Madeleine Fitzgerald

Thesis supervisor: Carly Daniel-Hughes

Thesis Title: Rereading Mother Mary’s Virginity: Diverse Understandings of Mary’s Gender in Early Christianity.

Madeleine Garcia Fitzgerald is a first-year master’s student in the Department of Religions and Cultures. They hold a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and History with a minor in Jewish Studies from McGill University. Their thesis explores the reception history of Mother Mary regarding non-gendered interpretations and contested views of virginity. By working with flexible conceptions of virginity within a Roman context they explore how Mary was purposefully turned into an icon of purity and removed from her powerful context in both biblical and extrabiblical literature. Looking at Marian texts with historical-critical and feminist centred exegesis they wish to show Mother Mary for who she was, a strong figure who has literary roots tracing to crucial women and men, typically mothers and fathers, in the Hebrew Bible. Their thesis aims to root Mary in her own historical and social context to illuminate her contributions to gender roles for women. Removing Mary, the person, from the symbol of purity, they aim to offer new interpretations and insights in opposition to how the church has weaponized Mary, particularly against young girls, as a tool of shame. Rather by using first through seventh century BC texts and art Mary will be painted in all her glory as a divine figure for all genders to aspire to rather than a figure used to shame other women.