Celebrate the
Feast of Mary of Magdala
Apostle and church leader
on July 22, 2000
(click here for Spanish version)
Mary of Magdala
Not a prostitute
Mary of Magdala is perhaps the most maligned and poorly understood figure in early Christianity. Since the fourth century, she has been portrayed as a prostitute and public sinner who, after encountering Jesus, repented and spent the rest of her life in private prayer and penitence.
In Christian art and hagiography, Mary
has been romanticized, allegorized, and mythologized beyond recognition.
Paintings throughout history, some little more than pious pornography,
have represented her as the epitome of both sensuality and spirituality.
The net effect has been to reinforce the unfortunate notion that
sexuality, especially female sexuality, is shameful, sinful,
and worthy of repentance. The actual biblical account of Mary
of Magdala paints a far different portrait than that of the bare-
breasted reformed harlot of Renaissance art.
First Witness to the Resurrection
Nowhere in scripture is Mary identified as a public sinner or a prostitute. Instead, all four Gospels, show her as the primary witness to the most central events of Christian faith. She traveled with Jesus in the Galilean discipleship and, with Joanna and Susanna, supported Jesus' mission from her own financial resources (Luke 8:1-3). In the synoptic Gospels, Mary leads the group of women who witness Jesus' death and burial, the empty tomb, and His Resurrection.
The synoptic Gospels also contrast Jesus' abandonment by the male disciples with the faithful strength of the women disciples who, led by Mary, accompany him in this most shameful and agonizing of deaths. Some have attributed the faithfulness of these women to a lesser risk of being crucified. Yet biblical scholarship shows that the Romans crucified women and even children in their brutal and, as it turned out, futile attempt to discourage insurrection.
That the message of the Resurrection was
first entrusted to women is regarded by scripture scholars as
one of the strongest proofs of the historicity of the Resurrection
accounts. In Jewish law women's testimony was not recognized.
Had accounts of Jesus' Resurrection been fabricated, women would
never have been included as witnesses.
Mary of Magdala's name appears in all four
Gospels as leading the group that discovers the empty tomb. Yet
the identity of the women with her varies from gospel to gospel.
Mary, the mother of James and Joses, appears in Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. However Mark adds Salome, while Luke adds Joanna but
omits Salome.
John's gospel names only Mary of Magdala as first discovering
the empty tomb. The Johannine author reports that she then ran
to tell Peter and the others who verify that the tomb is indeed
empty, and leave. Mary remains behind, weeping, and receives
Jesus' first resurrection appearance. Some scholars believe that
Mary of Magdala alone discovered the empty tomb. They say that
John's resurrection account, though written after the synoptics,
is actually the earlier historical text.
The four gospels were written for four disparate Christian communities over a thirty to forty year period. That Mary of Magdala is identically named in all of them indicates that she was widely acknowledged as the primary witness to the Resurrection.
John's Gospel also shows the Risen Christ sending Mary of Magdala to announce the Good News of his Resurrection to the other disciples. This prompted the Church Fathers to name her "the apostle to the apostles." Early related Christian writings portray whole faith communities growing up around Mary's ministry. Scholars believe this indicates that she was a well known woman leader in earliest Christianity.
What Happened?
How has it happened then, that we twentieth century Christians have never heard about Mary's strong discipleship role during Jesus' life, and prominent leadership role in the infant Church? There are several possible explanations. One is a common misreading of Luke's Gospel which tells us that "seven demons had gone out of her" (Luke 8:1-3). To first century Christian ears, this meant only that Mary had been cured of a serious illness, not that she was sinful. Poorly understood internal illnesses were commonly attributed to the work of evil spirits, although the presence of such an illness was not necessarily associated with sinfulness. The number seven symbolized only that her illness had either been very severe or recurred frequently.
Another common misinterpretation stems
from an attempt in the fourth and fifth centuries to identify
Mary of Magdala with the "sinful woman who loved much"
who appears in Luke 7:36-50. This woman "who had a bad name
in town" washes Jesus' feet with her tears, dries them with
her hair, and anoints them with precious ointment. Jesus praises
her great love and uses the occasion to teach his host Simon
about the nature of forgiveness. Simon notes that Jesus did not
know who the woman was.
The story of the Galilean discipleship (Luke 8:1-3) appears immediately after this vignette, so some have mistakenly associated Mary, "from whom seven demons went out" with the repentant woman. However biblical scholars deem it unlikely that Magdalen would be named in Luke 8:1-3 yet be unidentified in the preceding text.
Women Leaders Suppressed
Another possible if painful explanation is that by the third and fourth centuries, male Church leaders were successfully suppressing women disciples' coequal leadership. The Christian community was caught in a cultural conflict as it moved from worship in house churches where women's leadership was accepted and felt to be appropriate to worship in public places where women's leadership was deemed inappropriate and shameful. The Montanist and Valentinian Churches, which had both male and female leaders, were eventually suppressed. Scholars say that the Montanist and Valentinian communities were orthodox. They were suppressed not because their teachings were heretical, but because women as well as men engaged in leadership.
During this same time frame we see the memory of Mary of Magdalen change from that of a strong female disciple and proclaimer of the Resurrection to a repentant prostitute and public sinner. Some scholars hypothesize that this was done to minimize the strong leadership roles of women in the Gospels, so as to discourage female leadership in the third and fourth century Churches. The final identification of Mary as public reformed sinner achieved official standing with the homilies of Pope Gregory the Great (540-604).
Gregory's identification of Mary as a repentant sexual sinner appealed to the popular imagination and led to an effort to reconstruct her history from the Scriptures. As knowledge of Jesus' many women friends faded from historical memory, the stories associated with them were combined. The tender anointing of Mary of Bethany prior to Jesus' passion was linked to that of the woman "with a bad name" whose tears washed and anointed Jesus' feet at Simon's house. The anointing texts merged into one generic public woman sinner, "Magdalen." Henceforth, Mary of Magdala was to be known in history not as the strong woman leader who loved Jesus through a fearsome death, first witnessed his Resurrection, and proclaimed the Risen Savior in the early churches, but as a wanton woman in need of repentance and a life of hidden (and hopefully silent) penitence.
Thankfully, twentieth century scholarship, has restored Mary of Magdala's strong woman witness to us. Two thousands years of misrepresentation will now hopefully be reversed. Mary of Magdala may again become the inspiring role model for twenty-first century disciples that she was for those who witnessed to the Risen Christ in Christianity's origins.
Please join us in the annual celebration
of her feast day on July 22nd.
(Write or email for copies of a liturgical celebration.)
References
Fiorenza, ES. "Feminist Theology as Critical Theology of
Liberation."Theological Studies, 1975.
Haskins, Susan. Mary Magdalen, Myth and Metaphor, NY: Harcourt-Brace
1993.
Housley, Kathleen. "Solid Citizen or Prostitute - Two Millennia
of Misinformation: Dialog , Fall, 1998.
Kitzberger, Ingrid Rose. " Mary of Bethany and Mary of Magdala"
New Testament Studies, Oct. 1993.
Ricci, Carla. Mary Magdala en and Many Others. Minneapolis:Fortress
Press 1994.
Thompson, Mary R. Mary of Magdala, Apostle and Leader. New
York: Paulist Press. 1995
This brochure is published by A Call
for National Dialogue on Women in Church Leadership, a joint
project of FutureChurch and Call To Action.
Written by Christine Schenk CSJ
Feel free to make copies for others and...
Send for our organizing packet! ($5.00 donation)
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Mary of Magdala
What say you, Magdalen?
Fellow traveler, Jesus' friend,
Courageous companion
Who accompanies
Death's bitter-shroud end.
No prostitute you,
A Woman Jew
And Apostle.
Denigrated, despised
by jealousy, fear, and more.
Betrayed by your brothers,
whose spin control
requires you go from
WomanWitness to Whore.
And besides, it would still be alright.
(Unlike many a man-creature,
you well understand the
odd God ways of the Teacher).
Did you blame yourself, my sister,
for their failure to comprehend
All of Love's bold claims
for
Newborn Jesus-Way ?
Mary, WomanWitness, WomanFriend,
What have you to say?
Only
"Rabbo'ni!"
Christ comes again.
Amen, Alleluia, Amen.
Christine Schenk csj 6/5/98
"There once was a follower of Jesus
who loved him enough to have the courage to watch him be crucified.
He, in turn, loved her enough to choose her as the first to know
of his resurrection."
Kathleen Housley
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Celebrate St. Mary of Magdala July 22 First witness to the Resurrection and "Apostle to the Apostles," nothing in Scripture indicates that St. Mary of Magdala was a prostitute. Help restore her strong woman witness by celebrating her feast on July 22. Over 120 celebrations were held last year. Contact FutureChurch at info@futurechurch.org for:
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