Why in Marian Apparitions does Mary look more like a modern day Muslim than a modern day Christian?

[SingleMomMonica]

But the original question was why is Mary dressing as a Muslim in these appearances. She’s not, since Islam didn’t exist in her time. Perhaps a related question might be “why are modern day Muslims dressing like the Mother of God?”

No, not dressing as a Muslim, but dressing like Muslim women do today.

But I really love your turn around…“Why do modern day Muslims dress like the Mother of God?” ha, ha!

 

[MelanieAnne]

No, not dressing as a Muslim, but dressing like Muslim women do today.

But I really love your turn around…“Why do modern day Muslims dress like the Mother of God?” ha, ha!

Many modern Muslim women wear scarves or other types of head covering. While I am not 100% sure of their reasons, I imagine it has something to do with modesty.

Married women that are Orthodox Jews, to this day, also use some sort of head covering. While scarves are sometimes used for this purpose, many of them also use wigs. A Jewish friend of mine has explained the reasons for this practice ~ when a woman is married, according to Orthodox Jewish tradition, the only person that should ever see her hair uncovered is her husband. This tradition is related to the attractiveness of a woman’s hair. This same tradition would have been practiced in the time of Mary, so her practice of covering her head or her hair is rooted in Orthodox Judaism. Since she was a married woman, she would appear with her head covered.

When I was much younger (I’m a Grandma now) it was traditional for a woman to wear something on her head in church, especially in a Catholic church. I didn’t grow up Catholic, I was Episcopalian then, but EVEN THERE I remember as a teenager that no one would dare go into either our church or a Catholic church ~ whether it was St. Peter’s in Rome or the local Catholic parish church ~ without some sort of head covering. Short lace mantillas and head scarves were a common choice for this. Hats were, of course, OK too.

Then I guess we got “women’s lib” and everything changed. But some women in my parish still cover their head. And if I were lucky enough to get to go to St. Peter’s in Rome, I would be happy to do so too. Which I supposes raises the question why I don’t do so now. But that’s another discussion.

As I said before, I cannot speak for the thoughts of Mary, but since she spent her life setting an example for the rest of us to follow, I suspect that her modest dress, and perhaps even her practice of covering her head, is a message to the rest of us. But even if it wasn’t meant to “send a message”, this is the way that apparently she prefers to present herself. Perhaps she does this to be recognized for who she is. If she showed up in shorts & a tank top, maybe people would wonder.

 

[MusicMan]

As Mary was a Middle Eastern woman living in the early Common Era, it follows that she would appear as a Middle Eastern woman from the early Common Era. You were expecting her to look Norwegian?

 

[Joseph_L_Varga]

As Mary was a Middle Eastern woman living in the early Common Era, it follows that she would appear as a Middle Eastern woman from the early Common Era. You were expecting her to look Norwegian?

The funny thing is, Our Lady does adapt her appearance - her race and her clothes - to the people whom she appears to. She wears long flowing robes, her head is covered, and interestingly she is often (always? - I don’t know) barefeet, AND she looks in a way that’s familiar to the local people.

Her famous picture of Guadalupe, Mexico, which supernaturally appeareed on Juan Diego’s garment (tilma), shows her as a young olive skinned woman, her race is something like Native American or Hispanic. Her clothes are adapted to the Aztec culture: the turqoise blue of her mantle is exactly the color of Aztec royalty.

In Lourdes, there was a Catholic women’s association at the time called The Maidens of Mary or something like that, and they had a white dress with a blue sash. When Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette Soubiros, she wore that dress. Thus Bernadette never realized that she was Mary the Mother of God, partly because her dress was something that local women used to wear.

In Kibeho, Rwanda, Our Lady appeared in the 1980s to some visionaries, and the color of her skin was a beautiful dark consistent with the African race. Unfortunately I don’t remember reading anything about her dress at Kibeho. However, what I remember is that Jesus also appeared to a teenager boy at Kibeho, and he looked like an African man wearing traditional local African garments. His appearance was supernatural, but not because his race or garments were out of place for that African setting.

I have no idea how Our Lady of Akita looked like when she appeared to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa in the 1970s - was her race that of a Japanese woman, what kind of clothes did she wear? Anyone some info on this?

 

[SingleMomMonica]

She wears long flowing robes, her head is covered, and interestingly she is often (always? - I don’t know) barefeet, AND she looks in a way that’s familiar to the local people.

I’ve never heard of her barefoot, doesn’t mean she hasn’t appeared that way though. In what images of her have you seen her barefoot?

The image I have of her in my home is a copy of Juan Diego’s Tilma - the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and in that she is wearing shoes. The robe she is wearing goes below her feet, but it is slightly lifted over one foot - revealing her shoe.

I’ve seen an painting of her apparation in China and I believe she had shoes on then also - I’ll have it look it up later when I get home.

 

[JanetF]

Mary doesn’t look like a Muslim, she simply looks MODEST…nothing wrong with that at all!