By DEB PIROCH
“They have taken away my Lord; and I know not where they have laid him. When she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing; and she knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith to her: Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, thinking it was the gardener, saith to him: Sir, if thou hast taken him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith to her: Mary. She turning, saith to him: Rabboni (which is to say, Master)” (John 20:13-16).
Mary was the first recorded to see Christ after the Resurrection. What we know of St. Mary Magdalene is confined to the Gospels, in which the evangelists mention her at least 12 times. Mary was such a common name of the period — indeed there were three Marys who stood at the foot of the cross! So, there is also some confusion as to whether St. Mary Magdalene is the same person as the woman who washes Christ’s feet and dries them with her tresses, and the same woman as Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus. There is even debate as to whether she was a prostitute, or if this was a legend that arose over the centuries. Mary Magdalen is differentiated by affirming she was from Magdala, in Galilee; she was “this” Mary, or Mary Magdalen.
What do the Gospels tell us? We know that she was possessed and Christ delivered her. St. Luke states in chapter 8:
“And it came to pass afterwards that he traveled through the cities and towns, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God; and the twelve with him: and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities; Mary who is called Magdalen, out of whom seven devils had gone forth.”
So Christ exorcised her, of evil. Her conversion would influence history. How do we know she changed? St. Luke, in 7:37-38 and 48-50, writes:
“And behold a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that he sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of anointment: And standing behind at his feet she began to wash his feet, with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment….[Christ says], Thy sins are forgiven thee. And they that sat at meat with him begin to say within themselves: Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman: Thy faith hath made thee safe, go in peace.”
Her name is not used, but tradition interprets the sinner to be Mary Magdalen.
And the final account, which seems to unite all three Marys into one:
“Now there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethania, of the town of Mary and Martha her sister. (And Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick)” (John 11:1).
So many mentions in the Bible for any woman is rare. Yet there are even more. Three of the four evangelists record, for example, that she was at the feet of our Lord at the crucifixion, one of very few who dared to stand with the Blessed Virgin and St. John. Indeed, is this not what we should all be practicing, humbly kneeling at the feet of the Master? With the end of the Gospels, so, too, ends our confirmed knowledge of this beloved sinner and saint.
St. Gregory of Tours (538-594) believed that following the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene accompanied the Blessed Mother to Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey. There St. John built Christ’s Mother her last earthly home. It would be many years before the alleged site of this building was located; indeed, the search relied primarily upon visions provided centuries later by visionary Blessed Catherine Emmerich.
In 1880 a Fr. Eugene Poulin, a Lazarist priest, was inspired to set out to locate her house, based on those writings. He was astonished at his arrival when told by locals that the tomb of Mary Magdalene was nearby!
Foundations of a building from the first century were located, an archbishop later ordered a commission to study it, and all those participating ended in signing a document; all believed the edifice indeed correlated with St. Catherine’s visions. Pope Pius VIII was said to be a strong advocate for the holiness of the site, as was Pope Pius X. While we are not required in any way to believe in Emmerich’s visions, in describing the Assumption of Mary, she does make mention of Mary Magdalene in passing.
There are many strong proponents who believe alternatively that St. Mary Magdalene instead went to Provence, accompanied by others from the Holy Land, to the area of Marseilles. She settled in a nearby cave known as La Sainte Baume to pray for her remaining thirty years on Earth. Her relics, most importantly her skull, are now said to be there, at the Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene in St. Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume.
In the 1200s monks located a tomb with papyrus dated AD 710. Written on the skin were words from five hundred years earlier, avowing her remains were moved to protect them from Saracen invaders. All bones were present excepting the lower jaw (later reunited with the skull) and the lower leg bones. An odor of sanctity was witnessed. Hidden again from radicals during the French Revolution, today the remains are again on display, venerated by thousands. (Only her foot remains in a reliquary in Rome, crafted by Benvenuto Cellini and held at the Church of St. John the Baptist of the Florentines.)
St. Gregory the Great, the son of a saint and great-great-grandson of Pope Felix, gave some homilies on Mary Magdalen that seemed to “combine Marys” and quantify her as a former prostitute. His moving words even suggest equating the seven devils with the Seven Deadly Sins. Whatever may be the truth, let’s end on some of his beautiful thoughts written over a thousand years ago.
“So bring back the eyes of your mind on you, dear brothers, yes, on you, and propose to imitate the example of this penitent sinner. Cry all the faults you remember to have committed both in your adolescence and in your youth; wash by your tears the stains of your manners and works. Let us now love the feet of our Redeemer, whom we have despised by sinning. Behold, as we have said, the bosom of heavenly mercy opens to receive us without contempt for our corrupt life….The Lord embraces us with tenderness when we return to Him, because He can no longer judge the life of sinners unworthy of Him, since it is washed by tears, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.”
Humble St. Mary Magdalene, who was so blessed to sit at the feet of Christ, teach us to model ourselves on your love, devotion, and penitence, “that we may have belief in His name.”
Her feast day is July 22.
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