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Sr Theresia
Saers explains:
Mary
Magdalen is, once more, very popular in our time. It is not difficult to
see why. She captures the imagination. She offers women a model of feminine
discipleship and ministry.
On
this web site, in the context of our reflection on the ordination of women, we
will focus especially on Mary’s function as a heroic counter
figure, as someone who in popular Catholic imagination showed what a
woman’s role could be like, if it were not for prevailing masculine
domination.
The figure
of Mary Magdalen assumed different roles in different times. We will here trace
the main features in Christian history.
See below the many documents on Mary Magdalen published on our website.
The existence of such a challenge to the existing
male culture is extremely significant because it arose from the deep conviction
among Catholics that women were worth so much more than what they were credited
with in the official Church. The devotion to Mary Magdalen has been a clear
manifestation of the latent tradition in
the hearts of Catholics that knew women, as much as men, were called to full
participation in the ministries.
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Headings
Popular
reconstructions of her life
Mary and the
Fathers of the Church
The historical Mary
Magdalen
The
Gospels mention three women who played a role in Jesus’
life:
* Mary of Magdala, who was a
disciple of Jesus, who was present at the crucifixion and who visited the empty
tomb.
* Mary who lived in Bethany,
sister of Lazarus and Martha. She listened to Jesus’ teaching and anointed
his feet with ointment two days before his Passion.
* the repentant woman in
Simon’s house (Lk 7,36-50).
Authors are divided on the question whether these
women were, in fact, identical, with different strands of oral tradition
retaining various aspects of the same woman disciple.
But Christian imagination took a firm line. In the
course of time, perhaps under influence of Gregory the Great’s writings,
the two Marys and the repentant woman were assumed to be one and the same
person: St. Mary Magdalen. In later tradition, the three personalities
simply became one.
A discussion of the identity question can
be found in One Mary, Two or Three?
Professor Esther de Boer is an
international expert on Magdalene studies. Read her assessment on "the possibility of a historical reconstruction of Mary
Magdalene".
Read also a synopsis of her book
"Did He love her more than us?"
Read the Gospel texts
for yourself.
Popular reconstructions
of Mary Magdalen's life
Mary Magdalen continues to inspire Christians today. This has
given rise to meditative biographies.
* A spiritual reconstruction
of Mary Magdalen's life can be found in The Alabaster
Jar by Sr. Theresia Saers,
and in Mary
Magdalen tells her story, also by Theresia Saers.
Read the
review of Marie Madeleine, the
Magdalen’s story as seen through a woman’s eyes, by Jacqueline
Dauxois (in French).
For unusual views on
the historical Marys, see:
* Mary of Magdala was the Beloved Disciple and
was the real author of the Fourth Gospel (Ramon Jusino);
* Mary of Bethany
was a priest, and even a bishop, a ´keeper of tradition’, ordained
by Jesus (Thomas W. Butler).
Mary Magdalen and the
Gnostics
In some Gnostic sects of the
2nd to the 5th centuries AD, Mary Magdalen played a large symbolic role. She
was credited with having been close to Jesus and with having received special
revelations from him which she passed on to the apostles.
Mary
Magdalen was the model of the priestly ministry of women.
Read:
* a summary of
gnostic texts describing Mary Magdalen;
* an
excerpt from the Gospel of Mary.
* Read also:
What became of God the Mother? Conflicting Images
of God in Early Christianity, by Elaine Pagels.
* Review of Margaret
Starbird's The Goddess in the Gospel.
Mary Magdalen and the
Fathers of the Church
The Fathers of the Church presented Mary Magdalen as
a model disciple and an important witness to the risen Lord.
We find her praised by Tertullian, Hippolitus,
Origen, Dionysius, Pseudo-Clement, Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory the Great.
Gregory of Antioch gave this as Jesus’ message to women: ‘Announce
to my disciples the mysteries you have seen. Be the first teacher of the
teachers. Peter who has denied me, must learn that I can also choose women to
be my apostles.’ Read:
* fragment from
the Gospel according to Peter;
*
Mary meets Jesus by St. Augustine;
* summary by
Esther de Boer.
* Leo the Great mentions Mary Magdalen in
Sermon 74.
Mary Magdalen in the Middle Ages
It is especially in the
Middle Ages that St Mary Magdalen functioned as a ‘counter-heroine’
amidst an oppressive male culture. She was admired
* as a woman who was the
first witness of the resurrection;
* as a woman who had taught the apostles
the truth when they went astray;
* as a woman who preached - when women were
forbidden to preach;
* as a woman who defied male
opposition.
Devotion to Mary
soared. We find her on statues, paintings, friezes, altar panels and manuscript
illustrations. Usually she is presented either as receiving her commission from
Christ, as reading Scripture or as preaching to townsfolk. A twelfth-century
Psalter of St. Albans in England shows her addressing the assembled apostles
who respectfully listen to her, their heads bowed. She obviously functioned as
an expression of people’s deep conviction that a woman could share
the full priestly ministry.Read the Life of Mary Magdalen in the 13th-century Legenda
Aurea. This was a very influential text.
See also The Conversion of blessed Mary Magdalene.
The
devotion to Mary Magdalen was also important to the Order of Dominicans,
founded in the 13th century. Read Mary Magdalene - The
Apostle of the Apostles and The Order of Preachers, by Guy Bedouelle,
OP.
Visit also the series of Picture Meditations
on Mary Magdalen.
Mary Magdalen and art
* For the convenience of students of her devotion,
we have assembled a survey of paintings of the saint which are accessible on
line. They can be found here: Mary Magdalene in European
art.
* The meaning of this art for our study can be seen in the
Picture Meditations on Mary Magdalen. We join
Christians who, for many centuries, meditated on Mary of Magdala and venerated
in her the image of a truly liberated woman, a disciple of Christ who was able
to do what social convention and Church law forbade. At the hand of old
paintings and illustrations Theresia Saers reflects on possible implications
for us.A typical example of
European art involving Mary Magdalen can be seen in the capital sculpture of
the Basilica of St. Andoche (12th century).
Read Romanesque capitals and the Bible.
Bibliography on Mary Magdalen
Theresia herself has written much more. See her website
See also:
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