Here's my understanding of it:
In the book of Revelation, St. John beheld a vision of the temple of God containing the Ark of the Covenant and immediately begins to describe a woman in the heavens who bore a child against whom the red dragon fought
[7], and who would rule all nations and was caught up to God (11:19-12:5). If read literally this can only apply to the Theotokos for she alone gave birth to a Child Who would rule all nations. Archbishop Averky of Syracuse writes that the woman in Revelation 12 represents rather the Church, because the Theotokos did not experience birth pains as did the woman in St. John’s vision
[8]. However, it is a common Patristic teaching that Christ’s entrusting of His mother to the beloved disciple from the Cross indicates that she is the mother of all Christians and thus of the Church,
[9] and that the sword of St. Symeon’s prophecy pierced her soul as she stood at the foot of the Cross.
[10] The Church also proclaims this in Her hymnography: “’A sword hath gone through my heart, O Son,’ said the Virgin in her grief, as she beheld Christ her Son and Master hanging on the Tree.”
[11] As it is Christ’s passion, and Resurrection, which gives birth to the Church then the “birth pains” of Revelation 12:2 can refer to her pain of soul at the Cross which births her spiritual children. And although many Church Fathers do identify the woman in Revelation as the Church,
[12] it is also common to see in the Theotokos a figure of the Church. St. Ephraim of Syria writes, “The Virgin Mary is a symbol of the Church, when she receives the first announcement of the gospel … We call the Church by the name of Mary, for she deserves a double name.”
[13] Furthermore, according to the
Painter’s Manual or
Hermeneia of Dionysius of Fourna, the twelfth chapter of Revelation is to be illustrated with the Theotokos as the woman of St. John’s vision, and the Akathist for the Dormition, as celebrated on the Holy Mountain, identifies the vision as a type of the glory of the Mother of God: “The heavenly sign was a type of thy glory, O Mother, which I beheld in the Revelation; for thou didst then appear unto me as a woman clad with the intellectual Sun …”
[14]
[7] Thus referring to the enmity between the serpent and the woman and her seed in Genesis 3:15
[8] Taushev, Abp. Averky.
The Apocalypse in the Teaching of Ancient Christianity: an Orthodox Commentary. Trans. Fr. Seraphim Rose. Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995, p. 178. The issue of her painless childbearing will be further addressed in this work.
[9] For example: St. George of Nicomedia,
Homily 8, PG 100, 1477B; St. Epiphanios,
Panarion 78; St. Nilos the Abbot, PG 79, 179D; St. Gregory Palamas,
Homily 37 on the August Dormition of Our Most Immaculate Lady Theotokos, PG 151, 465A; St. John of Kronstadt.
My Life in Christ, Or, Moments of Spiritual Serenity and Contemplation, of Reverent Feeling, of Earnest Self-amendment, and of Peace in God: Extracts from the Diary. Trans. Ernest Evgenʹevich. Gulia︡ev. Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1984, p. 305
[10] See Origen,
On Luke Homily 18, PG 13, 1845; St. Basil,
Letter 250, PG 32, 965; St. Cyril of Alexandria,
On John 19.25, PG 74, 661-664; St. Hesychios,
Sermon on the Presentation, PG 93, 1478; St. Romanos the Melodist,
On the Presentation 13; The Venerable Bede,
Hom. in Purif. 18, in
Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, Turnhout (1953), 122, 132; St. John of Damascus,
Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.14; St. Theodore the Studite,
2nd Canon of Matins on Monday in the Third Week of Lent, Stavrotheotokion of Ode 8
[11] Tuesday Vepers, 1st Tone, Theotokion
[12] St. Hippolytus,
Christ and Antichrist; St. Methodios,
The Symposium: A Treatise on Chastity
[13] Sermo ad noct. Resurr., ed. Lamy, 1:534, quoted in Gambero, Luigi.
Mary and the Fathers of the Church: the Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought. Trans. Thomas Buffer. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1999, p. 115. See also St. Ambrose,
Exposito in Lucam 2.7, PL 15, 1635-36; St. Isidore of Seville,
Quaestiones in Genesim 2.18, PL 83, 216 and
Allegoriae 139, PL 83, 117. Virginity represents faithfulness on behalf of the people of God in the Old Testament, and conversely unfaithfulness is presented as impurity (see Jeremiah 18:13-15 and Ezekiel 23). This imagery is continued in the New Testament era. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians that it is his duty to preserve the “virginity” of the Church (2 Cor. 11:2-3), and in the
Shepherd of Hermas the Church is presented as a virgin (4th Vision, chapter 2).
[14] Charitos, Minas.
The Repose of Our Most Holy and Glorious Lady the Theotokos And Ever-virgin Mary and Her Translation to Heaven. Orthodox Christian Educational Society, 1963
, p. 10, quoted in
The Life of the Virgin Mary, The Theotokos, p. 501.
