Mary Magdalene

(Equal to the Apostles) (Matt 27:56, 61; Mark 15:40-41; John 19:25; Luke 8:2 and elsewhere) — came from the Galilean city of Magdala in the tribe of Issachar, near Capernaum, from which she took her name. She was healed by the Lord of evil spirits (Luke 8:2), and therefore, out of feelings of gratitude to Him, joined the number of those few devout women who accompanied the Lord everywhere during His earthly life and ministered to Him with their substance. At the sufferings of the cross, Mary Magdalene, together with others, stood by His cross and was present at His burial.

After the Sabbath had passed, she, with certain other devout women, hastened at dawn on the first day of the week to the tomb to anoint the body of her beloved Teacher with the spices she had brought. She stood at the tomb and wept. Her ardent love for the Lord was granted the greatest of rewards: Mary Magdalene was the first to whom the risen Savior appeared after His resurrection, and she was also the first to be granted the joyful command of the Lord to go to the disciples and tell them that He had risen from the dead.

When the risen Savior first addressed her with the words, “Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?” she did not recognize the Lord — perhaps her eyes were full of tears, perhaps her whole attention was absorbed by the deep sorrow of not finding in the tomb the body of her beloved Teacher — and at first she took Him for the gardener. But when her ear caught the familiar, loving, tender sound of Jesus’ voice, when He addressed her with the customary tender greeting, “Mary!” — she at once recognized Him by His voice and, overwhelmed with feelings of joyful astonishment, reverence, and gratitude, rushed toward His feet and joyfully exclaimed, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

But the Lord said to her, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father”… (John 20:11-17). After this the Gospel says little more of Mary Magdalene. According to tradition, she preached the Gospel in Rome, brought a complaint to the Roman emperor Tiberius against Pilate, and presented him with a red egg as a symbol of the Lord’s sufferings and resurrection; she afterward died and was buried at Ephesus. As late as the middle of the seventh century the tomb of Mary Magdalene was shown at Ephesus, and under Leo the Wise, in the year 886, her relics were translated from Ephesus to Constantinople. The Holy Church keeps her memory on July 22.