Mary Magdalene | Apostle to the Apostles, Myrrh Bearer – July 22

Mary Magdalene is mentioned in all four canonical gospel accounts, where she appears as the first-named of Jesus’ female followers and played an important and pivotal role in Christ’s Ministry. She is mentioned about 12 times in the N. T. and most of the times she is mentioned in the company of good and godly, devoted and dedicated, prominent and responsible woman servants of the Savior.

Little is known of the early life of St. Mary. She was called “Magdalene” because she lived in the town of Magdala, three miles from Capernaum, on the sea of Galilee. In the Bible we read that she was afflicted with an incurable disease, possessed by seven devils (Lk. 8: 2; Mk. 16: 9). We do not know the nature of the demons – whether they afflicted her with illness or insanity. Until Christ touched her, Mary was a desperate woman who lived in lonely anguish, tormented by seven demons.

This was probably by God’s Providence so that in curing her, Lord Jesus Christ could show forth the power and glory of God. She is next named as standing at the foot of the cross (Mk. 15:40; Matt. 27:56; Jn. 19:25; Lk. 23:49). She saw Christ being crucified on the Cross, witnessed His burial in the tomb and she was the first to record the witness of His Resurrection, as she was the first to encounter Jesus after His resurrection.

At the time of His greatest suffering, while He hung on the Cross and when even His apostles had abandoned Him, Mary Magdalene stood at the foot of the Cross during those long, fateful hours at Calvary, together with the Mother of God and the Lord’s beloved disciple, John. They mourned and wept, but even in their weeping they comforted the Saviour with their undying love and the knowledge that He had not been utterly forsaken.

That night, Mary Magdalene came with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemos when they took the Body of her beloved Lord down from the Cross and laid it in a tomb. Although the ordeal had been ominous and exhausting, together with the other women disciples, she returned to prepare myrrh and other ointments with which to anoint the precious Body of Christ, according to the Jewish custom. Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the sepulcher (tomb) carrying the ointments. (hence, the Church calls her “Myrrh-bearer”.) When she discovered He was not there, she broke down and wept. Mary was so desperate to give the tortured body of her beloved Lord a proper burial that she pleaded tearfully with a groundskeeper, even offering him money, to take her to Him. She thought that perhaps someone had already come and taken the Body to another replace.

Hurrying back to Jerusalem she told the apostles Peter and John: “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid Him.” Together with them she went again to the tomb and stood there weeping. When they had left, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher. There she saw two angels who asked why she was crying. She told them and then, turning around, she saw Jesus, but in her grief, she did not recognize Him, and thinking -He was the gardener, told Him also the reason for her weeping.

It was only then He said her name: “Mary!” that she recognized Him as her beloved Lord. Not believing her; own ears, she cried out with joy, “Master! Rabboni! Then quickly following His instructions, she ran quickly to announce the good news to the disciples: “Christ is risen!” (Because she was the first, sent by the Lord Himself, to proclaim the Resurrection, the Church also calls her “Equal-to-the–Apostles”. Because of her announcement of the resurrection to the other disciples, she was known in the ancient world as “the apostle to the apostles.”

Mary Magdalene was first to proclaim: “Christ is Risen! In Truth He is Risen!” Even after Christ’s Ascension into heaven, Mary Magdalene continued to preach the good news of Christ’s glorious Resurrection, not only in Jerusalem, but also in other countries.

Nothing much is known about her outside of Scripture, both in the canon and in the apocrypha. Her feast day is July 22. Mary Magdalene is known for her love for Christ and her fidelity to Him during His Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection. The saint retired to Ephesus with the Blessed Virgin. She spent her last years in Ephesus helping St, John the Evangelist in missionary labors.

There she died peacefully, and her in-corrupt relics were transferred to Constantinople in 886, placed in the Church of St. Lazarus’ Monastery and are preserved there. Gregory of Tours supports the statement that she went to Ephesus. Mary Magdalene, the Myrrh bearer, the apostle to the apostles was a significant leader early Christianity.