(12:1) And a woman
clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, having a crown of twelve
stars, giving birth in her pains is the ancient Church of the fathers and
prophets and holy apostles, because she bore the sorrow and torment of her
desires, until which He was made for her people according to her flesh, as long
promised to her: to see Christ take up from the same nation a body. And clothed
with the sun signifies the hope of resurrection and the promise of glory. The
moon, indeed, is the falling of the bodies of the saints from the debt to
death, which never lacks strength. For whenever the life of men is lessened, it
will also be increased. Nor is the hope of the sleeping totally extinguished,
as some think, but they have a light in the darkness, like the moon. A
twelve-starred crown signifies the chorus of fathers according to the birth
of the flesh, from whom Christ was to take up flesh. (Commentary on Revelation by St. Victorinus,
ed. John Litteral [trans. Kevin P. Edgecomb; Ancient Bible Commentaries in
English, n.d.], 40)
