Mary Magdalene
Born: Unknown
Died: Unknown
Feast day: July 22
Patron saint of: contemplative life, converts, hair dressers, pharmacists, and women
Readers of scripture first meet Mary Magdalene during Jesus’ preaching and healing ministry in Galilee as someone healed “from whom seven demons had gone out” (Luke 8:2). Later all the gospels mention her in the litany of women who traveled with Jesus to Jerusalem. All four gospels name her as a witness to both the crucifixion and the empty tomb. In John’s gospel Mary Magdalene is the first person to meet the resurrected Jesus and is thus charged with telling the others. For this she is given the title “Apostle to the Apostles.” In a world where women were not considered reliable witnesses, it is women upon whom our knowledge of the death and resurrection of Jesus relies. The women of the gospels, especially Magdalene, have long been maligned, minimized, or simply missing from the way we envision Jesus’ followers.
More about Mary Magdalene:
Nevertheless, Mary Magdalene persisted
Too often cast into the periphery, Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus’ most faithful followers.
Who framed Mary Magdalene?
The first witness to Christ’s resurrection was made into a prostitute. Women today are restoring her reputation.
Will the real Mary Magdalene please stand up?
Many myths about Mary Magdalene persist to this day, but the gospels can guide us to the true “apostle to the apostles.”
Image: Wikimedia Commons
