It is the patroness of the penitents and also venerated by the Church of the East. The Latin church used to unite in the liturgy the three women of whom the Gospel speaks and that the Greek liturgy commemorated separately: Maria of Bethany, sister of Lazzaro and Marta, the sinner “to whom a lot has been forgiven because she loved a lot”, and Maria Maddalena or Magdala, the obsessed miraculous by Jesus, who followed and assisted with the other women up to the He had the privilege of seeing risen.
The identification of the three women was facilitated by the name Maria Municipality at least two and by the sentence of San Gregorio Magno which saw only one and same woman indicated in all evangelical steps. The editors of the new calendar, reconfirming the memory of a single Maria Maddalena without any other indication, such as the “penitent” adjective, intended to celebrate the disciple to whom Jesus appeared after the resurrection.
This is the Maddalena that the Church today commemorates and that, according to an ancient Greek tradition, would have gone to live in Ephesus, where it would have died. In this city, John, the favorite apostle, and Mary, mother of Jesus, had also taken place.
But was it really a prostitute?
Regarding Maria Maddalena (or Mary of Magdala) there is the stereotype, now widely widespread, who classifies this evangelical woman as a prostitute redeemed by Christ.
“Tradition”, as the Cardinal wrote Gianfranco Ravasi«Repeated a thousand times in the history of art and persistent up to the present day, has made Mary a prostitute. This happened only because on the previous evangelical page – Luca’s chapter 7 – the story of the conversion of an anonymous “sinner known in that city”, the one who had sprinkled the feet of Jesus, guest in the house of a Pharisese notable, had wet them with his tears and had dried them with his hair. This was the case, without any real text link, identified Maria di Magdala with that unnamed prostitute. Now, this same gesture of veneration will be repeated against Jesus by another Mary, Marta and Lazzaro’s sister, on a different occasion (John 12, 1-8). And thus, a further misunderstanding will be consumed for Maria di Magdala: from some popular traditions it will be identified with this Mary of Bethany, after being confused with the prostitute of Galilee ».
Alexander Ivanov, Risen Jesus and Maria Maddalena (1835)
The disciple who remained faithful to Jesus until the last
Maria Maddalena was among those who most loved Christ, demonstrating him. When the Calvary time came, he was together with Maria Santissima Eo San Giovanni, under the cross (Jn 19:25). He did not flee out of fear as the disciples did, he did not deny him out of fear as the first Pope did, but remained present every hour, from the moment of his conversion, to the Holy Sepulcher.
For the Roman Missal, on the day dedicated to Maria Maddalena, the 22nd LGUILI, a reading of the Canticle of Canticles was chosen: «I will raise myself and patrol the city, the alleys, the squares, I will seek the one I love with the whole soul. I looked for it, but I didn’t find it. The brigade of Ronda in the city met me: “Have you seen the one who I love with all his soul?” “(Ct. 3,2), a persevering love that the Lord rewarded, making her worthy of being” apostle of the apostles “: it was the first to announce his resurrection.
The praise of San Gregorio Magno
San Gregorio Magno has extraordinary words (om. 25,1-2. 4-5; PL 76,1189-1193) for the one who made Christ the only reason for life. «She went on Easter Sunday to the sepulcher, with the ointments, to honor the Lord. But he did not find it: “Maria instead was outside, near the sepulcher, and cried” (Jn 20.10-11). In this fact we must consider how much love of love had invaded the soul of this woman, who did not detach himself from the sepulcher of the Lord, even after the disciples had moved away from it. (…) It therefore happened that he could see him alone that he had remained to look for him; Because the strength of the good work lies in perseverance, as the very voice of truth states: “Whoever will persevere to the end will be saved” (Mt. 10, 22). He therefore sought a first time, but he did not find, I persevered in looking, and he was given to find. (…) Holy desires grow up with them. If, on the other hand, in the meantime they fade, it is a sign that they were not true desires. (…) “Woman why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” (Jn 20:15). She is asked for the cause of pain, because the desire grows, and calling the one who seeks by name, you get in the love of him more. “Jesus said to her: Mary!” (Jn 20:16).
After he called it with the generic appellation (…) without being recognized, he calls it by name as if he meant: Recognize the one from whom you are recognized. I know you not as you know any person, but in a very special way».
Maria awakens from the nightmare: “Rabbunì!” (“Master!”). The humble penitent Maddalena becomes a witness of the triumph of the Crucifix. Now he would like to be there, in adoration, and instead not: «Don’t keep me, because I have not yet risen to the father; But go to my brothers and them: I go up to my Father and your Father, my God and your God “(Jn 20, 17). He will bring the announcement to the apostles.
Giotto, Risen Jesus and Mary Maddalena
The cult in the East linked to Easter
The oldest cult aimed at Maria Maddalena, dating back to the end of the fourth century, is the one that took place in the rites of the Eastern Church on the second Sunday after Easter, called “Mirofore”. On that day the women were commemorated that the day after the crucifixion and death of Jesus went to the sepulcher with the jeopardi to embalm him.
Among the Mirofore an important role played Maria Maddalena, the only one who is always mentioned in all four canonical gospels. The first center of the veneration of the Maddalena was Ephesus, where it was said was also his tomb, in the entrance of the cave of the seven dormant; He then moved to Constantinople, where at the time of Leone the philosopher (in 886) the body would have been transferred, and then spread to the western church especially since the 11th century.
In the West venerated as “The Apostle of the Apostles”
The diffusion of the cult in the West took place mainly thanks to theOrder of the preachers friarsaccording to the testimony of Umberto De Romans: “After the Maddalena gave himself to penance, he was made by the Lord so great by grace, that after the Blessed Virgin there is no woman who in the world does not make itself greater reverence and does not give greater glory in heaven”.
The order of the preachers will include it in the number of its patrons. Friars and nuns honored it with the title of “Apostle of the Apostles”, as is celebrated in the Byzantine liturgy, And they compared the mission of Maddalena, to announce the resurrection, with their apostolic office.
Maddalena’s cult spread in Europe and his devotees built numerous churches in his honor: the best known is the Gothic one Saint-Maximin-The-Sainte-Baume (1295) Where what is said is said to be the skull of the Saint, but the first in which the cult of Maria Maddalena was formed is the abbey of Vezelay where the body was already said in 1050.
Pope Francis on June 3, 2016 established the liturgical feast of Maria Maddalena
On June 3, 2016 the Congregation for divine cult has published a decree with which, “For the express desire of Pope Francis», The celebration of Santa Maria Maddalena, which was mandatory memory, is elevated to the degree of liturgical celebration. The Pope made this decision during the Jubilee of Mercy, explained the secretary of the Dicastery, the archbishop Arthur Roche, “to mean the relevance of this woman who showed a great love to Christ and was loved by Christ”. Mary of Magdala was part of the group of the disciples of Jesus, had followed him to the foot of the cross and, in the garden in which the sepulcher was located, had been the first witness of the resurrection, “testis divinae mercy”, as Gregorio Magno defines it.
“Christ,” said Archbishop Roche, “he has a special consideration and mercy for this woman, who manifests his love towards him, seeking him in the garden with anguish and suffering”, with those that Sant’Ancelmo defines the “tears of humility. Therefore it is right “, concludes Roche,” that the liturgical celebration of this woman has the same degree of celebration given to the celebration of the Apostles in the general Roman calendar and that stands out the special mission of this woman, who is an example and model for every woman in the Church “.
