What did Mary Look Like?

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It does not really matter to me how she looked, but I know how she didn’t look like. This image is in contradiction with logic:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Hc-IWoCyS...cano-castel-santangelo/michelangelo-pieta.jpg

I mean, Jesus was approximately 30 years old when He begun His ministry. Let’s take the minimum years for Mary to physically be pregnant. I’ll give her 13, though it is completely ridiculous. She probably gave birth to Jesus when she had at least 20 years old, but we’ll stick with the possibility that she was an adolescent.

30 + 13 = 43

This is with the assumption that Mary was a teenager when she gave birth to Jesus, though I believe she had about 20 years. So, if we go with the ridiculous, she had at least 43 years old when Jesus was crucified. I’d give her 50, but 43 is good enough. So Mary was not a very young teenager as in Michelangelo’s Pieta. She should have been older… much older. After all, she is His mother, but in the statue she looks like if she would have been His daughter, which is ridiculous. That woman in the statue is in her twenties, at most. So, I do not know how she looked like, but I know how she didn’t look like: she wasn’t a teenager, like in Michelangelo’s Pieta (“Pity” in English and “Piedad” in Spanish, instead of “Pieta”)
 
Brian_Reeves said:
Oh dear what a sad, sweeping, initial comment !!! and how long before The Vatican approves these? As far as Medjugorje is concerned, the thirty or forty years that it seems to take, it will be too late since it may well be all over, but you go on thinking that they are hoaxes while thousands grow towards Jesus through both of them. Brian
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the “poem of the Man-God” has been rejected by the Vatican. It has some serious theological/doctrinal errors. Dont you think it’s strange that it’s “Man-God” but not “God-Man”? (the Church has only ever used the 2nd term). As for Medjugorje, that’s still being decided.

I try to stick to approved apparitions like Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe, etc, there are many great ones 🙂 theotokos.org.uk/pages/appdisce/nineapps.html
there are also some great approved devotions like Divine Mercy, Sacred Heart of Jesus, etc.
God bless
 
I think that Mary is the most beautiful and perfect person that God ever created 🙂 I don’t know how she looks like, but I’m sure she’s beautiful inside and out. While she lived on earth, I think she was beautiful too but in a humble simple way, she probably dressed very simply and didn’t draw attention to herself.
 
Interesting comments, so far!

As for me, I believe that the Blessed Mother is indeed beautiful within - the fairest of all the human race, if I may say. But as for her external appearance: who exactly knows?

Many of the old artists usually portrayed Our Lady as being a very beautiful, flawless woman with pale, flawless skin as a way to visually show her internal perfection (after all, how can you draw something that is within?), very much like how evil personages were depicted as being rather bestial, ugly, and horrifying, as a way to show their wickedness - really, is there any image of a handsome, well-proportioned Satan anywhere? Yet the Bible shows he is able to disguise himself as an angel of light.

Still, the concept of external beauty itself has changed through time, as has been mentioned, so defining how Mary was ‘beautiful’ is rather tricky. In certain points of history, rather plump women were considered ‘beautiful’; now we have a trend for females to trim off some weight.

Perhaps Mary was beautiful, at least for her own culture and time, or perhaps she was actually an ‘average’-looking woman, one that does not really stand out and is unrecognizable if she is mingling with a crowd. But that does not change the fact that she is the Mother of God; her being one of the most important personages in history does not rest on whether she was ‘beautiful’ on the outside or not, just as Jesus’ importance as the Son of God does not rest on whether He was Himself a very handsome man or no, or whether He had long or short hair, or such things.
 
Monica4316 said:
I think that Mary is the most beautiful and perfect person that God ever created 🙂 I don’t know how she looks like, but I’m sure she’s beautiful inside and out. While she lived on earth, I think she was beautiful too but in a humble simple way, she probably dressed very simply and didn’t draw attention to herself.
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👍 I couldn’t agree more! Mary was indeed special in the plan of God and she rocks! What I never forget all Beauty comes from God and therefore He is beautiful. It is one of the reasons I came to fall in love with God. That and that he loves us so much. As well as his mercy. His beauty falls on all creation! And I also agree that all bodies are beautiful since they are from God.
 
I suspect the Mary of the Fatima visions appeared as an angel of light.
 
Cashue said:
yes, the bible in Corinthians speaks about an “angel of light” I think that it is speaking about Mary.
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Are you saying that Mary in the Fatima visions was Satan? :confused: (If you refer to 2 Corinthians 11:14)
 
Cristian_B said:
Are you saying that Mary in the Fatima visions was Satan? :confused: (If you refer to 2 Corinthians 11:14)
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No of course not:confused:

The bible clearly says that mary is an angel of light; satan appears as a dark evil monster very violent and very ugly, that is how we know he is the devil. No, only someone from God like Mary can appear as a real angel of light!

Obviously Mary appears beautiful and bathed in light since she is the queen of heaven.
 
Cashue said:
The bible clearly says that mary is an angel of light;
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Perhaps Tradition, but not the Bible. Where does it say that Mary appears as an angel of light?
Cashue said:
satan appears as a dark evil monster very violent and very ugly, that is how we know he is the devil. No, only someone from God like Mary can appear as a real angel of light!
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:confused: You are very wrong. Satan is no dark violent monster. He is a very beautiful being which sinned. Satan is one of the most beautiful beings ever created by God. Satan appears like an angel of light. Read 2 Corinthians 11:14. He is not some creature with a fork and two horns. He is an angel of light, and even his angels can appear as angels of light. You are wrong. Satan can appear like someone sent by God, but looks can be deceiving.
 
Cashue said:
No of course not:confused:

The bible clearly says that mary is an angel of light; satan appears as a dark evil monster very violent and very ugly, that is how we know he is the devil. No, only someone from God like Mary can appear as a real angel of light!

Obviously Mary appears beautiful and bathed in light since she is the queen of heaven.
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Uh, technically Satan, being a fallen angel, is pure spirit; thus, he has no real physical form. Now we’re all familiar with those depictions of Satan looking either like a dragon or a horrid-looking gargoyle or a red/black horned man wielding a pitchfork or even some sort of monstrous creature. Iconographically and symbolically speaking, it does provide a way to visually drive home the point that Satan is evil and is the father of lies (based on the natural human instinct to be repulsed by the distorted and ugly), but I don’t think that that is how Satan usually chooses to manifest himself. Appearances can be deceiving, as Cristian pointed out. After all - I believe that this point was already made - what we think of as physically ‘beautiful’ people are able to do evil, and those whom we call ‘ugly’ could have a heart of gold all along. “All that is gold does not glitter” indeed.

Turning into the example of Tolkien’s legendarium, I doubt Sauron would have been able to attempt to convince the Elves of Eregion to make the Rings of Power if he just appeared in front of them as some sort of ‘dark evil monster’. No; instead he assumed a beautiful appearance and spoke sweet-sounding words to them! (from The Silmarillion):

Seeing the desolation of the world, Sauron said in his heart that the Valar, having overthrown Morgoth, had again forgotten Middle-earth; and his pride grew apace. He looked with hatred on the Eldar, and he feared the Men of Númenor who came back at whiles in their ships to the shores of Middle-earth; but for long he dissembled his mind and concealed the dark designs that he shaped in his heart.

Men he found the easiest to sway of all the peoples of the Earth; but long he sought to persuade the Elves to his service, for he knew that the Firstborn had the greater power; and he went far and wide among them, and his hue was still that of one both fair and wise. Only to Lindon he did not come, for Gil-galad and Elrond doubted him and his fair-seeming, and though they knew not who in truth he was they would not admit him to that land. But elsewhere the Elves received him gladly, and few among them hearkened to the messengers from Lindon bidding them beware; for Sauron took to himself the name of Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, and they had at first much profit from his friendship. And he said to them: “Alas, for the weakness of the great! For a mighty king is Gil-galad, and wise in all lore is Master Elrond, and yet they will not aid me in my labours. Can it be that they do not desire to see other lands become as blissful as their own? But wherefore should Middle-earth remain for ever desolate and dark, whereas the Elves could make it as fair as Eressëa, nay even as Valinor? And since you have not returned thither, as you might, I perceive that you love this Middle-earth, as do I. Is it not then our task to labour together for its enrichment, and for the raising of all the Elven-kindreds that wander here untaught to the height of that power and knowledge which those have who are beyond the Sea?”
 
Hello,
I would say she would have like a light dark skin with black hair because she came from an Arabic country remember! And Arabic women are beautiful, and Mary probably was too. And maybe that she is in Heaven she is even more beautiful that on Earth.
Aidan.
 
I’d like to think Mary was little and Jewy…is that okay to say? “Jewy”? She looked Jewish, I’d prefer to think of Her as light skinned but perhaps she had olive skin. I think of her as a girl, a tween or teen, not fully grown, and, because of the hard conditions of life 2000 years ago and especially because of the diet of that area of the world, She probably wouldn’t have had the nutrients needed to grow to 5’6 or 5’9 (my speculation, I haven’t read studies). And, as far as Jewy, remember the girl they introduced in “All in the Family?” The one Archie bought the Star of David neclace for? She was light skinned, but, dark hair; I’d like to think Mary looked like that, only more beautiful, dark hair, perhaps a hook nose or some characteristic like that.

Anyway, She has appeared to a few people (not as an angel, for She did indeed have Her glorified body), alledgedly, post Assumption, and, She’s always portrayed as the same race as those who She appears to. I believe She is always described as beautiful. We, the faithful, are not required to believe Her apparitions. We don’t know how much of the information we have is true since we here, can see in part and prophecy in part, so, seeing things only through their own eyes, the people who saw Her can only describe Her and the situation imperfectly.

That said, they all have described Her as a beautiful woman, so, no matter how God has chosen to send Her so that She is best received, we see that She is the epitomy of femininity. She is referred to as, “Woman” in the Bible in Genesis, the Gospels, and Revelation. She is WOMAN. She is the ultimate woman. She is the ideal woman. She is completely feminine, not only in looks but in action. She. Looked. Perfect.
 
havemercy said:
She’s my heavenly mother…Of course she’s beautiful.
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Yes. She is my heavenly Mother also.
I was always certain she is the most beautiful girl we never seen before.
I will say she is a girl ,-yes, because she is most pure, and do not wonder she is always looks like 15 years old most beautiful girl. We will never seen anyone so beautiful.
-Ah, MaMa, most blessed among women!
:gopray::angel1:
 
I’ve always wondered what Mary (and Jesus for that matter) looked like in her physical form while here on earth. Perhaps she was a raving beauty, Perhaps not. Maybe she had a large nose and was missing teeth? Maybe her skin was dark and her hair jet black. Maybe she was frighteningly thin. Maybe she was a red head… I could go on for hours. All I know is like many have said before, she is my/our Heavenly Mother. So she’s a beauty to me… (but yes, i wonder too…)

And yes, Mother Teresa TO ME was a beauty queen.
 
BUT, even though one can find Her beautiful, was She physically attractive in anyway? One would think that She, as far as looks go, would be unremarkable, so as not to bring any attention to Herself… She would look, in some respects, like any other girl Her age at Her time.
 
If the Shroud of Turin is any indication, he resembles a typical man of Middle East origin. One company has created his portrait from the image on the Shroud. I think they did a great job.

home.comcast.net/~vanwyhe/look.htm

As for Mary, I would think that she looks very similar to her apparitions (Rue de Bac, Lourdes, etc.).
 
Cristian_B said:
It does not really matter to me how she looked, but I know how she didn’t look like. This image is in contradiction with logic:

I mean, Jesus was approximately 30 years old when He begun His ministry. Let’s take the minimum years for Mary to physically be pregnant. I’ll give her 13, though it is completely ridiculous. She probably gave birth to Jesus when she had at least 20 years old, but we’ll stick with the possibility that she was an adolescent.

This is with the assumption that Mary was a teenager when she gave birth to Jesus, though I believe she had about 20 years. So, if we go with the ridiculous, she had at least 43 years old when Jesus was crucified. I’d give her 50, but 43 is good enough. So Mary was not a very young teenager as in Michelangelo’s Pieta. She should have been older… much older. After all, she is His mother, but in the statue she looks like if she would have been His daughter, which is ridiculous. That woman in the statue is in her twenties, at most. So, I do not know how she looked like, but I know how she didn’t look like: she wasn’t a teenager, like in Michelangelo’s Pieta (“Pity” in English and “Piedad” in Spanish, instead of “Pieta”)
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Many people don’t take this famous depiction of Our Blessed Lady literally. I find the topic in itself pretty interesting and I’ve been reading up on this statue. Here is an excerpt from good old Wikipedia on the subject:

***The Madonna is represented as being very young, and about this peculiarity there are different interpretations. One is that her youth symbolizes her incorruptible purity, as Michelangelo himself said to his biographer and fellow sculptor Ascanio Condivi:

Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste? How much more in the case of the Virgin, who had never experienced the least lascivious desire that might change her body?
Another explanation suggests that Michelangelo’s treatment of the subject was influenced by his passion for Dante’s Divina Commedia: so well-acquainted was he with the work that when he went to Bologna he paid for hospitality by reciting verses from it. In Paradiso (cantica 33 of the poem) Saint Bernard, in a prayer for the Virgin Mary, says “Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio” (Virgin mother, daughter of your son). This is said because, being that Christ is one of the three figures of Trinity, Mary would be his daughter, but it is also she who bore him.

A third interpretation is that suggested by Condivi shortly after the passage quoted above: simply that “such freshness and flower of youth, besides being maintained in by natural means, were assisted by act of God”.

Yet another exposition posits that the viewer is actually looking at an image of Mary holding the baby Jesus. Mary’s youthful appearance and apparently serene facial expression, coupled with the position of the arms could suggest that she is seeing her child, while the viewer is seeing an image of the future.

Finally, one modern interpretation suggests that the smaller size of Christ helps to illustrate his feebleness while in his state of death; no longer living, he now appears small in his mother’s arms.***
 
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