Saint Mary Magdalene

Postcard from the USA

St. Mary Magdalene in the Holy Chapel of Château, Chateaudun, France.

Saint Mary Magdalene is a prominent figure in Christianity. She was a follower of Jesus, present at his crucifixion and the first to witness his resurrection.

Mary Magdalene is regarded by believers as a historical figure, possibly from Magdala. She is seen as a prominent follower of Jesus who was believed to have been healed by him, supported his ministry financially, and was present at his crucifixion and burial. She played a key role among his female disciples. Overall, there is limited information about her life.

Because Mary is listed as one of the women who supported Jesus’ ministry financially, she must have been relatively wealthy. The places where she and the other women are mentioned throughout the gospels indicate strongly that they were vital to Jesus’ ministry, and that Mary Magdalene always appears first, whenever she is listed in the Synoptic Gospels as a member of a group of women, indicates that she was seen as the most important of all of them. Carla Ricci notes that, in lists of the disciples, Mary Magdalene occupies a similar position among Jesus’ female followers as Simon Peter does among the male apostles.

That women played such an active and important role in Jesus’ ministry was not entirely radical or even unique; inscriptions from a synagogue in Aphrodisias in Asia Minor from around the same time period reveal that many of the major donors to the synagogue were women. Jesus’ ministry did bring women greater liberation than they would typically have held in mainstream Jewish society.

She is often associated with several historic locations and sites in France and Canada, most notably the 12th-century UNESCO World Heritage basilica in Vézelay, France.

Her Feast is on July 22.

The Holy Chapel (Sainte-Chapelle) of the Château de Châteaudun in France is a stunning example of Flamboyant Gothic architecture. Built between 1451 and 1493 by Jean de Dunois (companion-in-arms to Joan of Arc), it was designed to house a precious relic of the True Cross. The massive medieval dungeon watches over the Loir valley, 31 metres above the rest, featuring a flamboyant Gothic-style decor and a Holy Chapel that houses twelve life-size painted statues.