This paper examines the resurgence of the Virgin Mary's imagery in secular Lithuanian visual arts between 2000 and 2025. It contributes to the understanding of the changing cultural significance of religious iconography in the post-soviet space by analyzing the representation of sacred motherhood in a secular context. The paper focuses on the popular iconography of Our Lady of the Gates of Dawn in Vilnius (OLGD), and analyzes its visual interpretations by professional artists of different genders and generations. Historically loaded with political symbolism of Lithuanian independence and protection against militant threats, OLGD is re-examined here in relation to the contemporary image of a mother. Over the past decade, Western artists have increasingly turned to the imagery of the Virgin Mary to explore the challenges of contemporary motherhood, as evidenced by numerous exhibitions and academic publications. Situating Lithuania within this context, this paper posits that the broad appeal of OLGD - encased in a silver "armour" with no child in sight - as an image of a (sacred) mother in contemporary Lithuania is linked to intergenerational experiences of maternal trauma. For nearly a century, soviet occupations, repressions, exiles, and persistent security threats have reduced mothering to survival: emotional care was subordinated to endurance under conditions of chronic insecurity. I argue that this lasting collective experience has re-shaped the localized maternal archetype into what I term the "mother-survivor" - a figure that fuses Marian symbolism with post-traumatic modes of care. This interdisciplinary paper draws on feminist theology and motherhood studies, as well as post-colonial studies, and scholarship on trauma in art. Through iconographic analysis of selected artworks and interviews with their authors, it demonstrates how religious imagery continues to function as a living resource of colective memory in a secular context.