives and Iconography

Author(s): Ally Kateusz
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, History, Cultural history, Middle Ages, Theology and Religion, History of Religion
Published by: Trivent Publishing
Keywords: Virgin Mary; Mariology; early Christian; Byzantine; liturgy; iconography; art; gender; Protevangelium; Dormition
Summary/Abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated that from Late Antiquity up through the early modern era, some artists portrayed Jesus’s mother Mary as a priest, including depicting her with insignia such as the Eucharistic handkerchief and the episcopal pallium. In fact, surviving art indicates that Mary was portrayed with liturgical insignia as early, or earlier, than any male leader. Contextualizing why artists portrayed Mary in this fashion, even earlier some gospel writers had paralleled Mary and Abraham as the cultic founders of their religion, and other authors represented Mary as the high priest or bishop of bishops. Censorship, both ancient and modern, appears to explain why Mary is rarely remembered this way today.

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