”The woman will step on your head.” : Feminine messianism of the Marian era

Abstract

During the so called Marian age (1830 in the mid-19th Century), the figure of Mary acquired a central character in Catholicism as a result of the rise of the so-called Marian apparitions. In these apparitions, the image of the Virgin was transformed, thus creating the change that led to her no longer being conceived as a mother and intercesor, but rather as a co- redeemer and the conqueror of Satan; as a result, she almost reached a similar perceived level to Jesus himself, to the extent that it is possible to speak of feminine messianism being incarnated in Mary.