I originally wrote this reflection on July 22, 2016, when the Memorial of my Confirmation saint, Mary Magdalene, was elevated to a Feast.
“Apostle of the Apostles”
Today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Mary Magdalene. Of course she’s had a feast day for centuries, but until this year [2016], July 22 was only a “memorial” on the liturgical calendar, not a “feast.” In simple terms, memorials aren’t as important as feasts, which typically commemorate key events in the lives of Jesus and Mary or high-ranking saints like the Apostles. The fact that the celebration of Mary Magdalene has been raised to the dignity of a “feast” is, in a certain sense, an acknowledgement that her significance for the Church is equal to that of the Apostles.
While Mary Magdalene was not one of the Twelve, she is an apostle in her own right, albeit one with a different sort of mission than that of the men chosen by Christ to become the first priests of His Church. (More on that in a minute.)
The secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Archbishop Arthur Roche, explains that the elevation of the Memorial of St. Mary Magdalene to a feast is linked to her role as a witness to the Resurrection:
“Precisely since she was an eyewitness to the Risen Christ, she was also the first to testify before the apostles. … In this way she becomes, as is already known, an evangelist, or rather a messenger who announces the good news of the resurrection of the Lord; or, as Rabano Mauro and St. Thomas Aquinas said, ‘apostolorum apostola‘ [‘apostle of the apostles’], as she announces to the apostles what they in turn will announce to all the world. The Angelic Doctor is right to apply this term to Mary Magdalene: she is the witness to the Risen Christ and announces the message of the resurrection of the Lord, like the other apostles. Therefore it is right that the liturgical celebration of this woman should have the same level of festivity given to the apostles in the General Roman Calendar, and that the special mission of this woman be highlighted, as an example and model to every woman in the Church.”
Biblical References and a Bad Reputation
In case you need a refresher, Sacred Scripture tells us only five things about Mary Magdalene:
- In St. Luke’s Gospel, she is mentioned as a disciple healed by Jesus of demonic possession, who afterwards accompanied him in his public ministry (Lk 8:2).
- Mark corroborates Luke’s identification of Mary as a woman from whom Jesus exorcized seven demons (16:9).
- She is also named as one of the women present at the crucifixion (Mt 27:56; Mk 15:40; Jn 19:25).
- In all four Gospels, she is identified as one of the women who visited Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning (Mt 28:1; Mk 16:9; Lk 24:10; Jn 20:1).
- Most significantly, St. John’s Gospel gives her the distinction of being the first of Jesus’ disciples to become a witness of His Resurrection (Jn 20).
Whether Mary Magdalene appears in other moments throughout the Gospels remains a disputed question. In the Western tradition, she is usually identified as the sinful woman who anoints the feet of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke (7:36-50), and she has also been conflated with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who, according to John, also anoints Jesus (Jn 11:1-2). The Eastern tradition believes these passages refer to three different women, all distinct from Mary Magdalene.
In the West, Mary Magdalene’s association with the unnamed penitent woman in Luke has unfortunately resulted in her being pigeonholed as the “repentant prostitute.” A Google image search for “Penitent Mary Magdalene” will show dozens of depictions of a knockout blonde (sometimes a redhead) with waist-length hair, in various states of undress, gazing piously up at heaven (or at a skull, a crucifix, a book, etc.), apparently repentant of her former promiscuity. (A notable exception to this artistic trend is, of course, Donatello’s horrifying statue of the Penitent Magdalene. If you need to recover after seeing it, check out this stunning alternative from Spanish Baroque sculptor Pedro de Mena.) Some of the depictions are beautiful; some might even be Great Art— but their almost universal characterization of Mary Magdalene as the seductress-turned-saint strikes me as somewhat unfair.
To my mind, whether Mary Magdalene was or wasn’t a woman of ill repute is beside the point— or to put it another way, the specific nature of the sins she committed prior to her conversion ought not to be her most defining characteristic. Rather, as the recent decree indicates, the most essential aspect of her character is her acceptance of God’s mercy and her role as a witness to the Resurrection; indeed, the Gospel to be read on her feast is her encounter with Jesus at the empty tomb:
Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.
John 20:11-16
Mary Magdalene: Bride of Christ?
But another of the readings for her feast is equally revelatory:
“Upon my bed at night
Song of Songs 3:1
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not…”
Hidden within Mary Magdalene’s role as witness and apostle is her identity as a bride of Christ, a woman with a spousal love for Jesus. This is the key to understanding how her role as an apostle is distinct from that of the Twelve: they were sent to announce the Resurrection to the world, but she was sent to announce it within the Church, among her brothers, in a uniquely feminine manner. Her spousal love for the Lord confirmed for the Apostles Christ’s presence in their midst.
This just so happens to be an excellent summary of the vocation of a consecrated virgin living in the world. The consecrated virgin proclaims Christ to the world, yes— but her link with the local ordinary highlights her unique situation within her own diocese. She is “sent” first and foremost to the local Church, to cooperate in the work of her bishop and his priests, and to be a sign of Christ’s presence to them and to all the faithful.
I had no inkling of this when I chose Mary Magdalene to be my Confirmation saint. I’m pretty sure I picked her because I felt that she was misunderstood, and my sixteen-year-old self could really relate to that! Then several of my close friends started discerning the priesthood, and their generous desire to follow God’s will catapulted me into my own discernment. The vocation to consecrated virginity first presented itself to me as an opportunity to support my friends in their priesthood, primarily through prayer and also through my own apostolic work; but I’ve discovered since my consecration that the reciprocal relationship between the diocesan priesthood and consecrated virginity goes beyond the practical considerations of mutual prayer and shared work. The mission of the priest and that of the consecrated virgin are distinct but interconnected, much like the mission of the Apostles and the “Apostle of the Apostles,” which makes Mary Magdalene a perfect (though perhaps unexpected) patroness for consecrated virgins.
May St. Mary Magdalene intercede for us, that we may encounter our Divine Spouse as she did and proclaim with joy and zeal: “I have seen the Lord!” (Jn 20:18).
A Consecrated Virgin? 