The Apostle to the Apostles at Vézelay
Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Mary Magdalen. In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, this is indeed a feast again, rather than merely a memorial, thanks to a change made by Pope Francis back in 2016. In the Extraordinary Form and in my Monastic Breviary, it is a Class III feast, althrough prior to the reform of 1962, it was Class II. So in a weird way, Pope Francis restored the order here to that of the 1955 calendar.
And who is this Saint? Her story is scattered through the Gospels. Saint Luke tells us that she was a disciple, one of those who followed Jesus through the countryside, and that He had cast out seven demons from her (Luke 8:1-3).
Early Christian writers also assert that she was the sinful woman who anointed Christ’s feet, as touchingly told in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 7:36-50),
She was a witness to the Crucifixion (Mark 15:40-41), a witness to Christ’s burial (Mark 15:45-47), and crucially, she was the first witness to the Resurrection (John 20:1-18). It was she who brought the news to the Apostles, hence her ancient title of “Apostle to the Apostles”.
Tradition has it that after Pentecost, she and a number of other disciples came to preach in the Roman Province of Gallia Narbonensis, today southern France. Here, after a long life, she ended her days alone as a penitent ascetic in a cave. Her tomb was discovered much later, and at least some of her relics were (possibly) transferred to the town of Vézelay in central France in about the year 771. Certainly, by 1050, the monks at Vézelay claimed to possess them.
Vézelay thus became a place of pilgrimage, and also one of the four “starting points” – really rallying points – for the Camino de Santiago in France1. It was at Vézelay that Saint Bernard preached the Second Crusade to a crowd reported to be in excess of 100,000 people, including King Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
And, of course, I spent a couple of days in Vézelay earlier this year, where I prayed, venerated the relics of Saint Mary Magdalene, and began my sixth pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
I thought it fitting to take some excerpts from Guéranger’s The Liturgical Year on the saint and her feast. His essay is some 11 pages long, so this is perhaps the briefest whiff of an excerpt.
Three saints,” said our Lord to St. Bridget of Sweden, “have been more pleasing to me than all others: Mary my mother, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalen.” The Fathers tell us that Magdalen is a type of the Gentile Church, called from the depth of sin to perfect holiness; and, indeed, better than any other, she personifies both the wanderings and the love of the human race, espoused by the Word of God. Like the most illustrious characters of the law of grace, she has her antitype in past ages. Let us follow the history of this great penitent as traced by unanimous tradition: Magdalen’s glory will not be thereby diminished. …
And behold a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that He sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment … and standing behind at His feet. she began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. (Luke 7:37-38)
“Who is this woman? Without doubt it is the Church.” answers St. Peter Chrysologus, “the Church, weighed down and stained with sins committed in the city of this world. At the news that Christ has appeared in Judea. that He -is to be seen at the banquet of the Pasch, where He bestows His mysteries and reveals the divine Sacrament and makes known the secret of salvation, suddenly she darts forward … not the passion, nor the Cross, nor the tomb can check her faith, or prevent her from bringing her perfumes to Christ.” …
Mingling the perfume of her conversion with her tears of repentance. she anoints the feet of her Lord, honouring in them His humanity. Her faith, whereby she is justified, grows equally with her love: soon the Head of the Spouse -that is, His divinity – receives from her the homage of the full measure of pure and precious spikenard – to wit, consummate holiness, whose heroism goes so far as to break the vessel of mortal flesh by the martyrdom of love. if not by that of tortures. …
In all that we have said, we have but linked together the testimonies of a veneration universally consistent. But the homage of all the doctors together cannot compare with the honour which the Church pays to the humble Magdalen, when she applies to the Queen of heaven on her glorious Assumption day the Gospel words first uttered in praise of the justified sinner.
Albert the Great assures us that, in the world of grace as well as in the material creation, God has made two great lights-to wit, two Maries, the Mother of our Lord and the sister of Lazarus: the greater, which is the Blessed Virgin, to rule the day of innocence; the lesser, which is Mary the penitent beneath the feet of that glorious Virgin, to rule the night by enlightening repentant sinners. As the moon by its phases points out the feast days on earth, so Magdalen in heaven gives the signal of joy to the angels of God over one sinner doing penance.
(The Liturgical Year, Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.)
Saint Mary Magdalen, apostle to the apostles, pray for us sinners who have recourse to thee!
