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The saints

St. Mary Magdalene

Jesus freed her from seven demons. She stayed when the others ran, and she saw Him first.

Feast: 22 July · 1st century · The early Church · Magdala, Galilee, and Jerusalem

Read the story 1 min read
Painting of St. Mary Magdalene, hands crossed on her chest and eyes raised, beside a skull and a jar.

Philippe de Champaigne, 1648. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Mary Magdalene

Outside an empty tomb, Jerusalem

Before dawn on the first Easter, a woman stands crying outside an empty tomb.1

She thinks someone has stolen the body of the man who gave her life back.1

Then the gardener says her name, and she knows His voice.

Patron of penitents1; perfumers1

01St. Mary Magdalene

Seven demons and a new life

Luke tells us Jesus had driven seven demons out of her, and that she traveled with Him and helped support His mission.2

She stood near the cross when most of the apostles had scattered.3

02St. Mary Magdalene

Apostle to the apostles

On Easter morning the risen Jesus appeared to her first and sent her to tell the others.4

The Western Church later mixed her up with other women in the Gospels, but the Gospels themselves give us a faithful disciple and the first witness of the Resurrection.1

In 2016 Pope Francis raised her memorial to a feast, the same rank as the apostles.5

Live it this week

Tell someone what He did for you

Mary Magdalene ran to tell the others she had seen the Lord. This week, tell one person, in two or three plain sentences, one thing Jesus has actually done in your life.

Notes

How we know · 5 sources for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Mary Magdalene”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org
  2. Luke 8:2, World English Bible. read the chapter
  3. John 19:25, World English Bible. read the chapter
  4. John 20:17, World English Bible. read the chapter
  5. Holy See: “The liturgical memory of Mary Magdalene becomes a feast, like that of the other apostles”. press.vatican.va. press.vatican.va

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.