Mary is The Woman of the Apocalypse
From the Book of Revelation, 11:19—12:1-18.[3]
11:19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm. 12:1 A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 It was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems. 4 Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne. 6 The lady herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.
7 Then war broke out in heaven; Michael* and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, 8but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9The huge dragon, the ancient serpent,* who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.e 10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night.
11 They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death.
12 Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, earth and sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, for he knows he has but a short time.
13 When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly to her place in the desert, where, far from the serpent, she was taken care of for a year, two years, and a half-year. 15 The serpent, however, spewed a torrent of water out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with the current. 16 But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth and swallowed the flood that the dragon spewed out of its mouth. 17 Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus. 13:1 It took its position on the sand of the sea.’’
The Blessed Virgin Mary
The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, for one, has been described as a representation of the Woman of the Apocalypse.[4]
Mary of Velankanni, is believed to be a depiction of our the Woman of the Apocalypse
One strain of Catholic tradition assigns the identity of the woman to the Virgin Mary after her assumption into heaven, where she is revealed in all her glory as the “Queen of Heaven”, “Mother of God”, and “Mother of the Church”. This view has been affirmed by Pope Pius X,[5] Pope Pius XII,[6] Pope Paul VI,[7] and Pope John Paul II.[8] According to this view, the woman’s “male child,” is a reference to Jesus (Revelation 12:5), since he is destined to “rule all nations with a rod of iron” (Revelation 12:5). The dragon trying to devour the woman’s child at the moment of his birth (Revelation 12:4) is a reference to Herod the Great’s attempt to kill the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:16). Through his death and resurrection, Jesus “was snatched up to God and to his throne” (Revelation 12:5).
However, most of the ancient commentators identified her with the Church, while in the Middle Ages it was widely held that she represented Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Modern exegetes, have generally held to the older interpretation, with certain modifications, on the strength of contextual details, while in recent years several Catholics have championed the Marian interpretation. Ancient witnesses to the Marian interpretation include St. Epiphanius,[9] Tychonius[10] (who heavily influenced St. Augustine), the unknown author of the History of Joseph the Carpenter,[11] Quodvultdeus (a disciple of St. Augustine), Cassiodorus (Complexiones in Apocalypsi, written c. 570 AD), and the Greek Fathers Andreas and Oikoumenios[12] (sixth century). For an assessment of the logical and theological reasons for identifying the Woman of Revelation 12 with Mary Mother of God
The commentary of the New American Bible (the official Roman Catholic Bible for America) states that “The woman adorned with the sun, the moon, and the stars (images taken from Gn 37:9–10) symbolizes God’s people in the Old and the New Testament. The Israel of old gave birth to the Messiah (Rev 12:5) and then became the new Israel, the church, which suffers persecution by the dragon (Rev 12:6, 13–17); cf. Is 50:1; 66:7; Jer 50:12.” [14]
The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, has been described as a representation of the Woman of the Apocalypse. Mary of Velankanni, of the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health, at Tamil Nadu, is also said to be a depiction of the Woman of the Apocalypse.
Some Catholic commentary, such as Haydock’s Catholic Bible Commentary (1859) allows for both the church (primarily) and Mary
AMDG
I agree with the depiction of the woman as being the daughter of Zion, the Church of God.