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Setting the Record Straight on a Wrongly-Maligned Saint
Mary Magdalene deserves better
Today, the feast day of St. Mary Magdalene is celebrated in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran Churches, and because I have a particular interest in the saints, my feed this morning was filled with stories about her. I normally come away from these stories both inspired and chastened, but this morning’s reading has left me frustrated to the point of anger, which is why you’re finding this in the Blow Your Stack publication.
I imagine that the minute you read Mary Magdalene’s name, one of two images sprang to mind, whether you are religious or not. You either instantly thought of the word “prostitute” (or perhaps more charitably, “sinful woman”) or said to yourself “isn’t that Jesus’ wife in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code?” Even the stories I read this morning from solidly Catholic sites mentioned the former (though thankfully not the latter). I don’t know which one of these is more horrifying, but both are completely wrong. The Dan Brown nonsense requires no comment here, but the slanderous claim that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute deserves a full-throated rebuke.
Mary Magdalene is mentioned 12 times in the gospel accounts, more than any woman other than the Virgin Mary and more times than many of the apostles. At no point in any…
