St. Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesus and a central witness in the Gospel accounts of his death and resurrection. She remained among the women associated with the crucifixion and burial, and John's Gospel describes the risen Jesus sending her to announce his resurrection to the disciples.

John's resurrection account moves from an empty tomb and grief to recognition when Jesus addresses her. The message she carries is entrusted to a person who had remained close to the events of the Passion. Her witness is therefore more than a symbolic appearance in a later devotional scene.

Her name should not be used to merge her automatically with Mary of Bethany or the unnamed woman who anointed Jesus. Those identifications developed in later Western tradition and are not established by the Gospel texts. The Roman liturgy now celebrates her distinctly on July 22. Pope Francis raised that celebration to the rank of feast in 2016, emphasizing her apostolic witness.

The title apostle to the apostles describes her role as a messenger to the disciples, not membership in the Twelve. The 2016 liturgical decision drew attention to that particular Gospel responsibility. Her remembrance rests on discipleship and testimony rather than the unsupported assumption that every unnamed female sinner in the Gospels must be her.

Luke also identifies Mary among the women who accompanied Jesus and supported his ministry from their own resources. Joanna and Susanna are named with her, placing Mary's discipleship within a wider group whose practical contribution helped sustain the mission. Luke reports that seven demons had gone out from her; the text does not identify this with prostitution. That distinction matters because later assumptions about her past have often overshadowed what the Gospels actually say.

In a 2007 catechesis on women in the early Church, Benedict XVI placed her resurrection testimony within this wider participation of women in Jesus' ministry. He also recalled the medieval theological use of the title apostle to the apostles. Her prominence therefore rests on several connected features of the Gospel accounts: accompanying Jesus, remaining associated with his Passion, encountering him risen, and carrying the news to others.

The explanation of Mary Magdalene's new Mass preface identifies sources stretching across centuries. Its opening draws on the Missale Gothicum, while part of its sequence of actions adapts a medieval life formerly attributed to Rabanus Maurus. The commentary dates that work to the twelfth century rather than accepting its traditional attribution.

This is a revealing example of liturgical editing: useful language from an older work could be retained while its conflation of different Gospel women was set aside. The commentary also contrasts the 1962 Missal's reading from Luke 7 with the newer use of John 20. Changes in selected texts reshaped how worshippers encountered Mary's distinct scriptural identity.