ST. MARY MAGDALEN
Feast: July 22
Mary,
the sister of Martha and Lazarus, wasted the great beauty that God had given her
in a life of sin, but one day she saw Christ and was touched by grace. On the
day of our Lord's crucifixion, she stood with the Mother of Jesus at the foot of
the cross. At early dawn on the first Easter morning, Mary Magdalen and other
women who had ministered to Jesus went to the Lord's sepulcher. Two angels said
to them,
"He is not here, but is risen....Go, tell his disciples."
Mary Magdalen
ran to tell the Apostles what she had seen and heard. Then Peter and John,
hastening to the sepulcher, saw and believed.
The feast of St. Mary Magdalen
is considered one of the most mystical of
feasts, and it is said that of all the songs of the saints, that of Mary
Magdalen is the sweetest and strongest because her love was so great. That love
was praised by Jesus Himself who said that because much was forgiven her, she
loved much. Where she is buried, no one knows. Legend has her dying in Provence,
France, in a cavern where she spent her last days, and her body resting in the
chapel of St. Maximin in the Maritime Alps. Another has her buried in Ephesus
where she went with St. John after the Resurrection. This latter view is more
likely, and St. Willibald, the English pilgrim to the Holy Land in the eighth
century, was shown her tomb there.
She was the
first witness to the resurrection of Jesus,
His most ardent and loving follower.
She had stood with Mary at the foot of the Cross on that brutal Good Friday
afternoon and had been by the side of Mary during these difficult hours. On
Easter morning, she went with the other women to the tomb and it was there, in
the garden near the tomb, that Jesus appeared to her. It was she who brought the
news of the Resurrection to the Apostles, and Peter and John raced to the tomb
to see what had happened.
She was from
Magadala, a small fishing town on the Sea of Galilee, between Capernaum and
Tiberias. She was known to be a "great sinner," a woman of the streets who heard
Jesus speak of the mercy and forgiveness of God and changed her life completely.
Her matter-of-fact witness to the Resurrection moved Peter and John to go and
see for themselves: "I have seen the Lord and these things he said to me." Jesus
had chosen her to bring the news to them and she simply told them what had
happened.
She has
always been the
example of great love and great forgiveness, one of those close
to Jesus who grasped the truth of God's love for human beings and spent her life
bearing witness to that love.
Excerpted
from The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens
Patron:
Apothecaries; Casamicciola, Italy; contemplative life; contemplatives; converts;
druggists; glove makers; hairdressers; hairstylists; penitent sinners; penitent
women; people ridiculed for their piety; perfumeries; perfumers; pharmacists;
reformed prostitutes; sexual temptation; tanners; women.
Symbols:
Rich rainment; box of ointment; skull; book; vase of sweet spices; crucifix;
open book; boat.
Things to
Do:
