St Mary Magdalene

22 July

St Mary Magdalene Memorial Mass

Mary at first did not recognize the risen Jesus in the garden. She knew him when he spoke her name. Her great love bursts forth, echoing the first reading, "I took hold of him and would not let him go".

Jesus says, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father". Their now entirely new relationship is a much deeper one. It rests in faith rather than physical contact.

At first, the apostles did not believe Mary. Christ's followers, even today, meet disbelief in their witness to the Resurrection.

Opening Prayer

Father, your Son first entrusted to Mary Magdalene the joyful news of his resurrection.

By her prayers and example

may we proclaim Christ as our living Lord and one day see him in glory,

for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Prayer after Communion

Father, may the sacrament we have received fill us with the same faithful love

that kept Mary Magdalene close to Christ, who

Fr. Nivard

History of Mary Magdalene

For centuries, Christians have wondered about the real identity of this woman who was beloved by Jesus. Many false ideas about Magdalene persist today. For example, early church fathers incorrectly identified her with the sinful woman who anointed Christ's feet at the house of Simon the Pharisee, but there is nothing in the Bible to support this view and much to dispute it.
Others wrongly believed that she was Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. We may never know details about Mary Magdalene, but Bible gives us clues about her importance as a significant leader of early Christianity. According to the Gospel of John, after Jesus' resurrection, he first appeared to Mary Magdalene and not to Peter. In other scriptures, her name is first in the list of witnesses (Mk. 16:1-11; Mt. 28:1; Lk. 24:10; Jn. 20:11-18; 1 Cor. 15:5-8). As Mary wept in the garden where Jesus was buried, she did not recognize Jesus until he called her name. Her encounter with Christ that first Easter morning was the inspiration of the popular hymn, "I Come to the Garden." One tradition concerning Mary Magdalene says that following the death and resurrection of Jesus, she gained an invitation to a banquet given by Emperor Tiberius Caesar. When she met him, she held a plain egg in her hand and exclaimed "Christ is risen!" Caesar laughed, and said that Christ rising from the dead was as likely as the egg in her hand turning red while she held it. Before he finished speaking, the egg in her hand turned a bright red, and she continued proclaiming the Gospel to the entire imperial house. Mary Magdalene is considered by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican churches to be a saint, with a feast day of July 22.

Bringing a taste of the Kremlin to Jerusalem, the 19th-century Church of Mary Magdalene is a distinctive Jerusalem landmark on the Mount of Olives.

The Church of Mary Magdalene was built by Tsar Alexander III in 1888 in the traditional Russian style. Easily spotted from the Temple Mount, the Russian church's seven golden domes have been newly gilded and sparkle in the sun. Combined with its multiple levels and sculpted white turrets, the church looks like something out of a fairytale.

The church is worth a close-up visit as well, for it stands in a tranquil garden and is filled with Orthodox icons and wall paintings inside.

The crypt holds the remains of Tsar Alexander's mother, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who was killed in the Russian revolution of 1917.

Also buried here is Princess Alice of Greece (Queen Elizabeth's mother-in-law), who harbored Jews during the Nazi occupation of Greece.