The Woman Full of Grace
Comparing the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Great Women of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Author’s note – The following is a revised and updated article that I published several years go on a predecessor site to God of the Desert Books. It is Part Two of Two related articles that I wrote. The first compared Jesus Christ to popular science fiction and fantasy characters, and this one does the same for the Mother of God. I am planning a third one, giving the same treatment to the Apostles. (May they forgive me!)
The Blessed Mother, the Ever-Virgin Mary, is the reigning Queen of Heaven. A human creature who was created for a uniquely special purpose, she was made the mother of us all. “Hail, full of Grace! The Lord is with thee,” saluted St. Gabriel, God’s angelic messenger announcing Mary’s favor with the Creator of the Heavens and Earth. Once she understood the role she would place in salvation history, her response was selfless and without hesitation: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to thy word.”
Catholics believe that in history there was one human creature who was born who did not sin, and that was Christ’s own mother. Mary did not ever think, say, or do even the slightest bad thing. She never committed a sin of omission either, meaning she never failed to do the right thing. Thus, she is the true Wonder Woman. And with the exception of her own son, Mary’s story and character, I assert here, are greater than any other actual or literary character in history, male or female.
Here is just a summary of Mary’s life and character as understood by the Catholic Church for your consideration.
From the Line of King David
Though born in humble circumstances, Mary comes from the royal blood line of David, the greatest King of Israel. Her husband Joseph is of the same line. Though Joseph’s adoption and Mary’s biology, her son Jesus Christ is the heir of David. This is in fulfillment of the prophesies of old—that an heir from the line of David would come as the Messiah, or savior.
The Ark of the New Covenant - A Fitting Vessel of the God Made Man
Mary was created for a very special and unique purpose as part of the greatest mission in history: to be the mother of the Word of God himself in human form. Her spouse is the Holy Spirit himself—the third person of the Holy Trinity. Through the Holy Spirit, she conceived the God-man. The Catholic Church maintains that Mary’s virginity was a perpetual one. She, after all, was the vessel of God himself; therefore, no man could ever touch her carnally as this would be the greatest of sacrileges.
Her Sinlessness
As Jesus Christ is the second Adam, Mary is the second Eve. The first Eve was created without sin, yet she succumbed to temptation and along with Adam brought sin and death into the world. Mary was part of mankind’s second chance. For this great purpose, she was conceived in her mother’s womb without the stain of Original Sin, of which every other human is born with due to Adam and Eve’s fall. That’s why she is called the Immaculate Conception. Mary, unlike Eve, does not ever succumb to temptation like our first mother. Although she had freewill just like the rest of us, she freely chose to fulfill her role in God’s plan.
Crowned the Queen of Heaven
After dying and being bodily assumed into Heaven, Mary is crowned the Queen of Heaven, and is honored above all other creatures, including the angels. Mary is described by visionaries as being heavenly beautiful, and is the subject of countless masterpieces of artwork through the centuries. She is the inspiration for many a story of lowly girls who grow up to be princesses and queens.
Her Mission
Her son came into the world to save mankind from sin and death and the devil, and Mary joined her son in that cause. But sharing in the adventure was not an easy journey. As any loving mother knows, she had to share in her son’s sufferings. And unlike most of Christ’s other companions, she stayed with him as he suffered his passion and death.
Mary continues her campaign against the devil to this day. Mary is the inspiration and devotion of many a saint and knight throughout history. She is credited with helping the greatly outnumbered Catholic naval forces to defeat the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Pope Saint John Paul II credited her with saving his life from an assassin’s bullet in 1981.
She has also come back to Earth on many occasions. The Catholic Church has confirmed as authentic her apparitions at several locations throughout the world; the three best known are Guadalupe, Mexico (in 1531), Lourdes, France (in 1858), and Fatima, Portugal (in 1916). In her prophesies, she has given us warnings about bad things that will happen if we continue down a particular path of evil. At Fatima, she warned us about World War II and that Russia would spread her errors throughout the world. At Lourdes, a water spring was revealed that continues to heal people to this day.
Can there be a greater human character? She’s the Queen of Heaven. Her spouse is the Holy Spirit, and her son is the Word of God. Certainly no greater allies exist. She has direct access to her son’s ear and will intercede on our behalf. Could there be a better superhero? Mary not only hears our cries for help and intercedes for us with God himself, she often returns physically to Earth to help, sometimes with direct physical, life-saving aid.
That said, below is my comparison of Mary to several well-known characters in the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. As I mentioned in my article on Christ, most of these characters were not intentionally written to match Mary, but like Christ, Mary’s influence in Western culture is an inescapable one, so comparisons are quite appropriate. For this article as well as the first one, my intent is to demonstrate that the standard set by Mary and her life is an incredibly high bar to meet.
A Comparison to Fantasy and Science Fiction Characters
Similar to my recent fantasy and science fiction characters comparison with Christ, my focus is on those characters portrayed in recent popular movies.
In Star Wars
Two female characters very important to the Star Wars story include Amidala, Princess Leia’s mother, and Princess Leia herself. Amidala and Leia are like Mary’s story in that they are royalty, although they are queen and princess during their mortal lives.
Amidala is the Queen of Naboo, but, like Mary, is a humble person and often prefers that her body double take on the guise of queen so that she, Amidala, can be free to have adventures while pretending to be the queen’s servant. She eventually gives up the title of queen and takes an active role in fighting the bad guys on the three prequal movies, but in the end, tragically dies in the process of giving birth. She’s the mother of two important characters, Luke and Leia, but she’s simply not the mother of God, nor does she become a queen in the afterlife (at least as far as we are told).
Princess Leia continues her mother’s cause for fighting evil, taking an active role in the rebellion against the Empire. Her character is fearless and the voice of conscience, and her call to action is inspiring to the men (often to their annoyance), forcing both Luke and Han Solo to become better men. And after the Rebels’ final victory, the princess eventually becomes a general, having to contend with the Empire-like First Order. This is similar to Mary’s story where even now the devil, though defeated, is still a force to be reckoned with, with many battles still to be fought until the end of time.
However, a third character, Shmi, Anakin Skywalker’s mother, was likely intended to be a type of Mary in Star Wars. Like Mary, Shmi is a humble, ordinary girl, who gives birth to Anakin in a virgin birth, presumably begotten by the Force. Like Mary’s child, Anakin receives his “human” biology only from his mother. Shmi loves and cares for her son and makes the great sacrifice of allowing Anakin leave her so that he may go off to adventure and follow his vocation. But unlike Mary’s child, Anakin is unable to save his mother from harm and death. This is because Anakin, though powerful with the Force, was not the Force itself, nor is the Force the creator of the entire universe.
Lastly, there is Rey, the savior of the Star Wars galaxy in the latter trilogy. Rey is like Mary in that she starts in humble circumstances but later finds out that she is actually the granddaughter of the Emperor Palatine, the ruler of the former Galactic Empire. While her lineage is the source of her great force powers, it is unfortunately a scandal to be related to such an evil figure, unlike Mary’s relation to a great and revered King of Israel.
Rey also patterns Mary in that Rey does not ever succumb to the temptations of the dark side of the force (although there are times when it appears she has given in). And like Mary’s on-going campaign against the devil himself, Rey is a great fighter who, along with her friends in the Rebel Alliance, prevails in defeating the First Order.
In Superman/The Man of Steel
Superman’s two mothers, Lara from Krypton and Martha Kent of Earth, are better compared with Mary together.
Superman’s biological mother, Lara, comes from an almost supernatural place in the other-worldly, highly advanced planet Krypton. Before dying, Lara (and her husband Jor-el) sends her son on a mission to save the Earth. Martha Kent, takes over motherly duties as Superman’s earthly mother. Like Mary, Martha suffers along with her son and consoles him as he fights evil on Earth. Both sacrifice for their son and send him on his saving mission.
The interesting difference here is that the Superman mothers’ timeline is in the reverse of Mary’s. It’s the Heaven-like place first on Krypton with the divine-like Lara and her spouse begetting Superman, giving him his powers and then dying. Then Martha takes over on Earth by raising Superman as a normal human boy. Mary’s timeline starts out more like the Martha character, and then she attains her supernatural status, like Lara, after her death and assumption into Heaven and lives on, which is certainly a happier ending, to say the least.
In Wonder Woman
In Wonder Woman, two characters stand out in comparison to Mary. These are the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, and her daughter, Diana, who is Wonder Woman.
Hippolyta is a semi-divine queen of the Amazons, who according to the 2017 movie were created by Zeus to protect mankind. We learn as the movie unfolds that Diana is the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta and is the "Godkiller," one who can kill the evil one in the movie, Ares, the God of War. So, like Mary, Hippolyta is known primarily as a mother to her extra-ordinary offspring. Diana, like Mary, is created for the great purpose to save mankind from evil. She indeed saves the world from Ares and then continues the battle against evil by joining the Justice League. Like Mary also, Diana is inspiring, fearless, beautiful, long-lived and ageless.
The Amazon mother and daughter’s story remains an earthly one, however. Diana, presumably could one day ascend to the throne as Queen of the Amazons, but she will never be made the Queen of Heaven itself. Diana’s powers are indeed great, but nothing on the scale of Mary’s, who has the author of life for a son and ally.
In Captain Marvel
Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, already an especially talented and gifted fighter pilot and human female, is exposed to energy from the Tesseract, a container of “cosmic” energy. With this stroke from the heavens, Carol is transformed into quite possibly the most powerful superhero in the Marvel universe.
She then finds herself suffering from amnesia and believing she is a member of the militaristic race, the Kree. Using her power to fight the Kree wars, her male mentor, Yon-Rogg, trains her to keep her under his control. When she returns to Earth, she remembers who she is and removes the Kree implant that suppressed her powers. In the process, she saves the Earth from an attacking Kree fleet, gives her fake mentor the beating he deserves, and helps the Skrulls, a race she had thought was the enemy.
While Carol indeed has awesome powers, Mary, aligned with the will of God himself, has all the power of Heaven at her disposal. In addition, Carol is lacking, at least for the first part of her story, with the guidance of good allies and is even tricked into fighting for the enemy. Perhaps this is due in part to her lack of humility.
In The Lord of the Rings
The elf queen, Galadriel, in The Lord of the Rings was intended to be a type of Mary. She is ethereal, beautiful and immortal.
She has powers of prophesy. She is tempted by the ring, the symbol of great, evil earthly power, but does not give in to temptation. And, she is a great aid, both physically and spiritually, to the members of the Fellowship of the Ring. She differs from Mary most importantly in that she is not the mother of the savior in the story and does not become the Queen of Heaven.
I can say nothing about the Galadriel now featured on Amazon Prime as I have not seen it.
In The Chronicles of Narnia
In The Chronicles of Narnia, the closest character to Mary is Lucy, a humble girl who comes from outside the world of Narnia (from England) to become a queen of Narnia. She comes back to Narnia on several occasions to help Aslan in a saving mission. When she dies in England, she is assumed along with her brothers into the heavenly afterworld kingdom of Narnia and remains a queen there in the afterlife.
Lucy is probably the most honest and good character in the series and is seldom seen as making a bad choice, with one exception. She is tempted while reading a magic book, and in the process commits a small sin and needs Aslan’s help to overcome her temptation. She differs from Mary chiefly in that Lucy is not Aslan’s mother, nor was she created to be his mother. As such, she does not play as central a role in the saving of the world as Mary does.
What would it be like to meet the Blessed Mother? The best way, I think, is to think of heroic, saintly women throughout history, such as St. Joan of Arc and St. Teresa of Ávila. I think it’s also helpful to think of examples of women in our own lives who are seemingly almost too good to be true. I knew one such person, my Great Aunt Mary. A daily mass attendee, she was a humble, little old lady (when I knew her) who made beautiful wedding cakes in my grandparent’s bakery. It’s hard to imagine her being anything but good, but even she needed to go to Confession just like any other good Catholic. The Blessed Mother was all these things except without sin.
The female characters I’ve compared her with, while mostly good and interesting ones, all fall short in comparison with Mary, the Mother of God. After all, Mary is a unique and formidable figure in all of history. Either she’s one of the two greatest fictional characters of all time, or she’s the real thing. (It’s the latter.)
I am indebted to Tim Staples and his book, Behold Your Mother, which provided me many insights into the person who is the Mother of God. I highly recommend it.