Troparion - Tone 1
In keeping His commandments and laws, O holy Mary Magdalene,
You followed Christ, who for our sake was born of a virgin,
And in celebrating your most holy memory today,
We receive forgiveness of sins by your prayers!
Kontakion - Tone 4
When God, who is transcendent in essence,
Came with flesh into the world, O Myrrhbearer,
He received you as a true disciple,
for you turned all your love toward Him;
Henceforth you would yourself work many healings.
Now that you have passed into heaven,
never cease to intercede for the world!
Kontakion - Tone 3
Standing before the Cross of the Savior,
Suffering with the Mother of the Lord,
The most glorious Mary Magdalene offered praise with tears.
She cried out: What is this strange wonder?
He who holds the whole creation in His hand chooses to suffer:
Glory, O Lord to Your power!
The Holy Myrrh-Bearer
Equal of the Apostles Mary Magdalene. On the banks of Lake Genesareth
(Galilee), between the cities of Capernaum and Tiberias, was the small
city of Magdala, the remains of which have survived to our day. Now only
the small village of Mejhdel stands on the site.
A woman whose name has entered forever into the
Gospel account was born and grew up in Magdala. The Gospel tells us
nothing of Mary's younger years, but Tradition informs us that Mary of
Magdala was young and pretty, and led a sinful life. It says in the
Gospels that the Lord expelled seven devils from Mary (Luke. 8:2). From
the moment of her healing Mary led a new life, and became a true
disciple of the Savior.
The Gospel relates that Mary followed after the Lord, when He went with
the Apostles through the cities and villages of Judea and Galilee
preaching about the Kingdom of God. Together with the pious women
Joanna, wife of Chosa (steward of Herod), Susanna and others, she served
Him from her own possessions (Luke 08:1-3) and undoubtedly shared with
the Apostles the evangelic tasks in common with the other women. The
Evangelist Luke, evidently, has her in view together with the other
women, stating that at the moment of the Procession of Christ onto
Golgotha, when after the Scourging He took on Himself the heavy Cross,
collapsing under its weight, the women followed after Him weeping and
wailing, but He consoled them. The Gospel relates that Mary Magdalene
was present on Golgotha at the moment of the Lord's Crucifixion. While
all the disciples of the Savior ran away, she remained fearlessly at the
Cross together with the Mother of God and the Apostle John.
The Evangelists also list among those standing at the Cross the mother
of the Apostle James, and Salome, and other women followers of the Lord
from Galilee, but all mention Mary Magdalene first. St John, in addition
to the Mother of God, names only her and Mary Cleopas. This indicates
how much she stood out from all the women who gathered around the Lord.
She was faithful to Him not only in the days of His Glory, but also at
the moment of His extreme humiliation and insult. As the Evangelist
Matthew relates, she was present at the Burial of the Lord. Before her
eyes Joseph and Nicodemus went out to the tomb with His lifeless Body.
She watched as they covered over the entrance to the cave with a large
stone, entombing the Source of Life.
Faithful to the Law in which she was raised, Mary together with the
other women spent following day at rest, because it was the great day of
the Sabbath, coinciding with the Feast of Passover. But all the rest of
the peaceful day the women gathered spices to go to the Grave of the
Lord at dawn on Sunday and anoint His Body according to the custom of
the Jews.
It is necessary to mention that, having agreed to go on the first day of
the week to the Tomb early in the morning, the holy women had no
possibility of meeting with one another on Saturday. They went
separately on Friday evening to their own homes. They went out only at
dawn the following day to go to the Sepulcher, not all together, but
each from her own house.
The Evangelist Matthew writes that the women came to the grave at dawn,
or as the Evangelist Mark expresses, extremely early before the rising
of the sun. The Evangelist John, elaborating upon these, says that Mary
came to the grave so early that it was still dark. Obviously, she waited
impatiently for the end of night, but it was not yet daybreak. She ran
to the place where the Lord's Body lay.
Mary went to the tomb alone. Seeing the stone pushed away from the cave,
she ran away in fear to tell the close Apostles of Christ, Peter and
John. Hearing the strange message that the Lord was gone from the tomb,
both Apostles ran to the tomb and, seeing the shroud and winding cloths,
they were amazed. The Apostles went and said nothing to anyone, but Mary
stood about the entrance to the tomb and wept. Here in this dark tomb so
recently lay her lifeless Lord.
Wanting proof that the tomb really was empty, she went down to it and
saw a strange sight. She saw two angels in white garments, one sitting
at the head, the other at the foot, where the Body of Jesus had been
placed. They asked her, "Woman, why weepest thou?" She answered them
with the words which she had said to the Apostles, "They have taken my
Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." At that moment, she
turned around and saw the Risen Jesus standing near the grave, but she
did not recognize Him.
He asked Mary, "Woman, why weepest thou? Whom dost thou seek?" She
answered thinking that she was seeing the gardener, "Sir, if thou hast
taken him, tell where thou hast put Him, and I will take Him away."
Then she recognized the Lord's voice. This was the voice she heard in
those days and years, when she followed the Lord through all the cities
and places where He preached. He spoke her name, and she gave a joyful
shout, "Rabbi" (Teacher).
Respect and love, fondness and deep veneration, a feeling of
thankfulness and recognition at His Splendor as great Teacher, all came
together in this single outcry. She was able to say nothing more and she
threw herself down at the feet of her Teacher to wash them with tears of
joy. But the Lord said to her: "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended
to My Father; but go to My brethren and tell them: "I ascend to My
Father, and your Father; to My God and to your God."
She came to herself and again ran to the Apostles, to do the will of Him
sending her to preach. Again she ran into the house, where the Apostles
still remained in dismay, and proclaimed to them the joyous message, "I
have seen the Lord!" This was the first preaching in the world about the
Resurrection.
The Apostles proclaimed the Glad Tidings to the world, but she
proclaimed it to the Apostles themselves.
Holy Scripture does not tell us about the life of Mary Magdalene after
the Resurrection of Christ, but it is impossible to doubt, that if in
the terrifying minutes of Christ's Crucifixion she was the foot of His
Cross with His All-Pure Mother and St John, she must have stayed with
them during the happier time after the Resurrection and Ascension of
Christ. Thus in the Acts of the Apostles St Luke writes that all the
Apostles with one mind stayed in prayer and supplication, with certain
women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and His brethren.
Holy Tradition testifies that when the Apostles departed from Jerusalem
to preach to all the ends of the earth, then Mary Magdalene also went
with them. A daring woman, whose heart was full of reminiscence of the
Resurrection, she went beyond her native borders and went to preach in
pagan Rome. Everywhere she proclaimed to people about Christ and His
teaching. When many did not believe that Christ is risen, she repeated
to them what she had said to the Apostles on the radiant morning of the
Resurrection: "I have seen the Lord!" With this message she went all
over Italy.
Tradition relates that in Italy Mary Magdalene visited Emperor Tiberias
(14-37 A.D.) and proclaimed to him Christ's Resurrection. According to
Tradition, she took him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a
symbol of new life with the words: "Christ is Risen!" Then she told the
emperor that in his Province of Judea the unjustly condemned Jesus the
Galilean, a holy man, a miracleworker, powerful before God and all
mankind, had been executed at the instigation of the Jewish High
Priests, and the sentence confirmed by the procurator appointed by
Tiberias, Pontius Pilate.
Mary repeated the words of the Apostles, that we are redeemed from the
vanity of life is not with perishable silver or gold, but rather by the
precious Blood of Christ.
Thanks to Mary Magdalene the custom to give each other paschal eggs on
the day of the Radiant Resurrection of Christ spread among Christians
over all the world. On one ancient Greek manuscript, written on
parchment, kept in the monastery library of St Athanasius near
Thessalonica, is a prayer read on the day of Holy Pascha for the
blessing of eggs and cheese. In it is indicated that the igumen in
passing out the blessed eggs says to the brethren: "Thus have we
received from the holy Fathers, who preserved this custom from the very
time of the holy Apostles, therefore the holy Equal of the Apostles Mary
Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering."
Mary Magdalene continued her preaching in Italy and in the city of Rome
itself. Evidently, the Apostle Paul has her in mind in his Epistle to
the Romans (16: 6), where together with other ascetics of evangelic
preaching he mentions Mary (Mariam), who as he expresses "has bestowed
much labor on us." Evidently, she extensively served the Church in its
means of subsistence and its difficulties, being exposed to dangers, and
sharing with the Apostles the labors of preaching.
According to Church Tradition, she remained in Rome until the arrival of
the Apostle Paul, and for two more years following his departure from
Rome after the first court judgment upon him. From Rome, St Mary
Magdalene, already bent with age, moved to Ephesus where the holy
Apostle John unceasingly labored. There the saint finished her earthly
life and was buried.
Her holy relics were transferred in the ninth
century to Constantinople, and placed in the monastery Church of St
Lazarus. In the era of the Crusader campaigns they were transferred to
Italy and placed at Rome under the altar of the Lateran Cathedral. Part
of the relics of Mary Magdalene are said to be in Provage, France near
Marseilles, where over them at the foot of a steep mountain a splendid
church is built in her honor.
The Orthodox Church honors the holy memory of
Saint Mary Magdalene, the woman called by the Lord Himself from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan to God.
Formerly immersed in sin and having received
healing, she sincerely and irrevocably began a new life and never
wavered from that path. Mary loved the Lord Who called her to a new
life. 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 disciples deserted Him in fear and He, humiliated and
crucified, hung in torment upon the Cross. This is why the Lord, knowing
her faithfulness, appeared to her first, and esteemed her worthy to be
first to proclaim His Resurrection.
