By Leon Bent –
St. Mary Magdalene’s feast day is celebrated on July 22. She is the patroness of converts, repentant sinners, sexual temptation, pharmacists, tanners and women, and many other places and causes.
She is one of the greatest saints of the Bible and a legendary example of God’s mercy and grace. The precise dates of her birth and death are unknown, but we are certain she was present with Christ during his public ministry, death and resurrection. She is mentioned at least a dozen times in the Gospels.
What is often not brought out about Mary Magdalene is her life after Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, and, in particular, her remarkable mystical life as revealed in the tradition of the Church, as presented in early Church documents. The life of Mary Magdalene of the Gospels needs no embellishment, dramatization or glorification. The beauty, the drama, the dignity and grandeur are all there, ennobled with the divinity of Christ’s presence.
Church tradition, legend and the historical records need not add anything to this already extraordinary life of repentance, conversion and love. The Gospels reveal that she had been given a mission, namely to announce the Good News; that she had seen Christ risen from the dead. As the first eyewitness to this greatest event in Christian history, Mary Magdalene could not and would not keep this wondrous news to herself. Her mission did not begin and end as the Apostle to the Apostles. She was a woman of fervour and courage and total devotion to Christ. Such great love must find expression!
I draw this information from the remarkable symphony of ancient voices. When the first persecutions scattered the little Church of Jerusalem, those who were dispersed went everywhere, preaching the Word of God. Thus, the persecuted Christians ministered in numerous ports around the Mediterranean basin that, included Greece, Italy, Spain, France, and many other countries within the Roman Empire. France was then called Gaul; and the new life of Mary Magdalene begins there, on its Mediterranean coast. The area which cradles her tradition is known as “La Sainte Baume”.
Tradition that tells of the arrival of Mary Magdalene and her companions on the coast of Gaul (France) goes back to the earliest centuries of Christianity. Her flight from the persecutions in Palestine is set in the year 42 A.D. The magnificent cave-grotto La Sainte Baume – The immense natural cave discovered in the rocks, the size of a large house, becomes the new home of Mary Magdalene. It is in this hermitage that Mary Magdalene spends the next 30 years of her life in solitude, meditation and contemplation. But her solitude is only that of the world, for seven times a day angels came down to the cave and took her to the top of the hill, where she is given the grace to hear the music and songs – the sounds of heaven.
Mary Magdalene’s role in the canonical gospels is small; however, in the non-canonical gospels, like Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip and the Acts of Peter, she plays a prominent role — often asking intelligent questions when all the other disciples are confused. Jesus is depicted as loving her more than any of the others, because of her understanding. Some readers have interpreted Jesus “love” here as physical, not just spiritual – Jesus and Mary Magdalene were intimate, if not married. This heretical dimension, of course, is considered a fabrication of the imagination with a Gnostic slant!
What is often not brought out about Mary Magdalene is her life after Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, and, in particular, her remarkable mystical life as revealed in the tradition of the Church as presented in early Church documents.
When the time came for Mary Magdalene to be freed of her earthly body, she saw Christ who came to call her to the glory of the heavenly Kingdom. He came to give the substance of eternal life to the one who had so faithfully given of ‘her substance’ when he walked the earth.
She died on July 22, around the year 72 A.D., amidst great rejoicing of the angels in heaven. St. Maximin ordered her body to be interred with great dignity and pomp, and commanded that he himself be buried near her tomb after his death. And, such was her beauty in the eyes of the Lord that, during seven days the Oratory was filled with the holy perfume of her sanctity.
And, this final flourish! From the lips of Mary Magdalene came the most wondrous news of all time that, would ring throughout Christendom in all the centuries to come: “Christ is risen!” and add to this the fact that, she is mentioned 11 times in the four Gospels in connection with the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, and from this we can see that with Mary Magdalene we have a case of an exceptional woman because of the prominence she is given in the Gospels.
These words have gold dust sprinkled all over them: Saint Mary Magdalene was one of the first women mystics and ascetics of the Church. The sinner turned extraordinary Saint!
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.