Saint Mary Magdalene

Mary of Magdala, a town on the Sea of Galilee, was one of the women who followed Jesus and supported his work from their own means; Luke says that seven demons had gone out of her. She stood by the cross and saw where he was buried. The Gospel of John tells that she came to the tomb on Easter morning, and was the first to see the risen Jesus, who sent her to the disciples; hence she is called “the apostle to the apostles.”

From the 6th century the West identified her with the sinful woman of Luke 7 and with Mary of Bethany; the calendar now treats them as different women. A Western tradition holds that she went to Provence, an Eastern one that she died at Ephesus. In 2016 Pope Francis raised her day to a feast.