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Feast of St. Mary Magdalen

  • Passionist Nuns 8564 Crisp Road Whitesville, KY, 42378 United States (map)
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Today is the feastday of our Sr. Mary Magdalen of the Good Shepherd, CP.
Born: June 28, 1945
Professed August 13, 1966

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An ancient tradition identifies Mary Magdalen with Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who had wasted the great beauty that God had given her in a life of sin, but one day saw Christ and was touched by grace.  On the day of our Lord's crucifixion, she stood with the Mother of Jesus at the foot of the cross. At early dawn on the first Easter morning, Mary Magdalen and other women who had ministered to Jesus went to the Lord's sepulcher. Two angels said to them, "He is not here, but is risen....Go, tell his disciples."  Mary Magdalen ran to tell the Apostles what she had seen and heard.  Then Peter and John, hastening to the sepulcher, saw and believed.

The feast of St. Mary Magdalen is considered one of the most mystical of feasts, and it is said that of all the songs of the saints, that of Mary Magdalen is the sweetest and strongest because her love was so great.  That love was praised by Jesus Himself who said that because much was forgiven her, she loved much. Where she is buried, no one knows.  Legend has her dying in Provence, France, in a cavern where she spent her last days, and her body resting in the chapel of St. Maximin in the Maritime Alps.  Another has her buried in Ephesus where she went with St. John after the Resurrection.  This latter view is more likely, and St. Willibald, the English pilgrim to the Holy Land in the eighth century, was shown her tomb there.

She was the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus, His most ardent and loving follower.  She had stood with Mary at the foot of the Cross on that brutal Good Friday afternoon and had been by the side of Mary during these difficult hours.  On Easter morning, she went with the other women to the tomb and it was there, in the garden near the tomb, that Jesus appeared to her.  It was she who brought the news of the Resurrection to the Apostles, and Peter and John raced to the tomb to see what had happened.

She was from Magadala, a small fishing town on the Sea of Galilee, between Capernaum and Tiberias.  She was known to be a "great sinner," a woman of the streets who heard Jesus speak of the mercy and forgiveness of God and changed her life completely. Her matter-of-fact witness to the Resurrection moved Peter and John to go and see for themselves: "I have seen the Lord and these things he said to me."  Jesus had chosen her to bring the news to them and she simply told them what had happened.

She has always been the example of great love and great forgiveness, one of those close to Jesus who grasped the truth of God's love for human beings and spent her life bearing witness to that love.

Excerpted from The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens

Patron: Apothecaries; Casamicciola, Italy; contemplative life; contemplatives; converts; druggists; glove makers; hairdressers; hairstylists; penitent sinners; penitent women; people ridiculed for their piety; perfumeries; perfumers; pharmacists; reformed prostitutes; sexual temptation; tanners; women.

Symbols: Rich raiment; box of ointment; skull; book; vase of sweet spices; crucifix; open book; boat.

Things to Do:

Earlier Event: July 12
Memorial of St. Veronica