St Mary Magdalene

On this day, August 4th, we commemorate and celebrate the life and witness of St Mary Magdalene. It was she from whom the Lord Jesus cast out seven demons according to the Gospels, which each speak of her.

In Luke 8, we read…

Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.

This is the first chronological reference to St Mary Magdalene. She is one of that company of women with some financial means, who provide support for the Lord Jesus and the Disciples, and who accompany him throughout his ministry, and are witness of his miracles and teaching, together with the Twelve. She is one from whom seven demons were cast out by the Lord Jesus. But in the Eastern tradition she has never been conflated and confused with either the sinful woman who poured perfume on the feet of Jesus, or with Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha.

Augustine say that the Apostles had “women of holy life with them, so that these women might minister the necessities of life to them from their abundance.” She is not a sinful woman who has repented, but a troubled woman who has been set free in encountering Christ, and who gives all to follow him.

St Mary Magdalene appears next at the Cross. Even as the Disciples had abandoned the Lord Jesus, she is found with other women courageously standing firm and continuing to minister to Christ. We read in John 19…

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 

St Peter had denied the Lord Jesus, and Judas Iscariot had betrayed him, and all the others had fled. But, as St John Chrysostom says, writing about St Mary Magdalene and the other women who remained faithful to the end…

The women stood by the Cross, and the weaker sex then appeared the manlier; so entirely henceforth were all things transformed.

And after the death of the Lord Jesus, and when he had been taken down from the Cross, it is St Mark who records for is, in Mark 15…

And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses observed where He was laid.

St Mary Magdalene is represented throughout the Gospels, not as a penitent sinner, but as a devout and committed witness. She sees and hears the miracles and teaching. She stands at the Cross. She watches where the Lord Jesus is buried. Now she appears across all of the Gospels as the eyewitness of the resurrection.

St Matthew says…

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

And St Mark says…

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

And St Luke says…

And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid…

Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ”

And they remembered His words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.

And St John says…

Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb… But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”

Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary! She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her.

It is St Mary Magdalene who is the first to see the risen Lord Jesus. It is St Mary Magdalene who is commissioned to go and tell the news to the Apostles. It is in her vocation as a witness to the Christ, in his life and death and resurrection that she becomes an Apostolic woman. She is found in the last reference, together with the other women, with Mary the Mother of Jesus, and the Apostles, in the upper room, as St Luke describes in the Acts…

And when they had entered Jerusalem, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

The tradition of the Eastern Church records that she served the Church, and was with St John in Ephesus, where she died and was buried. Gregory of Tours also reports the same tradition . Her relics were transferred to Constantinople in 900 A.D. Modestus, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 630 A.D.) wrote about St Mary Magdalene, and his words are recorded as saying…

A text of Modestus, Archbishop of Jerusalem, about women carrying perfumes. Why did Jesus Christ choose to be accompanied by Mary Magdalene from whom He had exorcised seven devils? The number seven is used, in Holy Scripture, for all the virtues as also for all the vices. Jesus Christ was therefore correct to choose Mary Magdalene from whom He had exorcised seven devils so as to make known through her that He had just delivered the whole of humanity from the bondage of the author of evil.
For, he said, some historians say that Magdalene, from whom the Saviour exorcised seven devils, was for all her life a virgin and that in the account of her martyrdom it is said that because of her perfect virginity and her excellent purity she seemed to the executioners to be like a limpid crystal. After the death of Our Holy Lady the Mother of God she went to Ephesus to be with the beloved disciple, and there Mary, the bearer of perfumes, completed through martyrdom her career as an apostle, having not wished, until her last gasp, to be separated from John, evangelist and virgin.

This is the holy woman, in whose honour we keep this feast, as the witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Word incarnate, and the equal to the Apostles.

May her holy prayers be wuth us all.