Mary Magdalene

; Luke ; Gospel of Peter [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/gospelpeter-brown.html 12] ), came to the sepulchre with sweet spices to anoint the body. They found the sepulchre empty but saw the "vision of angels" (Matthew "Jesus said to her, 'Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, "I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God."'"

This is the last mention in the canonical Gospels of Mary Magdalene, who now returned to Jerusalem. She is probably included in the group of women who joined the Apostles in the Upper Room in Jerusalem after Jesus' ascension (), as ; ), in order to reflect the change of character, "distinguishing her" from the Mary that she was before [Ellen G. White, "Desire of Ages", ed. 1898, chapter 62, p. 564] It wouldn’t be the first time a Bible character is mentioned differently in order to reflect a change of character (for example, in the New Testament the murderer and zealot Saul became the Apostle Paul).

Identification as a prostitute

Mary Magdalene is sometimes referred to as a prostitute or adulteress, but she was never called one in the New Testament. [ and there she died. Her relics were transferred to Constantinople in 886 and are there preserved.

Roman Catholic

Gregory of Tours, writing in Tours in the sixth century, [Gregory of Tours, "De miraculis", I, xxx.] supports the tradition that she retired to Ephesus, with no mention of any connection to Gaul.

How a cult of Mary Magdalene first arose in Provence has been summed up by Victor Saxer [Saxer, "La culte de Marie Magdalene en occident" (1959).] in the collection of essays in "La Magdaleine, VIIIe – XIIIe siècle" [Ecole française de Rome, (1992).] and by Katherine Ludwig Jansen, drawing on popular devotions, sermon literature and iconology. [Jansen 2000.]

Mary Magdalene's relics were first venerated at the abbey of Vézelay in Burgundy. Jacobus de Voragine gives the common account of the transfer of the relics of Mary Magdalene from her sepulchre in the oratory of Saint Maximin at Aix-en-Provence to the newly-founded abbey of Vézelay; ["the Abbey of Vesoul" in William Caxton's translation.] the transportation of the relics is entered as undertaken in 771 by the founder of the abbey, identified as Gerard, duke of Burgundy. [ [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume4.htm#Mary%20Magdalene Medieval Sourcebook: The Golden
] .] The earliest mention of this episode is the notice of the chronicler Sigebert of Gembloux (died 1112), who asserts that the relics were removed to Vézelay through fear of the Saracens. There is no record of their further removal to the other St-Maximin; a casket of relics associated with Magdalene remains at Vézelay.

Afterwards, since September 9 1279, the body of Mary Magdalene was also venerated at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, Provence. This cult attracted such throngs of pilgrims that the earlier shrine was rebuilt as the great Basilica from the mid-thirteenth century, one of the finest Gothic churches in the south of France.

The competition between the Cluniac Benedictines of Vézelay and the Dominicans of Saint-Maxime occasioned a rash of miraculous literature supporting the one or the other site. Jacobus de Voragine, compiling his "Legenda Aurea" (Golden Legend) before the competition arose, characterized Mary Magdalene as the emblem of penitence, washing the feet of Jesus with her copious tears, protectress of pilgrims to Jerusalem, daily lifting by angels at the meal hour in her fasting retreat and many other miraculous happenings in the genre of Romance, ending with her death in the oratory of Saint Maximin, all disingenuously claimed to have been drawn from the histories of Hegesippus and of Josephus.

The French tradition of Saint Lazare of Bethany is that Mary, her brother Lazarus, and Maximinus, one of the Seventy Disciples and some companions, expelled by persecutions from the Holy Land, traversed the Mediterranean in a frail boat with neither rudder nor mast and landed at the place called "Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer" near Arles. Mary Magdalene came to Marseille and converted the whole of Provence. Magdalene is said to have retired to a cave on a hill by Marseille, La Sainte-Baume ("holy cave." "baumo" in Provencal), where she gave herself up to a life of penance for thirty years. When the time of her death arrived she was carried by angels to Aix and into the oratory of Saint Maximinus, where she received the viaticum; her body was then laid in an oratory constructed by St. Maximinus at Villa Lata, afterwards called St. Maximin.

In 1279, when Charles II, King of Naples, erected a Dominican convent at La Sainte-Baume, the shrine was found intact, with an explanatory inscription stating why the relics had been hidden.

In 1600, the relics were placed in a sarcophagus commissioned by Pope Clement VIII, the head being placed in a separate reliquary. The relics and free-standing images were scattered and destroyed at the Revolution. In 1814, the church of La Sainte-Baume, also wrecked during the Revolution, was restored, and, in 1822, the grotto was consecrated afresh. The head of the saint now lies there and has been the centre of many pilgrimages.

Other religions, especially Christian Mysticism and many New Age faiths, venerate Mary Magdalene as the Bride of Christ, an avatar of Sophia, and even the Co-Messiah with Jesus Christ, or simply combine all three.

Mary as a penitent

The traditional Roman Catholic feast day dedicated to Mary Magdalene celebrated her position as a penitent. This was changed in 1969, with the revision of the Roman Missal and the Roman Calendar, and now there is no mention in either of Mary Magdalene the sinner. [Filteau, Jerry, [http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=19680 "Scholars seek to correct Christian tradition, fiction of Mary Magdalene"] , Catholic Online, May 2 2006.]

The Magdalene became a symbol of repentance for the vanities of the world to various sects. Mary Magdalene was the patron of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Magdalene College, Cambridge (both pronounced "maudlin"). In contrast, her name was also used for the Magdalen Asylum, institutions for "fallen women." including the infamous "Magdalen Laundries" in Ireland.

In the Orthodox Church, Mary Magdalene is not celebrated as a penitent, but rather as a woman who lived a virtuous life.

Protestant views

Mary is viewed as a highly respected disciple of Jesus. [

The medieval book "Golden Legend" says "Some say that S. Mary Magdalene was wedded to S. John the Evangelist." [ [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume4.htm#Mary%20Magdalene Medieval Sourcebook: The Golden
] .]

Metaphysical marriage

Writers employing metaphysical analogy and allegory have asserted that Christ was already married—to the Church, in the literary topos of The Bridegroom that was developed and enlarged upon in medieval theology. [See Mystical marriage.] This image goes back to Old Testament depictions of the covenant between God and his people as a marriage, especially in the books Hosea, Ezekiel and the Song of Songs. Imagery of marriage also appears in the Gospels and is applied to Jesus in the letters of the Apostle Paul (e.g. Ephesians ) and in the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament. This was later expanded by the Church fathers. Some writers, following an early tradition that Jesus is in a mystical sense the second Adam that began with Paul and continued with Irenaeus and others, embody this sense with literal parallels: like the first Adam, his bride was taken from his side when he had fallen asleep (died on the cross). In medieval Christian anagogic exegesis, the blood and water which came from his side when he was pierced, was held to represent the bringing forth of the Church with its analogy in the water of baptism and the wine of the new covenant. Thus Christ can be said in an allegorical sense to already have a wife in the Church.

Cultural references

In film and literature

* Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln's 1982 book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"
* Dan Brown's novel and later movie "The DaVinci Code" (2006)
* Bruce Chilton's "Mary Magdalene: A Biography", Doubleday, 2005. ISBN 978-0385-51318-0
* Elizabeth Cunningham's "Maeve Chronicles." including "Daughter of the Shining Isles", "The Passion of Mary Magdalen", and "Magdalen Rising"
* Abel Ferrara's 2005 film "Mary":, withJuliette Binoche as Mary Magdalene.
* Margaret George's novel "Mary, Called Magdalene" (Peguin Books: New York, 2002)
* Nikos Kazantzakis's novel, "The Last Temptation of Christ" (Martin Scorsese's film of the same title)
* Ki Longfellow's novel, "The Secret Magdalene" (Crown/Random House, 2007–2008) is in preproduction for Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, writer/director Nancy Savoca
* Kathleen McGowan's novel "The Expected One" (Simon & Schuster, 2006)
* Antoinette May's novel "Claudia, Daughter of Rome"
* Christopher Moore includes Mary Magdelene (called 'Maggie' in the book) as a childhood friend of Jesus (called Joshua in the book) and Biff in his book "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal".

In music

* Tori Amos' songs "Marys of the Sea" and "Mary"
* Johnny Cash's songs "If Jesus Ever Loved A Woman" and "Lights of Magdala"
* Popular Croatian singer Doris Dragović's "Marija Magdalena"
* The Mars Volta's song "Asilos Magdelena"
* Meshell Ndegeocello's song "Mary Magdalene"
* A Perfect Circle, "Magdelena" off the Album "Mer De Noms"
* Joaquín Sabina's song "Una canción para la Magdalena"
* Pop singer Sandra's "Maria Magdalena"
* Richard Shindell's song "The Ballad of Mary Magdalen"
* Andrew Lloyd Webber rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar"

Other

* Donatello carved a wooden statue of Mary Magdalena. It stands in Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence.
* As a character in the video game from 2006.

See also

* St. Mary Magdalene's Church
* Jesus bloodline
* Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
* Saint Sarah
* Miryai

Notes

References

* Acocella, Joan. "The Saintly Sinner: The Two-Thousand-Year Obsession with Mary Magdalene." "The New Yorker", February 13 & 20, 2006, p. 140–49. Prompted by controversy surrounding Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code".
* Brock, Ann Graham. "Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority". Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN 0674009665. Discusses issues of apostolic authority in the gospels and the "Gospel of Peter" the competition between Peter and Mary, especially in chapter 7, "The Replacement of Mary Magdalene: A Strategy for Eliminating the Competition."
* Burstein, Dan, and Arne J. De Keijzer. "Secrets of Mary Magdalene". New York: CDS Books, 2006. ISBN 1593152051.
* Jansen, Katherine Ludwig. "The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages". Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000. ISBN 0691058504.
* ISBN 0226453812.
* Pearson, Birger A. "Did Jesus Marry?." "Bible Review", Spring 2005, pp 32–39 & 47. Discussion of "complete" texts.
* Picknett, Lynn, and Clive Prince. "The Templar Revelation". New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0593038703. Presents a hypothesis that Mary Magdalene was a priestess who was Jesus' partner in a sacred marriage.
* Shoemaker, Stephen J. "Rethinking the ‘Gnostic Mary’: Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala in Early Christian Tradition." in "Journal of Early Christian Studies", 9 (2001) pp 555–595.
* Thiering, Barbara. "Jesus the Man: Decoding the Real Story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene". New York: Simon & Schulster (Atria Books), 2006. ISBN 1416541381.
* Wellborn, Amy. "De-coding Mary Magdalene: Truth, Legend, and Lies". Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2006. ISBN 1592762093. A straightforward accounting of what is well-known of Mary Magdalene.

External links

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09761a.htm St Mary Magdalene, Catholic Encyclopaedia 1911]
* [http://www.jerusalem-mission.org/convent_magdalene.html Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene]
* [http://www.womenpriests.org/magdala/magd_ovr.asp St Mary Magdalen and the case for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church]
* [http://www.thenazareneway.com/life_of_st_mary_magdalene.htm Legends of Mary Magdalene]
* [http://www.pesherofchrist.infinitesoulutions.com/Pesher/Marriage_of_Jesus.html The Pesher of Christ: "The Marriage of Jesus"] by Dr. Barbara Thiering
* [http://www.psyche.com/psyche/lex/qbl/mary_magdalene.html Miriam/Myriam M'Gadola: Mary Magdalene]
* [http://www.oceanru.com/magdalene/ Articles and more than 40 Paintings]
* [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gospelmary.html Early Christian Writings:] "Gospel of Mary"
* [http://www.netage.org/DaVinci.html The Da Vinci Code and Mary Magdalene] The Gospels: Metaphor as "The Great Code"
* " [http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm Gospel of Mary Magdalene] "
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