Mary of Magdala Reflection by Loretta O'Donnell

My name is Mary Magdalene, which you know. But you may not know who I am.

My portrayal in the western Church for the past 1,400 years has taken different shapes and meanings. I have ranged from follower to apostle to hermit. Most recently, I was even claimed to be Jesus’ wife and mother of his child. My most prominent portrayal, though, has been that of a “sinner of flesh.” A sensual and beautiful woman, repenting a sinful past.

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The interpretation of me through the Bible is the barest of bones. Every interpretation which has accumulated around me reflects the imagination of writers and thinkers - and their own historical context. The interpretations of me throughout western history explain more about the period people come from than who I actually was – who I actually am.

Remember this, and think of your own interpretation during your time in history, as I will briefly describe to you the journey of my identity throughout ages.

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Before Christianity became the Roman Empire’s official religion in the forth century and before Church Fathers began indoctrinating the Church, I was not a prostitute.

Early Christians were forced into hiding and many were martyred. This, in turn, meant that they could not erect special places in which to meet and worship, so they met in private houses. The earliest Christian “chapels” were house-churches, many of which were converted into churches in the second century, like that of the Dura-Europos.

Dura Europos is home to the earliest surviving image of me. I appear in a painting from the year 232. I hold a torch that guides my way through darkness and I am with two other women carrying spices for Jesus’ body. Emphasis is placed on our actual act of witnessing Jesus’ resurrection.

I witnessing the resurrection was one of the most popular images among early Christians.

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However positive the image of me as the witness to the Resurrection, the claim that I was associated with the “sin of flesh” by early Church Fathers prevailed and hurt my role in the church.

The early Church Fathers struggled with understanding women’s role in the Church as a whole. What they came to conclude about women was largely focused around sexuality. Struggling to understand the Fall in the Garden of Eden and how it related to women a stigma developed around women; at one point it was considered that humanity’s fall was occasioned by womankind.

Confusion in the Gospels, along with this stigma that developed around women, led Church Fathers to believe that I was a prostitute. They associated me with Eve’s quote “subordinate creation, for her weakness in being tempted, and for her role as temptress and protagonist of the Fall.” Quite different from witness of the Resurrection.

Reasons for their confusion in the gospel could be that it is written that I am the Galilean woman from whom “seven demons had gone out.” The seven demons are not revealed, leaving it open to interpretation.

Another factor that distorts my portrayal is that I am the only Galilean woman to be identified by the name of my town, Magdala. Being named by my town indicates that I was an independent woman, which was uncommon during the time and contributed to speculation that I was a prostitute

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As time went on, relics and bones of saints became important – it gave Churches the ability to lure in worshipers, which ultimately led to financial gains. Relics were especially instrumental in creating myths or stories about the dead.

I was a figure with myths already forming around me, and I was therefore susceptible to such practices. The Mary Magdalene cult began under the circumstances of these enthusiasms. Pilgrims came to touch my “tomb” beginning in the 9th century and through the subsequent centuries, which was thought to be in an abbey in France.

At one time, it was believed that I was a hermit that traveled to Palestine. This speculation, called St. Mary of Egypt, a time when asceticism was popular among women who wanted to express their devote Christianity.

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In the Middle Ages, my image as a repentant prostitute was brought to the forefront. I represented confession to priests, which was mandatory for all Christians and the artistic portrayals –ones of me naked, with long hair grown to cover my sinfulness – flourished.

In 1965, I was declared “Apostle to the Apostles.” Still, many Christians hold me to be the repentant prostitute that has tainted my place history. Today, along with this portrayal, I am also marked by an emphasis on my relationship with Jesus. The past 20 years of research about me was mostly headed by Feminist scholars, or scholars seeking to understand women’s role in the church. Most recently, however, publicity about me is related more by popular fiction about her relationship with Jesus, such as The Da Vinci Code.

As exhausting as this brief overview of my identity might be, it is a mere scrape on the surface of my story. I am here today to reveal my real identity. And although it is layered with skepticism and myth, my real identity is simple to find: it is in the Gospels.

The four gospels were written within the first century after Jesus’ death. Female followers of Jesus illustrate a unique “faith and tenacity”. Our uniqueness is even more notable when viewed in light of the Jewish woman’s traditional domestic role during the period. Jewish women during this time primarily did two things, cared for children and prepared the food and house.

But remember, though the gospels illustrate Jewish culture in the first century, they serve more to illustrate Jesus’ indifference to it and (at times) the scriptures that justified it.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, called the synoptic gospels because of their similar form and content, have similar points of view of Jesus’ life. The fourth gospel, John, gives the most unique accounts. Despite their differences, each gospel identifies me in four common ways. These commonalities, these four truths, are what I ask for you to listen to carefully:

I was a female follower of Jesus, I present at his crucifixion, I was witness to his resurrection and I was the first to proclaim the Resurrection.

This is my true identity.

I tell you this: if you seek excitement, enrichment, beauty ... embrace who I am, abandon my myth. –

I was the disciple by the cross and herald of New Life. Embrace me as I am - a figure of independence, courage, action, faith and love - it is central not only to my identity, but the identity of the entire Christian faith.

My name is Mary Magdalene. I was the first to proclaim the Resurrection.