Mary Magdalene, a modern woman and figure

“Mary Magdalene tells us that women had a considerable place with Jesus.” “She shows that one can be Christian and feminine.” “She is the mystic, the soul of the Church.” “She is the apostle of the apostles and therefore proves that women have an apostolic vocation!” These words from those passionate about Mary Magdalene bear witness to this: women of all ages and backgrounds are today taking a keen interest in the saint, studying the Gospels, the legends, writing books and opening pilgrimage routes…

A heroine in films and books

The craze seems to come, in large part, from the translation in the second half of the 20th century of the apocryphal papyri discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, including the Gospel of Mary Myriam of Magdala. These texts of Gnosticism, a mystical movement very early on opposed by the Fathers of the Church, give a large place to Mary Magdalene. She would have been the favorite of the “Lord” (Jesus), to the great displeasure of Peter, confirming the contemporary intuition that women would have been set aside by the patriarchal society of the 1st century of our era.

In the wake of this, various books and films have caused a furore. Among them, those of Jean-Yves Leloup, theologian and Orthodox priest, former head of the Sainte-Baume, those of the novelist Jacqueline Kelen or the extravagant bestseller Da Vinci Codeby Dan Brown, adapted into a film in 2006. At the cinema, the general public is also passionate about The last temptation of Christ, by Martin Scorsese, in 1988, or The passion of Christ, by Mel Gibson, in 2004. With this underlying sulphurous question: Was Mary Magdalene the companion or the wife of Jesus? Could they have had children?

Exegetes, theologians and historians unanimously answer: if Jesus had had a wife and children, it would have been written, because nothing prevented a rabbi from taking a wife and having children at the time. The same people, far from esoteric or romantic lucubrations, study the texts, analyze the different faces given to Mary Magdalene over time. And reveal that each period, even each current of Christianity, has its interpretation!

Three women in one

“From the first centuries, the Christian tradition has confused several characters,” explains Régis Burnet, a historian specializing in the New Testament: Mary Magdalene (or the Magdalene), Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus) and a prostitute or sinner (unnamed) mentioned in the Gospel of Luke.” According to the evangelists, Mary Magdalene was present at the foot of the cross, then in front of the empty tomb, where she witnessed the resurrection of Christ. She is also mentioned in a passage from Luke stating that she assisted Jesus in his efforts, and that he had cured her of seven demons. “She would come from Magdala, a town near the Sea of ​​Galilee,” adds the historian.

As for Mary of Bethany – from a city very close to Jerusalem –, she is known for three episodes: those of “Martha and Mary”, the resurrection of Lazarus and the anointing of oil on Jesus. “The connection between Mary of Bethany and the sinner would come from the common gesture of pouring perfume on Jesus”, specifies Sylvaine Landrivon, theologian. “At the end of the 6th century, in the West – while nothing like this happened in the East –, Pope Gregory the Great decided to assimilate the Magdalene to the sinful woman, in order to serve his theology of repentance.” The fusion of the three Marys was made!

A saint venerated in France

In the 11th century, the cult of Mary Magdalene, a figure of repentance, grew in Vézelay, in Burgundy: to consolidate the position of his abbey, Abbot Geoffroy ensured that Mary Magdalene’s tomb was within its walls… and the pilgrimage was launched. In the 12th and 13th centuries, it was one of the most famous in Christianity, also a starting point for Compostela. But it was quickly overtaken! In 1279, Saint-Maximin, in Provence, claimed the “true” tomb of the saint, according to The Golden Legend (1261-1265) by Jacques de Voragine.

This famous work recounting the lives of many saints takes up and amplifies the story of Mary Magdalene. She is said to have landed in a place later called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), with a group of Christians, including Marie Salomé, Marie Jacobé and Lazare. In the company of Lazare, she is said to have evangelized the people of Marseille, then continued on her way to the forest, then the cave of Sainte-Baume (a stone’s throw from Saint-Maximin in the Var) to spend the last thirty years of her life there as a hermit.

In France, Mary Magdalene therefore holds a special place: many churches, sanctuaries, and patronal festivals are dedicated to her. Since the 13th century, at Sainte-Baume, the Dominican friars have been the guardians of the grotto-sanctuary where they still welcome crowds of pilgrims today. Over the centuries, the saint has inspired the greatest artists. They depict her at the foot of the cross as at the tomb, as a penitent hermit or in ecstasy, particularly from the 16th century during the Counter-Reformation. It was then a question of confronting the Protestants who refused confession accompanied by penance and advocated salvation through acts (symbolized by the figure of Martha) rather than through the contemplative life (advocated by Mary Magdalene). Even if it is not forgotten, her role as an apostle then takes second place. To come back in force today.

A figurehead for today’s women

According to contemporary interpretations, including in the Church, she is seen as a strong woman who took risks to support Jesus in his teachings, far from the repentant prostitute. An image that inspires many women’s emancipation movements. “The Gospel according to Saint John presents Mary Magdalene as Jesus’ closest friend,” insists Sylvaine Landrivon, also co-president of the Comité de la jupe, which promotes gender equality in the Church. “A friend who has all the assets to become the one who will be named from the third century “apostle of the apostles”, a title that no theologian or pope will deny…”

In 2016, Pope Francis, taking up the title of apostle of the apostles, decided that the saint’s feast day, July 22, would officially be a liturgical feast day. In France, at the instigation of enthusiasts, a Mary Magdalene pilgrimage route was opened in 2022. “It was essential to connect the sanctuary of Saintes-Maries (where the relics of Marie Salomé and Marie Jacobé rest) to Saint-Maximin and Sainte-Baume, where the relics of Mary Magdalene are located!” says Martine Guillot, secretary of the association Chemins des saintes et saints de Provence.

“It is to rehabilitate Mary Magdalene that I walk,” confided Céline Anaya Gautier, who opened the Via Magdalena, an international pilgrimage route in the footsteps of Mary Magdalene, on April 9, 2023, Easter Sunday. Claire Colette, her walking companion, tempered: “I walk to find the love of Christ, via Mary Magdalene.” And you, dear readers, who is Mary Magdalene to you?