VERSE 1
And a great sign appeared in
heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet. The woman
clothed with the sun is the blessed Virgin Mary, covered with the power of
the Most High. A genus, namely the Church, is also understood in her. The
Church is not called a woman by reason of weakness, but because it gives
birth every day to new people, with whom the general body of Christ is being
formed. So the Church is clothed with the sun according to this: As
many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ. [Gal.
3:27] Indeed Christ is the Sun of justice, [Mal. 4:2] and the brightness
of eternal light. [Wis. 7:26] The moon, which wanes as time passes,
represents the mutability of time; and since the Church despises it, it is as
if it is pressed it down under its feet. Note also that there are
some things in the following that do not correspond to the species, but to the
genus. And on her head a crown of twelve stars. The twelve stars the crown
is fitted with are the twelve apostles, through whom the Head of the Church,
that is Christ, first won victory. They are called stars because the
reason of truth illuminates the darkness of ignorance.
VERSE 2
And being with child, she
cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered. This cannot
refer specifically to blessed Mary, but it refers to the Church, which suffers
here a certain difficulty in childbirth when it tries to give birth once
again to people it had already given birth to, until, according to
the apostles’ saying, we all meet into a perfect man. [Eph. 4:13] (Alcuin
of York on Revelation: Commentary and the Questions and Answers (English and
Latin) [trans. Sarah Van Der
Pas; Consolamini Commentary Series; West Monroe, La.: Consolamini Publications,
2016], 153-54)
