Mary cannot be confined to private piety nor reduced to passive devotion. Mary’s closeness to the poor and oppressed is embedded within the Gospels which can be discerned in the prophetic proclamation of the Magnificat, in the hardship surrounding Jesus’ birth and in the internal and external displacement she experienced. It is also present in her unwavering presence at the foot of the Cross. Mary emerges as a living sign of God’s closeness to those without status or power, and as a summons to the Church to embody that same fidelity, compassion and resistance in the face of injustice. This article will explore the key moments in the life of Mary and the ways in which she is in solidarity with the poor, the marginalised and the oppressed.

Luke presents Mary as a young woman of profound faith and humility, whose ‘Yes’ expresses courageous trust amid vulnerability and risk. Theological tradition, particularly within liberation theology, has interpreted the Annunciation as the introductory scene in which Mary’s maternal mission becomes inseparable from God’s liberating presence among the lowly and afflicted. There are, of course, two angelic announcements in Luke’s Gospel, one to Zechariah and one to Mary, though there is a marked contrast in the location and the responses to these two announcements.1 The angel appears to the priest Zechariah within the sacred space of the Temple in Jerusalem to announce the birth of a son to his barren wife (Lk 1.8–22). Zechariah responds to the message from the angel with hesitancy and unbelief and, as a result, he is struck dumb.

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