SAINT MARY MAGDALENE, 


THE APOSTLE?




Mary Magdalene, an Apostle?  I don't remember that one in the Baltimore Catechism...


The late 20th and early 21st century has seen a restoration of the New Testament figure of Mary Magdalene as a patron of women's preaching and ministry. Her new popularity has stemmed in part from the recognition that Mary Magdalene has suffered from what is believed to have been an historical defamation of character. 


Some argue that she has been misidentified as a repentant prostitute in historical tradition and as depicted in art as a weeping sinner wiping Jesus' feet with her hair. Some modern New Testament scholarship has attempted to show that this picture of Mary Magdalene is not true.


Pope Gregory the Great incorrectly painted Mary Magdalene as that repentant prostitute.   Many scholars feel this depiction was meant to deny women their place in the ministry of the Catholic Church.


That act was a great disservice to women in the early Catholic Church.  We affirm Saint Mary Magdalene's role as a leader in the early Church.


Our brothers and sisters of the Eastern Orthodox Churches maintain that Mary Magdalene, distinguished from Mary of Bethany and the "sinful woman", had been a virtuous woman all her life, even before her conversion. They have never celebrated her as a penitent. 


This view finds expression both in her written life and in the liturgical service in her honor that is included in the Menaion and performed on her annual feast-day. 


There is a tradition that Mary Magdalene led such a holy life that the devil thought she might be the one who was to bear Christ into the world, and for that reason he sent the seven demons to trouble her.


Mary Magdalene is honored as the first witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus, and received a special commission from Him to tell the Apostles of His resurrection.


She is often depicted on icons bearing a vessel of ointment, not because of the anointing by the "sinful woman", but because she was among those women who brought ointments to the tomb of Jesus. 


For this reason, she is called a Myrrhbearer.


For her witness to the Resurrection and her activities in the early church, we call her an Apostle of our Lord!





Click Here to Return to our Main Page: http://www.occms.org/