Mary Magdalene

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Mary MagdaleneTemplate:Efn (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection.<ref name="BBC" /> In Gnostic writings, Mary Magdalene is depicted as Jesus’s closest disciple who uniquely understood his teachings, causing tension with Peter, and is honored as the “apostle to the apostles.”

Mary Magdalene was a historical figure, possibly from Magdala. She was a prominent follower of Jesus who was believed to have been healed by him, supported his ministry financially, and was present at his crucifixion and burial. She played a key role among his female disciples. Overall, there is limited information about her life. Speculations about Mary Magdalene range from scholarly theories that she was the “disciple whom Jesus loved” in the Gospel of John to popular but unfounded claims, popularized by The Da Vinci Code, that she was Jesus’ wife, though mainstream historians and scholars overwhelmingly reject these ideas due to lack of historical or textual evidence.

Apocryphal early Christian writings often portray Mary Magdalene as a prominent, spiritually insightful figure favored by Jesus, challenging traditional patriarchal norms. These texts have inspired modern reinterpretations of her role. During the Patristic era, Mary Magdalene was mentioned only briefly by early Church Fathers, with her image evolving from a minor gospel figure to being conflated with other women in the Bible. Eventually she became viewed in Western Christianity, largely due to Pope Gregory I’s influential 591 sermon, as a repentant prostitute despite no biblical basis for this portrayal.

The Eastern Orthodox Church has always viewed Mary Magdalene as a virtuous Myrrhbearer and “Equal to the Apostles,” distinct from other biblical women. The Roman Catholic Church historically conflated her with the repentant sinner in Luke 7 but later emphasized her role as the first witness to the resurrection and honored her as the “Apostle to the Apostles.” Many alleged relics of Mary Magdalene, including her skull, a piece of forehead flesh, a tibia, and her left hand, are preserved in Catholic sites in France and Mount Athos, with notable displays and annual processions honoring them.

Portrayal in Gnostic writingsEdit

Because she was the first to witness Jesus's resurrection, Mary Magdalene is known in some Christian traditions as the "apostle to the apostles". She is a central figure in Gnostic Christian writings, including the Dialogue of the Savior, the Pistis Sophia, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Mary. These texts portray her as an apostle, as Jesus's closest and most beloved disciple and the only one who truly understood his teachings. In the Gnostic texts, or Gnostic gospels, Mary's closeness to Jesus results in tension with another disciple, Peter, due to her gender and Peter's envy of the special teachings given to her. In the Gospel of Philip's text, Marvin Meyer's translation says (missing text bracketed): "The companion of the [...] is Mary of Magdala. The [...] her more than [...] the disciples, [...] kissed her often on her [...]."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

LifeEdit

It is widely accepted among secular historians that, like Jesus, Mary Magdalene was a real historical figure.Template:Sfnm Nonetheless, very little is known about her life.Template:Sfn Unlike Paul the Apostle, Mary Magdalene left behind no known writings of her own.Template:Sfn She was never mentioned in any of the Pauline epistles or in any of the general epistles.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The earliest and most reliable sources about her life are the three Synoptic Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, which were all written during the first century AD.Template:Sfn Template:Sfnm

During Jesus' ministryEdit

File:Magdala um 1900.jpg

Photograph taken Template:Circa of al-Majdal, a village standing among the ruins of Magdala, Mary Magdalene's hometownTemplate:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Mary Magdalene's epithet Magdalene ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}; Template:Literally) probably means that she came from Magdala,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Efn a village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee that was primarily known in antiquity as a fishing town.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Mary was, by far, the most common Jewish given name for girls and women during the first century,Template:Sfn Template:Efn<ref name=greek3137 /> so it was necessary for the authors of the gospels to call her Magdalene in order to distinguish her from the other women named Mary who followed Jesus.Template:Sfn Although the Gospel of Mark, reputed by scholars to be the earliest surviving gospel, does not mention Mary Magdalene until Jesus' crucifixion,Template:Sfn the Gospel of Luke 8:2–3<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> provides a brief summary of her role during his ministry:Template:Sfn

Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.{{#if:Luke 8:1–3<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref>|{{#if:|}}
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File:Paolo Veronese, The Conversion of Mary Magdalene.jpg

The Conversion of Mary Magdalene (Template:Circa) by Paolo Veronese

According to the Gospel of Luke,<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> Jesus exorcised "seven demons" from Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn That seven demons had possessed Mary is repeated in Mark 16:9,<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref>Template:Sfn part of the "longer ending" of that gospel – this is not found in the earliest manuscripts and is possibly a second-century addition to the original text, possibly based on the Gospel of Luke.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In the first century, demons were believed widely to cause physical and psychological illness.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Bruce Chilton, a scholar of early Christianity, states that the reference to the number of demons being "seven" may mean that Mary had to undergo seven exorcisms, probably over a long period of time, due to the first six being partially or wholly unsuccessful.Template:Sfn

Bart D. Ehrman, a New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity, contends that the number seven may be merely symbolic,Template:Sfn since, in Jewish tradition, seven was the number of completion,Template:Sfn so that Mary was possessed by seven demons may simply mean she was completely overwhelmed by their power.Template:Sfn In either case, Mary must have suffered from severe emotional or psychological trauma for an exorcism of this kind to have been perceived as necessary.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Consequently, her devotion to Jesus resulting from this healing must have been very strong.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Gospels' writers normally relish giving dramatic descriptions of Jesus's public exorcisms, with the possessed person wailing, thrashing, and tearing his or her clothes in front of a crowd.Template:Sfn By contrast, that Mary's exorcism receives little attention may indicate that either Jesus performed it privately or that the recorders did not perceive it as particularly dramatic.Template:Sfn

Because Mary is listed as one of the women who supported Jesus' ministry financially, she must have been relatively wealthy.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The places where she and the other women are mentioned throughout the gospels indicate strongly that they were vital to Jesus' ministryTemplate:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and that Mary Magdalene always appears first, whenever she is listed in the Synoptic Gospels as a member of a group of women, indicates that she was seen as the most important out of all of them.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Carla Ricci notes that, in lists of the disciples, Mary Magdalene occupies a similar position among Jesus' female followers as Simon Peter does among the male apostles.Template:Sfn

That women played such an active and important role in Jesus' ministry was not entirely radical or even unique;Template:Sfn Template:Sfn inscriptions from a synagogue in Aphrodisias in Asia Minor from around the same time period reveal that many of the major donors to the synagogue were women.Template:Sfn Jesus' ministry did bring women greater liberation than they would typically have held in mainstream Jewish society.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Witness to Jesus's crucifixion and burialEdit

File:Weyden, Rogier van der - Descent from the Cross - Detail Mary Magdalene.jpg

Detail of Mary Magdalene weeping at the crucifixion of Jesus, as portrayed in The Descent from the Cross (Template:Circa) by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden Template:Sfn

All four canonical gospels agree that several women watched Jesus's crucifixion from a distance, with three explicitly naming Mary Magdalene as present.Template:Sfn Template:Bibleverse lists the names of these women as Mary Magdalene; Mary, mother of James; and Salome.Template:Sfn Template:Bibleverse lists Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James and Joseph, and the unnamed mother of the sons of Zebedee (who may be the same person Mark calls Salome).Template:Sfn Template:Bibleverse mentioned a group of women watching the crucifixion, but did not give any of their names.Template:Sfn Template:Bibleverse lists Mary, mother of Jesus, her sister, Mary, wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene as witnesses to the crucifixion.Template:Sfn

Virtually all reputable historians agree that Jesus was crucified by the Romans under the orders of Pontius Pilate.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn James Dunn states of baptism and crucifixion that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Nonetheless, the gospels' accounts of Jesus's crucifixion differ.Template:Sfn Ehrman states that the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other women at the cross is probably historical because Christians would have been unlikely to make up that the main witnesses to the crucifixion were womenTemplate:Sfn and also because their presence is attested in both the Synoptic Gospels and in the Gospel of John independently.Template:Sfn Maurice Casey concurs that the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other women at the crucifixion of Jesus may be recorded as an historical fact.Template:Sfn According to E. P. Sanders, the reason why the women watched the crucifixion even after the male disciples had fled may have been because they were less likely to be arrested, they were braver than the men, or some combination thereof.Template:Sfn

File:Raffaello, pala baglioni, deposizione.jpg

The Deposition (1507) by Raphael, showing a distressed, reddish-blond-haired Mary Magdalene dressed in fine clothes clutching the hand of Jesus's body as he is carried to the tombTemplate:Sfn

All four canonical gospels, as well as the apocryphal Gospel of Peter, agree that Jesus's body was taken down from the cross and buried by a man named Joseph of Arimathea.Template:Sfn Template:Bibleverse lists Mary Magdalene and Mary, mother of Joses as witnesses to the burial of Jesus.Template:Sfn Template:Bibleverse lists Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" as witnesses.Template:Sfn Template:Bibleverse mentions "the women who had followed him from Galilee", but does not list any of their names.Template:Sfn Template:Bibleverse does not mention any women present during Joseph's burial of Jesus,Template:Sfn but does mention the presence of Nicodemus, a Pharisee with whom Jesus had a conversation near the beginning of the gospel.Template:Sfn Ehrman, who previously accepted the story of Jesus's burial as historical, now rejects it as a later invention on the basis that Roman governors almost never allowed for executed criminals to be given any kind of burialTemplate:Sfn and Pontius Pilate in particular was not "the sort of ruler who would break with tradition and policy when kindly asked by a member of the Jewish council to provide a decent burial for a crucified victim". Casey argues that Jesus was given a proper burial by Joseph of Arimathea,Template:Sfn noting that, on some very rare occasions, Roman governors did release the bodies of executed prisoners for burial.Template:Sfn Nonetheless, he rejects that Jesus could have been interred in an expensive tomb with a stone rolled in front of it like the one described in the gospels,Template:Sfn leading him to conclude that Mary and the other women must not have seen the tomb.Template:Sfn Sanders affirms Jesus's burial by Joseph of Arimathea in the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other female followers as completely historical.Template:Sfn

Resurrection of JesusEdit

File:Annibale Carracci - Holy Women at Christ' s Tomb - WGA4454.jpg

Holy Women at Christ's Tomb (Template:Circa) by Annibale Carracci. In Template:Bibleverse, Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" encounter an angel at the tomb, who tells them that Christ has risen.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The earliest description of Jesus's post-resurrection appearances is a quotation of a pre-Pauline creed preserved by Paul the Apostle in Template:Bibleverse, which was written roughly 20 years before any of the gospels.Template:Sfn This passage made no mention of Mary Magdalene, the other women, or the story of the empty tomb,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but rather credits Simon Peter with having been the first to see the risen Jesus.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Despite this, all four canonical gospels, as well as the apocryphal Gospel of Peter, agreed that Mary Magdalene, either alone or as a member of a group, was the first person to discover that Jesus's tomb was empty.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Nonetheless, the details of the accounts differ drastically.Template:Sfn

According to Template:Bibleverse, the earliest account of the discovery of the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb just after sunrise, a day and half after Jesus's burial and found that the stone had already been rolled away.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn They went inside and saw a young man dressed in white, who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead and instructed them to tell the disciples that he would meet them in Galilee.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Instead, the women ran away and told no one, because they were too afraid.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The original text of the gospel ends here, without the resurrected Jesus making an appearance to anyone.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Casey argues that the reason for this abrupt ending may be because the Gospel of Mark is an unfinished first draft.Template:Sfn

According to Template:Bibleverse, Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" went to the tomb.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn An earthquake occurred and an angel dressed in white descended from Heaven and rolled aside the stone as the women were watching.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The angel told them that Jesus had risen from the dead.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Then the risen Jesus himself appeared to the women as they were leaving the tomb and told them to tell the other disciples that he would meet them in Galilee.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

According to Template:Bibleverse Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James went to the tomb and found the stone already rolled away, as in Mark.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn They went inside and saw two young men dressed in white who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Then they went and told the eleven remaining apostles, who dismissed their story as nonsense.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In Luke's account, Jesus never appears to the women,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but instead makes his first appearance to Cleopas and an unnamed "disciple" on the road to Emmaus.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Luke's narrative also removes the injunction for the women to tell the disciples to return to Galilee and instead has Jesus tell the disciples not to return to Galilee, but rather to stay in the precincts of Jerusalem.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

File:Alexander Ivanov - Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection - Google Art Project.jpg

Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection (1835) by Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov. In Template:Bibleverse, Mary Magdalene sees the risen Jesus aloneTemplate:Sfn Template:Sfn and he tells her "Don't touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my father."Template:Sfn

Mary Magdalene's role in the resurrection narrative is greatly increased in the account from the Gospel of John.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn According to Template:Bibleverse, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb when it was still dark and saw that the stone had already been rolled away.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn She did not see anyone, but immediately ran to tell Peter and the "beloved disciple",Template:Sfn Template:Sfn who came with her to the tomb and confirmed that it was empty,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but returned home without seeing the risen Jesus.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn According to Template:Bibleverse, Mary, now alone in the garden outside the tomb, saw two angels sitting where Jesus's body had been.Template:Sfn Then the risen Jesus approached her.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn She at first mistook him for the gardener,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but, after she heard him say her name, she recognized him and cried out "Rabbouni!" (which is Aramaic for 'teacher').Template:Sfn Template:Sfn His next words may be translated as "Don't touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father" or "Stop clinging to me, [etc.]", the latter more probable in view of the grammar (negated present imperative: stop doing something already in progress) as well as Jesus's challenge to Thomas a week later (see Template:Bibleverse Template:Sfn Template:Sfn). Jesus then sent her to tell the other apostles the good news of his resurrection.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Gospel of John therefore portrays Mary Magdalene as the first apostle, the apostle sent to the apostles.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Because scribes were unsatisfied with the abrupt ending of the Gospel of Mark, they wrote several different alternative endings for it.Template:Sfn In the "shorter ending", which is found in very few manuscripts, the women go to "those around Peter" and tell them what they had seen at the tomb, followed by a brief declaration of the gospel being preached from east to west.Template:Sfn This "very forced" ending contradicts the last verse of the original gospel, stating that the women "told no one".Template:Sfn The "longer ending", which is found in most surviving manuscripts, is an "amalgam of traditions" containing episodes derived from the other gospels.Template:Sfn First, it describes an appearance by Jesus to Mary Magdalene alone (as in the Gospel of John),Template:Sfn followed by brief descriptions of him appearing to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (as in the Gospel of Luke) and to the eleven remaining disciples (as in the Gospel of Matthew).Template:Sfn

In his book published in 2006, Ehrman states that "it appears virtually certain" that the stories of the empty tomb, regardless of whether or not they are accurate, can definitely be traced back to the historical Mary Magdalene,Template:Sfn saying that, in Jewish society, women were regarded as unreliable witnesses and were forbidden from giving testimony in court,Template:Sfn so early Christians would have had no motive to make up a story about a woman being the first to discover the empty tomb.Template:Sfn In fact, if they had made the story up, they would have had strong motivation to make Peter, Jesus's closest disciple while he was alive, the discoverer of the tomb instead.Template:Sfn He also says that the story of Mary Magdalene discovering the empty tomb is independently attested in the Synoptics, the Gospel of John, and in the Gospel of Peter.Template:Sfn N. T. Wright states that, "it is, frankly, impossible to imagine that [the women at the tomb] were inserted into the tradition after Paul's day."Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Casey challenges this argument, contending that the women at the tomb are not legal witnesses, but rather heroines in line with a long Jewish tradition.Template:Sfn He contends that the story of the empty tomb was invented by either the author of the Gospel of Mark or by one of his sources, based on the historically genuine fact that the women really had been present at Jesus's crucifixion and burial.Template:Sfn In his book published in 2014, Ehrman rejects his own previous argument,Template:Sfn stating that the story of the empty tomb can only be a later invention because there is virtually no possibility that Jesus's body could have been placed in any kind of tombTemplate:Sfn and, if Jesus was never buried, then no one alive at the time could have said that his non-existent tomb had been found empty.Template:Sfn He concludes that the idea that early Christians would have had "no motive" to make up the story simply "suffers from a poverty of imagination"Template:Sfn and that they would have had all kinds of possible motives,Template:Sfn especially since women were overrepresented in early Christian communities and women themselves would have had strong motivation to make up a story about other women being the first to find the tomb.Template:Sfn He does conclude later, however, that Mary Magdalene must have been one of the people who had an experience in which she thought she saw the risen Jesus,Template:Sfn citing her prominence in the gospel resurrection narratives and her absence everywhere else in the gospels as evidence.Template:Sfn

Apocryphal early Christian writingsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} New Testament apocrypha writings mention Mary Magdalene. Some of these writings were cited as scripture by early Christians. However, they were never admitted to the canon of the New Testament. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches generally do not view these writings as part of the Bible.Template:Sfn In these apocryphal texts, Mary Magdalene is portrayed as a visionary and leader of the early movement whom Jesus loved more than he loved the other disciples.Template:Sfn These texts were written long after the death of the historical Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn They are not regarded by bible scholars as reliable sources of information about her life.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Sanders summarizes the scholarly consensus that:

... very, very little in the apocryphal gospels could conceivably go back to the time of Jesus. They are legendary and mythological. Of all the apocryphal material, only some of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas are worth consideration.Template:Sfn

Nonetheless, the texts have been frequently promoted in modern works as though they were reliable. Such works often support sensationalist statements about Jesus and Mary Magdalene's relationship.Template:Sfn

Dialogue of the SaviourEdit

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File:Dialogue of the Savior.jpg

Fragment of a fourth-century text of the apocryphal Dialogue of the Saviour, in which Mary Magdalene is a central figureTemplate:Sfn

The earliest dialogue between Jesus and Mary Magdalene is probably the Dialogue of the Saviour,Template:Sfn a badly damaged Gnostic text discovered in the Nag Hammadi library in 1945.Template:Sfn The dialogue consists of a conversation between Jesus, Mary and two apostles – Thomas the Apostle and Matthew the Apostle.Template:Sfn In saying 53, the Dialogue attributes to Mary three aphorisms that are attributed to Jesus in the New Testament: "The wickedness of each day [is sufficient]. Workers deserve their food. Disciples resemble their teachers."Template:Sfn The narrator commends Mary stating, "she spoke this utterance as a woman who understood everything."Template:Sfn

Pistis SophiaEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Pistis Sophia, possibly dating as early as the second century, is the best surviving of the Gnostic writings.Template:Sfn It was discovered in the 18th century in a large volume containing numerous early Gnostic treatises.Template:Sfn The document takes the form of a long dialogue in which Jesus answers his followers' questions.Template:Sfn Of the 64 questions, 39 are presented by a woman who is referred to as Mary or Mary Magdalene. At one point, Jesus says, "Mary, thou blessed one, whom I will perfect in all mysteries of those of the height, discourse in openness, thou, whose heart is raised to the kingdom of heaven more than all thy brethren."Template:Sfn At another point, he tells her, "Well done, Mary. You are more blessed than all women on earth, because you will be the fullness of fullness and the completion of completion."Template:Sfn Simon Peter, annoyed at Mary's dominance of the conversation, tells Jesus, "My master, we cannot endure this woman who gets in our way and does not let any of us speak, though she talks all the time."Template:Sfn Mary defends herself, saying, "My master, I understand in my mind that I can come forward at any time to interpret what Pistis Sophia [a female deity] has said, but I am afraid of Peter, because he threatens me and hates our gender."Template:Sfn Jesus assures her, "Any of those filled with the spirit of light will come forward to interpret what I say: no one will be able to oppose them."Template:Sfn

Gospel of ThomasEdit

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File:Nag Hammadi coptic.gif

Last page of the Gospel of Thomas from Nag Hammadi, containing the account of Jesus's reaffirmation of Mary's authority to PeterTemplate:Sfn

The Gospel of Thomas, usually dated to the late first or early second century, was among the ancient texts discovered in the Nag Hammadi library in 1945.Template:Sfn The Gospel of Thomas consists entirely of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus.Template:Sfn Many of these sayings are similar to ones in the canonical gospels,Template:Sfn but others are completely unlike anything found in the New Testament.Template:Sfn Some scholars believe that at least a few of these sayings may authentically be traced back to the historical Jesus.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Two of the sayings reference a woman named "Mary", who is generally regarded as Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn In saying 21, Mary herself asks Jesus, "Whom are your disciples like?"Template:Sfn Jesus responds, "They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Let us have back our field.' They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them." Following this, Jesus continues his explanation with a parable about the owner of a house and a thief, ending with the common rhetoric, "Whoever has ears to hear let him hear."

Mary's mention in saying 114, however, has generated considerable controversy:Template:Sfn

Simon Peter said to them: Let Mary go forth from among us, for women are not worthy of the life. Jesus said: Behold, I shall lead her, that I may make her male, in order that she also may become a living spirit like you males. For every woman who makes herself male shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.{{#if:Template:Harvnb|{{#if:|}}
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In the ancient world, many patriarchal cultures believed that women were inferior to menTemplate:Sfn and that they were, in essence, "imperfect men" who had not fully developed.Template:Sfn When Peter challenges Mary's authority in this saying, he does so on the widely accepted premise that she is a woman and therefore an inferior human being.Template:Sfn When Jesus rebukes him for this, he bases his response on the same premise,Template:Sfn stating that Mary and all faithful women like her will become men and that salvation is therefore open to all, even those who are presently women.Template:Sfn

Gospel of PhilipEdit

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File:· Evangelio de Felipe · Codex II, 3 · Biblioteca Copta de Nag Hammadi ·.png

Text of the Gospel of Philip from Nag Hammadi

The Gospel of Philip, dating from the second or third century, survives in part among the texts found in Nag Hammadi in 1945.Template:Efn In a manner very similar to Template:Bibleverse, the Gospel of Philip presents Mary Magdalene among Jesus's female entourage, adding that she was his koinônos,Template:Sfn a Greek word variously translated in contemporary versions as 'partner, associate, comrade, companion':<ref>Thayer and Smith. "Greek Lexicon entry for Koinonos". The New Testament Greek Lexicon. {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn

There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, who was called his companion. His sister,Template:Efn his mother and his companion were each a Mary. {{#if:Template:Harvnb|{{#if:|}}
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The Gospel of Philip uses cognates of koinônos and Coptic equivalents to refer to the literal pairing of men and women in marriage and sexual intercourse, but also metaphorically, referring to a spiritual partnership, and the reunification of the Gnostic Christian with the divine realm.Template:Sfn The Gospel of Philip also contains another passage relating to Jesus's relationship with Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn The text is badly fragmented, and speculated but unreliable additions are shown in brackets:

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For early Christians, kissing did not have a romantic connotation and it was common for Christians to kiss their fellow believers as a way of greeting.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Efn This tradition is still practiced in many Christian congregations today and is known as the "kiss of peace".Template:Sfn Ehrman explains that, in the context of the Gospel of Philip, the kiss of peace is used as a symbol for the passage of truth from one person to anotherTemplate:Sfn and that it is not in any way an act of "divine foreplay".Template:Sfn

Gospel of MaryEdit

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File:Gospel of Mary.jpg

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus L 3525, a fragment of the Greek text of the Gospel of Mary

The Gospel of Mary is the only surviving apocryphal text named after a woman.Template:Sfn It contains information about the role of women in the early church.Template:Sfn<ref name="GOM" /> The text was probably written over a century after the historical Mary Magdalene's death.Template:Sfn The text is not attributed to her and its author is anonymous.Template:Sfn Instead, it received its title because it is about her.Template:Sfn The main surviving text comes from a Coptic translation preserved in a fifth-century manuscript (Berolinensis Gnosticus 8052,1) discovered in Cairo in 1896.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="GOM" /> As a result of numerous intervening conflicts, the manuscript was not published until 1955.Template:Sfn Roughly half the text of the gospel in this manuscript has been lost;Template:Sfn Template:Sfn the first six pages and four from the middle are missing.Template:Sfn In addition to this Coptic translation, two brief third-century fragments of the gospel in the original Greek (P. Rylands 463 and P. Oxyrhynchus 3525) have also been discovered, which were published in 1938 and 1983 respectively.Template:Sfn<ref name="GOM" />

The first part of the gospel deals with Jesus's parting words to his followers after a post-resurrection appearance.Template:Sfn Mary first appears in the second part, in which she tells the other disciples, who are all in fright for their own lives: "Do not weep or grieve or be in doubt, for his grace will be with you all and will protect you. Rather, let us praise his greatness, for he has prepared us and made us truly human."Template:Sfn Unlike in the Gospel of Thomas, where women can only be saved by becoming men, in the Gospel of Mary, they can be saved just as they are.Template:Sfn Peter approaches Mary and asks her:

"Sister we know that the Saviour loved you more than the rest of woman. Tell us the words of the Saviour which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them". Mary answered and said, "What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you". And she began to speak to them these words: "I", she said, "I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision".{{#if:Template:Harvnb|{{#if:|}}
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Mary then proceeds to describe the Gnostic cosmology in depth, revealing that she is the only one who has understood Jesus's true teachings.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Andrew the Apostle challenges Mary, insisting, "Say what you think about what she said, but I do not believe the savior said this. These teachings are strange ideas."Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Peter responds, saying, "Did he really speak with a woman in private, without our knowledge? Should we all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?"Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Andrew and Peter's responses are intended to demonstrate that they do not understand Jesus's teachingsTemplate:Sfn Template:Sfn and that it is really only Mary who truly understands.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Matthew the Apostle comes to Mary's defense, giving a sharp rebuke to Peter:Template:Sfn Template:Sfn "Peter, you are always angry. Now I see you arguing against this woman like an adversary. If the savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? Surely the savior knows her well. That is why he loved her more than us."Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Borborite scripturesEdit

The Borborites, also known as the Phibionites, were an early Christian Gnostic sect during the late fourth century who had numerous scriptures involving Mary Magdalene,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn including The Questions of Mary, The Greater Questions of Mary, The Lesser Questions of Mary, and The Birth of Mary.Template:Sfn None of these texts have survived to the present,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but they are mentioned by the early Christian heretic-hunter Epiphanius of Salamis in his Panarion.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="Epiphanius">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Epiphanius says that the Greater Questions of Mary contained an episode in which, during a post-resurrection appearance, Jesus took Mary to the top of a mountain, where he pulled a woman out of his side and engaged in sexual intercourse with her.Template:Sfn<ref name="Epiphanius"/> Then, upon ejaculating, Jesus drank his own semen and told Mary, "Thus we must do, that we may live."Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="Epiphanius"/> Upon hearing this, Mary instantly fainted, to which Jesus responded by helping her up and telling her, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="Epiphanius"/> This story was supposedly the basis for the Borborite Eucharist ritual in which they allegedly engaged in orgies and drank semen and menstrual blood as the "body and blood of Christ" respectively.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Ehrman casts doubt on the accuracy of Epiphanius's summary, commenting that "the details of Epiphanius's description sound very much like what you can find in the ancient rumor mill about secret societies in the ancient world".Template:Sfn

LegacyEdit

Patristic eraEdit

File:Dura Europos baptistry women at the tomb.jpg

This fresco from the nave of the Dura-Europos church dates to Template:Circa Template:Sfn and contains the oldest surviving depiction of Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn She is shown alongside two other women (the third now almost completely missing due to extensive damage),Template:Sfn each holding a lit torch and a bowl of myrrh, as they approach Jesus's tomb, which is still sealed.Template:Sfn

Most of the earliest Church Fathers do not mention Mary Magdalene,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and those who do mention her usually only discuss her very briefly.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In his anti-Christian polemic The True Word, written between 170 and 180, the pagan philosopher Celsus declared that Mary Magdalene was nothing more than "a hysterical female... who either dreamt in a certain state of mind and through wishful thinking had a hallucination due to some mistaken notion (an experience which has happened to thousands), or, which is more likely, wanted to impress others by telling this fantastic tale, and so by this cock-and-bull story to provide a chance for other beggars".Template:Sfn The Church Father Origen (Template:Circa 184 – Template:Circa 253) defended Christianity against this accusation in his apologetic treatise Against Celsus, mentioning Template:Bibleverse, which lists Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" both seeing the resurrected Jesus, thus providing a second witness.Template:Sfn Origen also preserves a statement from Celsus that some Christians in his day followed the teachings of a woman named "Mariamme", who is almost certainly Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Origen merely dismisses this, remarking that Celsus "pours on us a heap of names".Template:Sfn

A sermon attributed to Hippolytus of Rome (Template:Circa 170 – 235) refers to Mary of Bethany and her sister Martha seeking Jesus in the garden like Mary Magdalene in Template:Bibleverse, indicating a conflation between Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn The sermon describes the conflated woman as a "second Eve" who compensates for the disobedience of the first Eve through her obedience.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The sermon also explicitly identifies Mary Magdalene and the other women as "apostles".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The first clear identification of Mary Magdalene as a redeemed sinner comes from Ephrem the Syrian (Template:Circa 306 – 373).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Part of the reason for the identification of Mary Magdalene as a sinner may derive from the reputation of her birthplace, Magdala,Template:Sfn which, by the late first century, was infamous for its inhabitants' alleged vice and licentiousness.Template:Sfn

In one of his preserved sayings, Gregory of Nyssa (Template:Circa 330 – 395) identifies Mary Magdalene as "the first witness to the resurrection, that she might set straight again by her faith in the resurrection, what was turned over in her transgression".Template:Sfn Ambrose (Template:Circa 340 – 397), by contrast, not only rejected the conflation of Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the anointing sinner,Template:Sfn but even proposed that the authentic Mary Magdalene was, in fact, two separate people:Template:Sfn Template:Sfn one woman named Mary Magdalene who discovered the empty tomb and a different Mary Magdalene who saw the risen Christ.Template:Sfn Augustine of Hippo (354–430) entertained the possibility that Mary of Bethany and the unnamed sinner from Luke might be the same person,Template:Sfn but did not associate Mary Magdalene with either of them.Template:Sfn Instead, Augustine praised Mary Magdalene as "unquestionably... surpassingly more ardent in her love than these other women who had administered to the Lord".Template:Sfn

Portrayal as a prostituteEdit

The portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute began in 591, when Pope Gregory I identified Mary Magdalene, who was introduced in Luke 8:2, with Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:39) and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anointed Jesus's feet in Luke 7:36–50.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Pope Gregory's Easter sermon resulted in a widespread belief that Mary Magdalene was a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman.<ref name="BBC"/>Template:Sfn

Her reputation in Western Christianity as being a repentant prostitute or loose woman are not supported by the canonical gospels, which at no point imply that she had ever been a prostitute or in any way notable for a sinful way of life.<ref name="BBC" />Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The misconception probably arose due to a conflation between Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany (who anoints Jesus's feet in Template:Bibleverse), and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus's feet in Template:Bibleverse.<ref name="BBC" />Template:Sfn Template:Sfn As early as the third century, the Church Father Tertullian (Template:Circa 160 – 225) references the touch of "the woman which was a sinner" in effort to prove that Jesus "was not a phantom, but really a solid body".Template:Sfn This may indicate that Mary Magdalene was already being conflated with the "sinful woman" in Template:Bibleverse, though Tertullian never clearly identifies the woman of whom he speaks as Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn

Elaborate medieval legends from Western Europe then emerged, which told exaggerated tales of Mary Magdalene's wealth and beauty, as well as of her alleged journey to southern Gaul (modern-day France). The identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed "sinful woman" was still a major controversy in the years leading up to the Reformation, and some Protestant leaders rejected it. During the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church emphasized Mary Magdalene as a symbol of penance. In 1969, Pope Paul VI removed the identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany and the "sinful woman" from the General Roman Calendar, but the view of her as a former prostitute has persisted in popular culture.

Early Middle AgesEdit

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The unnamed "sinful woman" in Template:Bibleverse is never identified as a prostituteTemplate:Sfn and, in Jewish society at the time the gospel was written, "sinful" could have simply meant that she "did not assiduously observe the law of Moses".Template:Sfn The notion of Mary Magdalene specifically being a former prostitute or loose woman dates to a narrative in an influential homily by Pope Gregory I ("Gregory the Great") in around 591,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn in which he not only identifies Magdalene with the anonymous sinner with the perfume in Luke's gospel and with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus,Template:Sfn but also, for the first time, explicitly identifies her sins as ones of a sexual nature:Template:Sfn

She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. What did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices? It is clear, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts. What she therefore displayed more scandalously, she was now offering to God in a more praiseworthy manner. She had coveted with earthly eyes, but now through penitence these are consumed with tears. She displayed her hair to set off her face, but now her hair dries her tears. She had spoken proud things with her mouth, but in kissing the Lord's feet, she now planted her mouth on the Redeemer's feet. For every delight, therefore, she had had in herself, she now immolated herself. She turned the mass of her crimes to virtues, in order to serve God entirely in penance.{{#if:Template:HarvnbPope Gregory I (homily XXXIII)|{{#if:|}}
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In Pope Gregory's interpretation, the seven demons expelled from Mary Magdalene by Jesus are transformed into the seven deadly sins of medieval Catholicism,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn leading Mary "to be condemned not only for lust, but for pride and covetousness as well".Template:Sfn The aspect of the repentant sinner became almost equally significant as the disciple in her persona as depicted in Western art and religious literature, fitting well with the great importance of penitence in medieval theology. In subsequent religious legend, Mary's story became conflated with that of Mary of Egypt, a repentant prostitute who then lived as a hermit. With that, Mary's image was, according to Susan Haskins, author of Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor, "finally settled...for nearly fourteen hundred years",Template:Sfn although in fact the most important late medieval popular accounts of her life describe her as a rich woman whose life of sexual freedom is purely for pleasure.<ref>Johnston, 64; the accounts are the Life in the Golden Legend, French Passion Plays, and her main subject, the Vie de La Magdaleine by François Demoulins de Rochefort, written 1516–17 (see p. 11)</ref> This composite depiction of Mary Magdalene was carried into the Mass texts for her feast day: in the Tridentine Mass, the collect explicitly identifies her as Mary of Bethany by describing Lazarus as her brother, and the Gospel is the story of the penitent woman anointing Jesus's feet.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The "composite Magdalene" was never accepted by the Eastern Orthodox churches, who saw only Mary the disciple, and believed that after the Resurrection she lived as a companion to Mary the mother of Jesus, and not even in the West was it universally accepted. The Benedictine Order always celebrated Mary of Bethany together with Martha and Lazarus of Bethany on July 29, while Mary Magdalene was celebrated on July 22.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Not only John Chrysostom in the East (Matthew, Homily 88), but also Ambrose (De virginitate 3,14; 4,15) in the West, when speaking of Mary Magdalene after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, far from calling her a harlot, suggest she was a virgin.<ref name="Hufstader"/> Starting in around the eighth century, Christian sources record mention of a church in Magdala purported to have been built on the site of Mary Magdalene's house, where Jesus exorcized her of the seven demons.Template:Sfn

In an eastern tradition supported by the western bishop and historian Gregory of Tours (Template:Circa 538 – 594), Mary Magdalene is said to have retired to Ephesus in Asia Minor with Mary the mother of Jesus, where they both lived out the rest of their lives.<ref>Gregory of Tours, De miraculis, I, xxx.</ref>Template:Sfn Gregory states that Mary Magdalene was buried in the city of Ephesus.Template:Sfn Modestus, the Patriarch of Jerusalem from 630 until 634, describes a slightly different tradition that Mary Magdalene had come to Ephesus to live with the apostle John following the death of Mary the mother of Jesus.Template:Sfn

High Middle AgesEdit

Fictional biographiesEdit

Starting in early High Middle Ages, writers in western Europe began developing elaborate fictional biographies of Mary Magdalene's life, in which they heavily embellished upon the vague details given in the gospels.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Stories about noble saints were popular during this time period;Template:Sfn accordingly, tales of Mary Magdalene's wealth and social status became heavily exaggerated.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In the tenth century, Odo of Cluny (Template:Circa 880 – 942) wrote a sermon in which he described Mary as an extraordinarily wealthy noblewoman of royal descent.Template:Sfn Some manuscripts of the sermon record that Mary's parents were named Syrus and EuchariaTemplate:Sfn and one manuscript goes into great detail describing her family's purported land holdings in Bethany, Jerusalem, and Magdala.Template:Sfn

The theologian Honorius Augustodunensis (Template:Circa 1080 – Template:Circa 1151) embellished this tale even further, reporting that Mary was a wealthy noblewoman who was married in "Magdalum",Template:Sfn but that she committed adultery, so she fled to Jerusalem and became a "public sinner" (vulgaris meretrix).Template:Sfn Honorius mentions that, out of love for Jesus, Mary repented and withdrew into a life of quiet isolation.Template:Sfn Under the influence of stories about other female saints, such as Mary of Egypt and Pelagia,Template:Sfn painters in Italy during the ninth and tenth centuries gradually began to develop the image of Mary Magdalene living alone in the desert as a penitent ascetic.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn This portrayal became so popular that it quickly spread to Germany and England.Template:Sfn From the twelfth century, Abbot Hugh of Semur (died 1109), Peter Abelard (died 1142), and Geoffrey of Vendôme (died 1132) all referred to Mary Magdalene as the sinner who merited the title apostolorum apostola (Apostle to the Apostles), with the title becoming commonplace during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.Template:Sfn

Alleged burial in FranceEdit

In western Europe, elaborate and conflicting legends began to develop, which said that Mary Magdalene had travelled to southern France and died there.Template:Sfn Starting in around 1050, the monks of the Vézelay Abbey of la Madaleine in Burgundy said they discovered Mary Magdalene's actual skeleton.<ref>See Johnston, 111–115 on the rise and fall of Vézelay as a cult centre</ref>Template:Sfn At first, the existence of the skeleton was merely asserted,Template:Sfn but, in 1265, the monks made a spectacular, public show of "discovering" itTemplate:Sfn and, in 1267, the bones were brought before the king of France, who venerated them.Template:Sfn On December 9, 1279, an excavation ordered by Charles II, King of Naples at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, Provence, led to the discovery of another purported burial of Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The shrine was purportedly found intact, with an explanatory inscription stating why the relics had been hidden.Template:Sfn Charles II commissioned the building of a new gothic basilica on the site and, in return for providing accommodation for pilgrims, the town's residents were exempt from taxes.Template:Sfn Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume gradually displaced Vézelay in popularity and acceptance.Template:Sfn

File:Copiebasiliquereliquaire.jpg

In 1279, the monks of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume said they discovered Mary Magdalene's skeleton.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The reliquary at St. Maximin, created in the nineteenth century, contains her purported skull.

The Golden LegendEdit

File:Torun SS Johns Mary Magdalene.jpg

International Gothic Elevation of Mary Magdalene with angels raising her in SS. Johns' Cathedral in Toruń

The most famous account of Mary Magdalene's legendary life comes from The Golden Legend, a collection of medieval saints' stories compiled circa 1260 by the Italian writer and Dominican friar Jacobus de Voragine (Template:Circa 1230 – 1298).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In this account, Mary Magdalene is, in Ehrman's words, "fabulously rich, insanely beautiful, and outrageously sensual",Template:Sfn but she gives up her life of wealth and sin to become a devoted follower of Jesus.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Fourteen years after Jesus's crucifixion, some pagans throw Mary, Martha, Lazarus (who, in this account, is their brother due to a conflation with Mary of Bethany), and two other Christians named Maximin and Cedonius onto a rudderless boat in the Mediterranean to die.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Miraculously, however, the boat washes ashore at Marseille in southern France.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Mary persuades the governor of the city not to offer sacrifices to a pagan godTemplate:Sfn and later persuades him to convert to Christianity after she proves the Christian God's power by successfully praying to Him to make the governor's wife pregnant.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The governor and his wife sail for Rome to meet the apostle Peter in person,Template:Sfn but their ship is struck by a storm, which causes the wife to go into labor.Template:Sfn The wife dies in childbirth and the governor leaves her on an island with the still-living infant at her breast.Template:Sfn The governor spends two years with Peter in RomeTemplate:Sfn and, on his way home, he stops at the same island to discover that, due to Mary Magdalene's miraculous long-distance intercession, his child has survived for two years on his dead mother's breast milk.Template:Sfn Then the governor's wife rises from the dead and tells him that Mary Magdalene has brought her back.Template:Sfn The whole family returns to Marseille, where they meet Mary again in person.Template:Sfn Mary herself spends the last thirty years of her life alone as a penitent ascetic in a cave in a desert in the French region of Provence.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref>Ecole française de Rome, (1992).</ref>Template:Sfn At every canonical hour, the angels come and lift her up to hear their songs in Heaven.Template:Sfn On the last day of her life, Maximin, now the bishop of Aix, comes to her and gives her the Eucharist.Template:Sfn Mary cries tears of joyTemplate:Sfn and, after taking it, she lies down and dies.Template:Sfn De Voragine gives the common account of the transfer of Mary Magdalene's relics from her sepulchre in the oratory of Saint Maximin at Aix-en-Provence to the newly founded Vézelay;<ref>"the Abbey of Vesoul" in William Caxton's translation.</ref> the transportation of the relics is entered as undertaken in 771 by the founder of the abbey, identified as Gerard, Duke of Burgundy.<ref name="GoldenLegend">Golden Legend</ref>

Spouse of John the EvangelistEdit

The monk and historian Domenico Cavalca (Template:Circa 1270 – 1342), citing Jerome, suggested that Mary Magdalene was betrothed to John the Evangelist: "I like to think that the Magdalene was the spouse of John, not affirming it... I am glad and blythe that St Jerome should say so."Template:Sfn They were sometimes thought to be the couple at the Wedding at Cana, though the Gospel accounts say nothing of the ceremony being abandoned. In the Golden Legend, De Voragine dismisses talk of John and Mary being betrothed and John leaving his bride at the altar to follow Jesus as nonsense.<ref name="GoldenLegend" />

Late Middle Ages and RenaissanceEdit

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The thirteenth-century Cistercian monk and chronicler Peter of Vaux de Cernay said it was part of Catharist belief that the earthly Jesus Christ had a relationship with Mary Magdalene, described as his concubine: "Further, in their secret meetings they said that the Christ who was born in the earthly and visible Bethlehem and crucified at Jerusalem was "evil", and that Mary Magdalene was his concubine – and that she was the woman taken in adultery who is referred to in the Scriptures."<ref>W. A. Sibly, M. D. Sibly, The History of the Albigensian Crusade: Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay's "Historia Albigensis" (Boydell, 1998). Template:ISBN.</ref> A document, possibly written by Ermengaud of Béziers, undated and anonymous and attached to his Treatise against Heretics,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> makes a similar statement:<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref>

Also they [the Cathars] teach in their secret meetings that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Christ. She was the Samaritan woman to whom He said, "Call thy husband". She was the woman taken into adultery, whom Christ set free lest the Jews stone her, and she was with Him in three places, in the temple, at the well, and in the garden. After the Resurrection, He appeared first to her.<ref>Walter L. Wakefield, Austin P. Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages: Translated with Notes, page 234 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991). Template:ISBN. The authors speculate on page 230 that this could have been the source used by Peter of Vaux de Cernay.</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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In the middle of the fourteenth century, a Dominican friar wrote a biography of Mary Magdalene in which he described her brutally mutilating herself after giving up prostitution,Template:Sfn clawing at her legs until they bled, tearing out clumps of her hair, and beating her face with her fists and her breasts with stones.Template:Sfn This portrayal of her inspired the sculptor Donatello (Template:Circa 1386 – 1466) to portray her as a gaunt and beaten ascetic in his wooden sculpture Penitent Magdalene (Template:Circa 1454) for the Florence Baptistery.Template:Sfn In 1449, King René d'Anjou gave to Angers Cathedral the amphora from Cana in which Jesus changed water to wine, acquiring it from the nuns of Marseilles, who told him that Mary Magdalene had brought it with her from Judea, relating to the legend where she was the jilted bride at the wedding after which John the Evangelist received his calling from Jesus.Template:Efn

Reformation and Counter-ReformationEdit

File:RubensSimonCyreneCarriesCross.jpg

Christ and the Penitent Sinners (1617) by Peter Paul Rubens is a typical example of how Mary Magdalene was portrayed during the Baroque era, emphasizing her erotic allure and blurring the lines between religious and erotic art.Template:Sfn

In 1517, on the brink of the Protestant Reformation, the leading French Renaissance humanist Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples published his book De Maria Magdalena et triduo Christi disceptatio (Disputation on Mary Magdalene and the Three Days of Christ), in which he argued against the conflation of Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the unnamed sinner in Luke.<ref name="Hufstader">Hufstader, 32–40, and throughout the rest of the article</ref>Template:Sfn Various authors published a flurry of books and pamphlets in response, the vast majority of which opposed Lefèvre d'Étaples.<ref name="Hufstader"/>Template:Sfn In 1521, the theology faculty of the Sorbonne formally condemned the idea that the three women were separate people as heretical,<ref name="Hufstader"/>Template:Sfn and debate died down, overtaken by the larger issues raised by Martin Luther.<ref name="Hufstader"/>Template:Sfn Luther and Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) both supported the composite Magdalene.<ref name="Henderson 2004, pp. 8–14">Henderson (2004), pp. 8–14</ref> Luther, whose views on sexuality were much more liberal than those of his fellow reformers,Template:Sfn reportedly once joked to a group of friends that "even pious Christ himself" had committed adultery three times: once with Mary Magdalene, once with the Samaritan woman at the well, and once with the adulteress he had let off so easily.Template:Sfn Because the cult of Mary Magdalene was inextricably associated with the Catholic teaching of the intercession of saints,Template:Sfn it came under particularly harsh criticism by Protestant leaders.Template:Sfn Zwingli demanded for the cult of Mary Magdalene to be abolished and all images of her to be destroyed.Template:Sfn John Calvin (1509–1564) not only rejected the composite Magdalene,Template:Sfn<ref name="Henderson 2004, pp. 8–14" /> but criticized Catholics as ignorant for having ever believed in it.Template:Sfn

During the Counter-Reformation, Roman Catholicism began to strongly emphasize Mary Magdalene's role as a penitent sinner.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Her medieval role as a patron and advocate became minimizedTemplate:Sfn and her penitence became regarded as her most important aspect, especially in France and in the Catholic portions of southern Germany.Template:Sfn A massive number of Baroque paintings and sculptures depict the penitent Magdalene,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn often showing her naked or partially naked, with a strong emphasis on her erotic beauty.Template:Sfn Poems about Mary Magdalene's repentance were also popular.Template:Sfn Anton Giulio Brignole-Sale's Maria Maddalena peccatrice convertita (1636) is considered one of the masterpieces of the 17th-century religious novel, depicting the Magdalen's tormented journey to repentance convincingly and with psychological subtlety.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Estates of nobles and royalty in southern Germany were equipped with so-called "Magdalene cells", small, modest hermitages that functioned as both chapels and dwellings, where the nobility could retreat to find religious solace.Template:Sfn They were usually located in wild areas away from the rest of the propertyTemplate:Sfn and their exteriors were designed to suggest vulnerability.Template:Sfn

Modern eraEdit

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File:Maria Maddalena, 1893.jpg

Penitent Magdalene (1893) by Adolfo Tommasi

Because of the legends saying that Mary Magdalene had been a prostitute, she became the patroness of "wayward women", and, in the eighteenth century, moral reformers established Magdalene asylums to help save women from prostitution.<ref>John Trigilio Jr., Kenneth Brighenti, Saints For Dummies, pages 52–53 (Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2010). Template:ISBN</ref> Edgar Saltus's historical fiction novel Mary Magdalene: A Chronicle (1891) depicts her as a heroine living in a castle at Magdala, who moves to Rome becoming the "toast of the tetrarchy", telling John the Baptist she will "drink pearls... sup on peacock's tongues". St Peter Julian Eymard calls her "the patroness and model of a life spent in the adoration and service of Jesus in the sacrament of His Love".<ref>Robert Kiefer Webb, Richard J. Helmstadter (editors), Religion and Irreligion in Victorian Society: Essays in Honor of R.K. Webb, p. 119 (London: Routledge, 1991). Template:ISBN</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The common identification of Mary Magdalene with other New Testament figures was omitted in the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, with the comment regarding her liturgical celebration on July 22: "No change has been made in the title of today's memorial, but it concerns only Saint Mary Magdalene, to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection. It is not about the sister of Saint Martha, nor about the sinful woman whose sins the Lord forgave."<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref><ref>Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 131</ref> Elsewhere it said of the Roman liturgy of July 22 that "it will make mention neither of Mary of Bethany nor of the sinful woman of Luke 7:36–50, but only of Mary Magdalene, the first person to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection".<ref>Calendarium Romanum (1969), p. 98</ref> According to historian Michael Haag, these changes were a quiet admission from the Vatican that the Church's previous teaching of Mary Magdalene as a repentant whore had been wrong.Template:Sfn Mary of Bethany's feast day and that of her brother Lazarus is now on July 29, the memorial of their sister Martha.<ref>Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001, Template:ISBN), p. 398</ref>

Nonetheless, despite the Vatican's rejection of it, the view of Mary as a repentant prostitute only grew more prevalent in popular culture.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn She is portrayed as one in Nikos Kazantzakis's 1955 novel The Last Temptation of Christ and Martin Scorsese's 1988 film adaptation of it,Template:Sfn in which Jesus, as he is dying on the cross, has a vision from Satan of what it would be like if he married Mary Magdalene and raised a family with her instead of dying for humanity's sins.Template:Sfn Mary is likewise portrayed as a reformed prostitute in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's 1971 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In Superstar, Mary describes her sexual attraction to Jesus in the song "I Don't Know How to Love Him", which shocked many of the play's original viewers.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Ki Longfellow's novel The Secret Magdalene (2005) draws on the Gnostic gospels and other sources to portray Mary as a brilliant and dynamic woman who studies at the fabled library of Alexandria, and shares her knowledge with Jesus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lady Gaga's song "Judas" (2011) is sung from Mary's perspective, portraying her as a prostitute who is "beyond repentance".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The 2018 film Mary Magdalene, starring Rooney Mara as the eponymous character, sought to reverse the centuries-old portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute, while also combating the conspiracy statements of her being Jesus's wife or sexual partner.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Instead, the film portrays her as Jesus's closest discipleTemplate:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and the only one who truly understands his teachings.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn This portrayal is partially based on the Gnostic Gospel of Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn The film, which has been described as having a "strongly feminist bent",Template:Sfn was praised for its music score and cinematography,Template:Sfn its surprising faithfulness to the Biblical narrative,Template:Sfn and its acting,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but was criticized as slow-moving,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn overwritten,Template:Sfn and too solemn to be believable.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn It was also criticized by many Christians, who were offended by the film's use of extracanonical source material.Template:Sfn

In Western artEdit

File:Guido Reni - The Penitent Magdalene - Google Art Project.jpg

CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The early notion of Mary Magdalene as a sinner and adulteress was reflected in Western medieval Christian art, where she was the most commonly depicted female figure after the Virgin Mary. She may be shown either as very extravagantly and fashionably dressed, unlike other female figures wearing contemporary styles of clothes, or alternatively as completely naked but covered by very long blonde or reddish-blonde hair. The latter depictions represent the Penitent Magdalene, according to the medieval legend that she had spent a period of repentance as a desert hermit after leaving her life as a follower of Jesus.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Her story became conflated in the West with that of Mary of Egypt, a fourth-century prostitute turned hermit, whose clothes wore out and fell off in the desert.Template:Sfn The widespread artistic representations of Mary Magdalene in tears are the source of the modern English word maudlin,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn meaning 'sickeningly sentimental or emotional'.Template:Sfn

In medieval depictions Mary's long hair entirely covers her body and preserves her modesty (supplemented in some German versions such as one by Tilman Riemenschneider by thick body hair),Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but, from the sixteenth century, some depictions, like those by Titian, show part of her naked body, the amount of nudity tending to increase in successive periods. Even if covered, she often wears only a drape pulled around her, or an undergarment. In particular, Mary is often shown naked in the legendary scene of her "Elevation", where she is sustained in the desert by angels who raise her up and feed her heavenly manna, as recounted in the Golden Legend.Template:Sfn

Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross during the Crucifixion appears in an eleventh-century English manuscript "as an expressional device rather than a historical motif", intended as "the expression of an emotional assimilation of the event, that leads the spectator to identify himself with the mourners".<ref>Schiller, II, 116</ref> Other isolated depictions occur, but, from the thirteenth century, additions to the Virgin Mary and John as the spectators at the Crucifixion become more common, with Mary Magdalene as the most frequently found, either kneeling at the foot of the cross clutching the shaft, sometimes kissing Christ's feet, or standing, usually at the left and behind Mary and John, with her arms stretched upwards towards Christ in a gesture of grief, as in a damaged painting by Cimabue in the upper church at Assisi of Template:Circa 1290. A kneeling Magdalene by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel (Template:Circa 1305) was especially influential.<ref>Schiller, II, 152–154</ref> As Gothic painted crucifixions became crowded compositions, the Magdalene became a prominent figure, with a halo and identifiable by her long unbound blonde hair, and usually a bright red dress. As the swooning Virgin Mary became more common, generally occupying the attention of John, the unrestrained gestures of Magdalene increasingly represented the main display of the grief of the spectators.<ref>Schiller, II, 154–158</ref>

According to Robert Kiely, "No figure in the Christian Pantheon except Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and John the Baptist has inspired, provoked, or confounded the imagination of painters more than the Magdalene."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Apart from the Crucifixion, Mary was often shown in scenes of the Passion of Jesus, when mentioned in the Gospels, such as the Crucifixion, Christ Carrying the Cross and Noli me Tangere, but usually omitted in other scenes showing the Twelve Apostles, such as the Last Supper. As Mary of Bethany, she is shown as present at the Resurrection of Lazarus, her brother, and in the scene with Jesus and her sister Martha, which began to be depicted often in the seventeenth century, as in Christ in the House of Martha and Mary by Velázquez.<ref>Schiller, Gertud, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I, pp. 158–159, 1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, Template:ISBN</ref>

Gallery

Angelico, noli me tangere.jpg

Noli me tangere (Template:Circa 1440 – 1442), fresco by Fra Angelico
María Magdalena leyendo, por Piero di Cosimo.jpg

Mary Magdalene Reading (Template:Circa 1500 – 1510) by Piero di Cosimo
Tizian 050.jpg

Noli me tangere (Template:Circa 1512) by Titian
Ambrosius Benson - Mary Magdalene - WGA1890.jpg

Mary Magdalene (early 1500s) by Ambrosius Benson
Giampietrino Magdalena penitente Hermitage.jpg

Magdalena Penitente (early 1500s) by Giampietrino
Maino Magdalena penitente 1615 col par Ginebra.jpg

Mary Magdalene (1615) by Juan Bautista Maíno
El Greco - The Penitent Magdalene - Google Art Project.jpg

Penitent Magdalene (Template:Circa 1576 – 1578) by El Greco
Artemisia Gentileschi Mary Magdalene Pitti.jpg

Mary Magdalene (1615–1616 or 1620–1625) by Artemisia Gentileschi
Lille Pdba rubens marie madeleine.JPG

St Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (Template:Circa 1619 – 1620) by Peter Paul Rubens
José de Ribera 024.jpg

Mary Magdalene (1641) by José de Ribera
Georges de La Tour - Magdalen of Night Light - WGA12337.jpg

Magdalene with the Smoking Flame (Template:Circa 1640) by Georges de La Tour
Pietro da Cortona - Cristo appare a Maria Maddalena.jpg

Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene (between 1640 and 1650) by Pietro da Cortona
George Romney - Lady Hamilton as The Magdalene.jpg

The Magdalene (before 1792) by George Romney
Mariya Magdalena.jpg

Mary Magdalene (1858–1860) by Frederick Sandys
Alfred Stevens (1823–1906) - Maria Magdalena - 1887 - MSK Gent 17-03-2009 12-18-27.JPG

Sarah Bernhardt as Maria Magdalena (1887) by Alfred Stevens
Albert Edelfelt - Christ and Mary Magdalene, a Finnish Legend - Google Art Project.jpg

Christ and Mary Magdalene (1890) by Albert Edelfelt in a Finnish locale
Carlo Marochetti, La Madeleine du groupe sculptural le Ravissement de sainte Marie-Madeleine. 1843. Marbre. Maître-autel de l'église de la Madeleine de Paris. Photo, Jamie Mulherron.jpg

The Ecstasay of Mary Magdalene (1843) by Carlo Marochetti, located in La Madeleine

In musicEdit

The Byzantine composer Kassia wrote the only penitential hymn for Mary Magdalene, Kyrie hē en pollais.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia Template:Grove Music subscription</ref>
Marc-Antoine Charpentier:<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia Template:Grove Music subscription</ref>
- Magdalena lugens voce sola cum symphonia, H.343 & H.343 a, motet for 1 voice, 2 treble instruments and continuo (1686–1687).
- For Mary Magdalene, H.373, motet for 2 voices, 2 flutes and continuo (date unknown).
- Magdalena lugens, H.388, motet for 3 voices and continuo (date unknown).
- Dialogus inter Magdalena et Jesum 2 vocibus Canto e Alto cum organo, H.423, for 2 voices and continuo (date unknown).
American recording artist Lady Gaga assumes the role of Mary Magdalene, whom she found a "feminine force", in her 2011 song "Bloody Mary".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
English singer-songwriter FKA Twigs released album Magdalene in 2019, saying that she related to the way Mary Magdalene's narrative was revised.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Religious viewsEdit

File:Maria Magdalene icon.jpg

Eastern Orthodox icon of Mary Magdalene as a Myrrhbearer

Eastern OrthodoxEdit

The Eastern Orthodox Church has never identified Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany or the "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus in Luke 7:36–50Template:Sfn and has always taught that Mary was a virtuous woman her entire life, even before her conversion.Template:Sfn They have never celebrated her as a penitent.Template:Sfn Mary Magdalene's image did not become conflated with other women mentioned in Biblical texts until Pope Gregory the Great's sermon in the sixth century, and even then this only occurred in Western traditions. Instead, she has traditionally been honored as a "Myrrhbearer" (Μυροφόρος; the equivalent of the western Three Marys)Template:Sfn and "Equal to the Apostles" (ἰσαπόστολος).Template:Sfn For centuries, it has been the custom of many Eastern Orthodox Christians to share dyed and painted eggs, particularly on Easter Sunday. The eggs represent new life, and Christ bursting forth from the tomb. Among Eastern Orthodox Christians this sharing is accompanied by the proclamation "Christ is risen!" One folk tradition concerning Mary Magdalene says that following the death and resurrection of Jesus, she used her position to gain an invitation to a banquet given by the Roman emperor Tiberius in Rome. When she met him, she held a plain egg in her hand and exclaimed, "Christ is risen!". The emperor laughed, and said that Christ rising from the dead was as likely as the egg in her hand turning red while she held it. Before he finished speaking, the egg in her hand turned a bright red and she continued proclaiming the Gospel to the entire imperial house.<ref>Abernethy and Beaty, The Folklore of Texan Cultures, Denton University of North Texas Press, 2000, p. 261.</ref>

Roman CatholicismEdit

File:Erhart-madalena.jpg

Mary Magdalene by Gregor Erhart (died 1525)

During the Counter-Reformation and Baroque periods (late 16th and 17th centuries), the description "penitent" was added to the indication of her name on her feast day, July 22. It had not yet been added at the time of the Tridentine calendar of 1569 and is no longer found in the present General Roman Calendar but, once added, it remained until the General Roman Calendar of 1960.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Gospel reading in the Tridentine Mass was Luke 7:36–50<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> (the sinful woman anointing the feet of Jesus), while in the present version of the Roman Rite of Mass it is John 20:1–2, 11–18<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> (meeting of Mary Magdalene with Jesus after his resurrection).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="McLaughlin">Mclaughlin, Lisa and David Van Biema. "Mary Magdalene Saint or Sinner?" timeonline.com Template:Webarchive, August 11, 2003. Accessed June 7, 2009</ref>

File:The Holy Women at the Sepulchre by Peter Paul Rubens.jpg

The Three Marys at the Tomb by Peter Paul Rubens, with Mary Magdalene in red

According to Darrell Bock, the title of apostola apostolorum first appears in the 10th century,Template:Sfn but Katherine Ludwig Jansen says she found no reference to it earlier than the 12th century, by which time it was already commonplace.Template:Sfn She mentions in particular Hugh of Cluny (1024–1109), Peter Abelard (1079–1142), and Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) among those who gave Mary Magdalene the title of apostolorum apostola (apostle of the apostles). Jane Schaberg adds Geoffrey of Vendôme (Template:Circa/70 – 1132).Template:Sfn

The equivalent of the phrase apostolorum apostola may have appeared already in the 9th century. Chapter XXVII of the Life of Mary Magdalene attributed to Hrabanus Maurus (c. 780 – 784 February 856) is headed: Ubi Magdalenam Christus ad apostolos mittit apostolam (Wherein Christ sends Magdalene as an apostle to the apostles).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The same chapter says she did not delay in exercising the office of apostolate with which he had been honored (apostolatus officio quo honorata fuerat fungi non distulit).<ref>PL 112, 1475A</ref> Raymond E. Brown, commenting on this fact, remarks that Hrabanus Maurus frequently applies the word "apostle" to Mary Magdalene in this work.Template:Sfn However the work is actually no earlier than the 12th century.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Because of Mary Magdalene's position as an apostle, though not one of those who became official witnesses to the resurrection, the Catholic Church honored her by reciting the Gloria on her feast day – the only female saint so honored apart from Mary, the mother of Jesus.Template:Sfn In his apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem ("On the dignity and vocation of women", parts 67–69) dated August 15, 1988, Pope John Paul II dealt with the Easter events in relation to the women being present at the tomb after the Resurrection, in a section entitled 'First Witnesses of the Resurrection':

The women are the first at the tomb. They are the first to find it empty. They are the first to hear 'He is not here. He has risen, as he said.'<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> They are the first to embrace his feet.<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> The women are also the first to be called to announce this truth to the Apostles.<ref>Template:Bibleverse Template:Bibleverse</ref> The Gospel of John<ref>cf. also Template:Bibleverse</ref> emphasizes the special role of Mary Magdalene. She is the first to meet the Risen Christ. [...] Hence she came to be called "the apostle of the Apostles". Mary Magdalene was the first eyewitness of the Risen Christ, and for this reason she was also the first to bear witness to him before the Apostles. This event, in a sense, crowns all that has been said previously about Christ entrusting divine truths to women as well as men.{{#if:John Paul II<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>|{{#if:|}}

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries
}}

{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }} On June 10, 2016, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a decree which elevated Mary's liturgical commemoration from an obligatory memorial to a feast day, like that of most of the Apostles (Peter and Paul are jointly commemorated with a solemnity).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Mass and Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) remain the same as they were, except that a specific preface was added to the Mass to refer to her explicitly as the "Apostle to the Apostles".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ProtestantismEdit

File:Vasnetsov Maria Magdalene.JPG

Icon of Saint Mary Magdalene depicted as one of the Myrrhbearers with the words "Christ is Risen" in Greek at the top, depicting her discovery of the empty tomb

The 1549 Book of Common Prayer had on July 22 a feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, with the same Scripture readings as in the Tridentine Mass and with a newly composed collect: "Merciful father geue us grace, that we neuer presume to synne through the example of anye creature, but if it shall chaunce vs at any tyme to offende thy dyuine maiestie: that then we maye truly repent, and lament the same, after the example of Mary Magdalene, and by lyuelye faythe obtayne remission of all oure sinnes: throughe the onely merites of thy sonne oure sauiour Christ." The 1552 edition omitted the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, which was restored to the Book of Common Prayer only after some 400 years.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Modern Protestants honor her as a disciple and friend of Jesus.<ref>H.D. Egan, An Anthology of Christian mysticism, Pueblo Publishing Co. (1992), pp.407ff.; cf. also, C. Bourgeault, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity, Shambhala Publ. (2010), passim.</ref> Anglican Christians refer to her as a saint and may follow her example of repentance;Template:Sfn Template:Sfn While some interpret the Thirty-Nine Articles as forbidding them to call upon her for intercession,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> other Anglicans, citing the Episcopal burial service, say they can ask the saint to pray for them.Template:Sfn

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America honors Mary Magdalene on July 22 as an apostle.<ref>Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2006, p. 57</ref> Her feast day is marked as a lesser festival, which are defined as "days when we celebrate the life of Christ, the witness of those who accompanied and testified to him, and the gifts of God in the church".<ref>Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Leaders Desk Edition), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2006, p. 55</ref>

Presbyterians honor her as the "apostle to the apostles"Template:Sfn and, in the book Methodist Theology, Kenneth Wilson describes her as, "in effect", one of the "first missionaries".Template:Sfn

Mary Magdalene is remembered in the Church of England with a Festival and in the Episcopal Church with a Major Feast on July 22.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Baháʼí FaithEdit

There are many references to Mary Magdalene in the writings of the Baháʼí Faith, where she enjoys an exalted status as a heroine of faith and the "archetypal woman of all cycles".<ref>Juliet Thompson, I, Mary Magdalene, Foreword</ref> `Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the religion, said that she was "the channel of confirmation" to Jesus's disciples, a "heroine" who "re-established the faith of the apostles" and was "a light of nearness in his kingdom".<ref>`Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 420</ref> `Abdu'l-Bahá also wrote that "her reality is ever shining from the horizon of Christ", "her face is shining and beaming forth on the horizon of the universe forevermore" and that "her candle is, in the assemblage of the world, lighted till eternity".<ref>`Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'í World Faith – `Abdu'l-Bahá Section, p. 385</ref> `Abdu'l-Bahá considered her to be the supreme example of how women are completely equal with men in the sight of God and can at times even exceed men in holiness and greatness.<ref>`Abdu'l-Bahá in London, p. 105</ref> Indeed he said that she surpassed all the men of her time,<ref>`Abdu'l-Bahá, Divine Philosophy, p. 50</ref> and that "crowns studded with the brilliant jewels of guidance" were upon her head.<ref>`Abdu'l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan, pp. 39–40</ref>

The Baháʼí writings also expand upon the scarce references to her life in the canonical Gospels, with a wide array of extra-canonical stories about her and sayings which are not recorded in any other extant historical sources. `Abdu'l-Bahá said that Mary traveled to Rome and spoke before the emperor Tiberius, which is presumably why Pilate was later recalled to Rome for his cruel treatment of the Jews (a tradition also attested to in the Eastern Orthodox Church).<ref>`Abdu'l-Bahá, Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahá Vol.2, p. 467</ref> Baháʼís have noted parallels between Mary Magdalene and the Babí heroine-poet Táhirih. The two are similar in many respects, with Mary Magdalene often being viewed as a Christian antecedent of the latter, while Táhirih in her own right could be described as the spiritual return of the Magdalene; especially given their common, shared attributes of "knowledge, steadfastness, courage, virtue and will power", in addition to their importance within the religious movements of Christianity and the Baháʼí Faith as female leaders.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

RelicsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Many of the alleged relics of the saint are held in Catholic churches in France, especially at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, where her skull (see above) and the noli me tangere are on display; the latter being a piece of forehead flesh and skin said to be from the spot touched by Jesus at the post-resurrection encounter in the garden.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Lawlor/> A tibia also kept at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume is the object of an annual procession.<ref name="Lawlor">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Her left hand relic is kept in the Simonopetra Monastery on Mount Athos.<ref name="left">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:Piede sx di Santa Maria Maddalena - Basilica di San Giovanni dei Fiorentini Roma 2025-05-25.jpg

Left foot of Saint Mary Magdalene, kept in the Basilica of San Giovanni de' Fiorentini in Rome.

The left foot, contained in a reliquary made by Benvenuto Cellini is kept in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Rome. It is considered the first foot that entered the Holy Sepulcher after Christ's Resurrection. For this reason it was previously kept in a chapel at the entrance to Ponte Sant'Angelo, as the last of the major relics before reaching Saint Peter's tomb.

SpeculationsEdit

Template:See also

File:Semiradsky Christ Martha Maria.jpg

Christ with Martha and Mary (1886) by Henryk Siemiradzki, showing the conflated "composite Magdalene" sitting at Jesus's feet while her sister Martha performs chores.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In 1998, Ramon K. Jusino proposed an unprecedented argument that the "Beloved Disciple" of the Gospel of John is Mary Magdalene. Jusino based his argument largely on the Nag Hammadi Gnostic books, rejecting the view of Raymond E. Brown that these books were later developments, and maintaining instead that the extant Gospel of John is the result of modification of an earlier text that presented Mary Magdalene as the Beloved Disciple.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The gospel, at least in its current form, clearly and consistently identifies the disciple as having masculine gender, only ever referring to him using words inflected in the masculine. There are no textual variants in extant New Testament manuscripts to contradict this,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and thus no physical evidence of this hypothetical earlier document. Richard J. Hooper does not make the Jusino thesis his own, but says: "Perhaps we should not altogether reject the possibility that some Johannine Christians considered Mary Magdalene to be 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'."Template:Sfn Esther A. de Boer likewise presents the idea as "one possibility among others", not as a definitive solution to the problem of the identity of the anonymous disciple.Template:Sfn There is a theological interpretation of Mary as the Magdala, The Elegant Tower and certain churches honor her as a heroine of the faith in their teachings.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Dan Brown's 2003 bestselling mystery thriller novel The Da Vinci Code popularized a number of erroneous ideas about Mary Magdalene,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn including that she was a member of the tribe of Benjamin, that she was Jesus's wife, that she was pregnant at the crucifixion, and that she gave birth to Jesus's child, who became the founder of a bloodline which survives to this very day.Template:Sfn There is no historical evidence (from the canonical or apocryphal gospels, other early Christian writings, or any other ancient sources) to support these statements.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Da Vinci Code also purports that the figure of the "beloved disciple" to Jesus's right in Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper is Mary Magdalene, disguised as one of the male disciples;Template:Sfn art historians maintain that the figure is, in reality, the apostle John, who only appears feminine due to Leonardo's characteristic fascination with blurring the lines between the sexes, a quality which is found in his other paintings, such as Saint John the Baptist (painted Template:Circa 1513 – 1516).Template:Sfn Furthermore, according to Ross King, an expert on Italian art, Mary Magdalene's appearance at the last supper would not have been controversial and Leonardo would have had no motive to disguise her as one of the other disciples,Template:Sfn since she was widely venerated in her role as the "apostle to the apostles" and patron of the Dominican Order, for whom The Last Supper was painted.Template:Sfn There would have even been precedent for it, since the earlier Italian Renaissance painter Fra Angelico had included her in his painting of the Last Supper.Template:Sfn Numerous works were written in response to the historical inaccuracies in The Da Vinci Code,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but the novel still exerted massive influence on how members of the general public viewed Mary Magdalene.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In 2012, scholar Karen L. King published the Gospel of Jesus's Wife, a purported Coptic papyrus fragment in which Jesus says: "My wife ... she will be able to be my disciple." The overwhelming consensus of scholars is that the fragment is a modern forgery,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn and in 2016, King herself said that the alleged Gospel was probably a forgery.Template:Sfn

Ehrman states that the historical sources reveal absolutely nothing about Jesus's sexuality Template:Sfn and that there is no evidence whatsoever to support the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married or that they had any kind of sexual or romantic relationship.Template:Sfn None of the canonical gospels imply such a thingTemplate:Sfn and, even in the late Gnostic gospels, where Mary is shown as Jesus's closest disciple,Template:Sfn the relationship between them is not sexual.Template:Sfn The extremely late Greater Questions of Mary, which has not survived, allegedly portrayed Mary not as Jesus's wife or partner, but rather as an unwilling voyeur.Template:Sfn Ehrman says that the Essenes, a contemporary Jewish sect who shared many views with Jesus, and the apostle Paul, Jesus's later follower, both lived in unmarried celibacy,Template:Sfn so it is not unreasonable to conclude that Jesus did as well.Template:Sfn

Furthermore, according to Template:Bibleverse, Jesus taught that marriage would not exist at all in the coming kingdom of God.Template:Sfn Since Jesus taught that people should live as though the kingdom had already arrived, this teaching implied a life of unmarried celibacy.Template:Sfn Ehrman says that, if Jesus had been married to Mary Magdalene, the authors of the gospels would definitely have mentioned it, since they mention all his other family members, including his mother Mary, his father Joseph, his four brothers, and his at least two sisters.Template:Sfn

Maurice Casey rejects the idea of Mary Magdalene as Jesus's wife as nothing more than wild popular sensationalism.Template:Sfn Jeffrey J. Kripal writes that "the historical sources are simply too contradictory and simultaneously too silent" to make absolute declarations regarding Jesus's sexuality.Template:Sfn

ReferencesEdit

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"Life of Mary Magdalen" Template:Webarchive, William Caxton's English version of the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine
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Johnston, Barbara, "Sacred Kingship and Royal Patronage in the La Vie de la Magdalene: Pilgrimage, Politics, Passion Plays, and the Life of Louise of Savoy" (Florida State), R. Neuman, Dissertation, PDF, 88–93
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External linksEdit

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St. Mary Magdalene (pdf Template:Webarchive) from Fr. Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints
"Saint Mary Magdalene". Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
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Legends of Mary Magdalene
Miriam/Myriam M'Gadola: Mary Magdalene
Gospel of Mary Magdalene
In Our Time on BBC Radio 4, February 25, 2016
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Mary Magdalene: The Unsuspected Truth or Why Mary Magdalene cannot have been the Wife of Jesus, Interview by Nicolas Koberich, Translated from French by Thierry Murcia, PDF, La vie des Classiques (Les Belles Lettres publisher), 2020, 130 p. (free online).

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Mary Magdalene

Portrayal in Gnostic writingsEdit

LifeEdit

During Jesus' ministryEdit

Witness to Jesus's crucifixion and burialEdit

Resurrection of JesusEdit

Apocryphal early Christian writingsEdit

Dialogue of the SaviourEdit

Pistis SophiaEdit

Gospel of ThomasEdit

Gospel of PhilipEdit

Gospel of MaryEdit

Borborite scripturesEdit

LegacyEdit

Patristic eraEdit

Portrayal as a prostituteEdit

Early Middle AgesEdit

High Middle AgesEdit

Fictional biographiesEdit

Alleged burial in FranceEdit

The Golden LegendEdit

Spouse of John the EvangelistEdit

Late Middle Ages and RenaissanceEdit

Reformation and Counter-ReformationEdit

Modern eraEdit

In Western artEdit

In musicEdit

Religious viewsEdit

Eastern OrthodoxEdit

Roman CatholicismEdit

ProtestantismEdit

Baháʼí FaithEdit

RelicsEdit

SpeculationsEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

NotesEdit

CitationsEdit

SourcesEdit

Further readingEdit

External linksEdit