by Fr Gabriel-Allan Boyd
On the edge of the Sea of Galilee, there used to be a small town called Magdala. Now, in the 21st century, the tiny village that sits on that same spot is called, Mejhdel. On July 22 we celebrate the feast day of a woman, a part of whose name reflects this place where she grew up, Mary Magdalene (or Mary from Magdala).
Saint Luke tells us that at one point, seven demons were cast out of her (Luke 8:2). And immediately after the demons were cast out of her, Mary became one of Jesus’ most devoted disciples. As our Lord and His apostles went around through the cities and villages of Judea and Galilee preaching about “the Kingdom of God,” Mary followed after Him, and she must have been a woman of affluence, because, Saint Luke tells us that she used her own possessions to serve Jesus in His ministry (Luke 8:1-3).
The Gospel accounts also tell us that Mary Magdalene was one of the few people who remained present with Jesus during His Crucifixion. While almost all the rest of our Lord’s disciples ran away, she and the Theotokos and the Apostle John were the main ones who remained courageously at the Cross.
Of course, the four Gospel writers also occasionally list some other women among those standing at the Cross, the mother of the Apostle James, and Salome, and other women followers of the Lord, but all of them mention Mary Magdalene first. Saint John, in addition to the Mother of God, names only her and Mary Cleopas. This shows how prominent her place was among all the other women disciples of Jesus.
Matthew says that Mary Magdalene also attended to Jesus’ burial, watching as the entrance to His tomb was covered with a large stone. And on the Sunday after Jesus burial, the third day—as Jewish custom prescribed, she and the other women took spices to the Lord’s grave at dawn to anoint His Body. John tells us that because Mary Magdalene left her home so early in the morning (while it was still dark), she was the first one to arrive at the tomb. Seeing that the large stone, covering the cave opening had already been pushed away, she was struck with fear and quickly ran to tell Peter and John. When they heard the strange message that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, both apostles ran to the cave, discovering to their amazement, that only the burial cloths remained. So, Peter and John left, saying nothing to anyone, but Mary Magdalene remained near the tomb’s entrance, weeping.
Peering back into the tomb once again, she suddenly saw two angels in white garments, one sitting at the head of where Jesus’ body had been placed and the other angel at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She answered them with the same words which she had just said a few moments earlier to the apostles, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid Him.” As she nervously turned around, she saw that another person joined them, the Risen Jesus standing near the grave, but she didn’t recognize Him. He asked Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Thinking that He was the gardener, she asked, “Sir, if you’ve taken him, then tell me where you’ve put Him, and I’ll take Him away.”
When He spoke her name, however, she immediately recognized His voice. This was the same voice she’d heard many times over throughout the years as she’d followed Jesus through all the cities and places where He preached. This was her Rabbi…her Teacher. She threw herself down at His feet to wash them with tears of joy. But He said to her: “Don’t touch me, since I haven’t yet ascended to My Father; but go tell My brethren: “I’m going to ascend to My Father, and your Father; to My God and to your God.”
Obeying Jesus’ command to preach the Good News of His resurrection, she again ran to the apostles. Rushing into the house, where the apostles still remained mourning, she proclaimed the joyous message to them, exclaiming, “I have seen the Lord!” In this, she was the first human to preach about the Resurrection…telling of her personal encounter with the Risen Lord. While the apostles proclaimed this Good News to the world, she was the first to proclaim it to the apostles themselves.
According to the Church’s Holy Tradition, when Christian persecution arose in Jerusalem, forcing the apostles out to the ends of the earth with the message of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene also went with them. Since she joyfully kept in her heart that intimate encounter with Christ at His Resurrection, she was enthused to take that message to the pagans in Rome. Wherever she went she proclaimed Christ and His teaching to the people she met. When some were skeptical of Christ’s Resurrection, she repeated to them the same words she had previously told the Apostles: “I have seen the Lord!” She took this message all over Italy.
Eventually, Mary Magdalene used her affluence to gain an audience with Emperor Tiberias in Italy. She told him that in his Roman Province of Judea, there was a holy and powerful miracle worker from Galilee, named Jesus Christ—anointed by God, who had been unjustly condemned and executed. Then, according to Holy Tradition, she held out an egg (a Roman symbol of creation, spring, and rebirth) to him, proclaiming “Christ is Risen!” But the Emperor wasn’t impressed. He told Mary that there was about as much chance of a human returning to life from the dead as there was of the egg in her hand turning red. Just as the words escaped from his mouth, the egg turned red!
Thanks to Mary Magdalene, the custom to give each other red eggs on Pascha is celebrated by Orthodox Christians over all the world, but the meaning has transformed to a deeper symbolism. The sealed tomb of Christ was the uncracked egg... and Christ’s Resurrection from the dead was when the shell was broken to discover white inside. This has become a custom from the very time of the Apostles, when Mary Magdalene first showed believers this example of the joyful offering.
Mary Magdalene continued on with her preaching throughout Italy and most especially in the city of Rome until the arrival of the Apostle Paul. From Rome, Saint Mary Magdalene, already bent with age, moved to Ephesus to be near the Apostle John. She finished her earthly life and was buried in Ephesus.
Eventually, her holy relics were transferred to Constantinople. In the era of the Crusader campaigns, they were taken to Italy and placed in Rome. Some of Mary Magdalene’s relics were also taken to Provage, France, where a glorious church was built in her honor.
In the Orthodox Church, we give special honor to Saint Mary Magdalene, the woman whom the Lord Himself delivered from demonic darkness to light—from the destructiveness of Satan to the powerful grace of God. After receiving healing, she never wavered from the path of serving Him. She was faithful to Him not only when He was surrounded by enthusiastic crowds and winning recognition as a miracle-worker…but also when all the other disciples deserted Him in fear, as He was being humiliated and crucified, and hung in torment upon the Cross. This is why the Lord, knowing her faithfulness, appeared to her first, and honored her as worthy to be the first to proclaim His Resurrection. This is why the Church refers to this Holy Myrrh-bearer as “Equal to the Apostles.”