Saint Mary Magdalene

When my daughters start to whine about having to go to church again.  My husband often tells them, We're Orthodox, and the Orthodox Church is always on.  He's right about 11/12 of the time.  Yet, here we are in July, and the Church seems finally to have taken a vacation.  Sure, there are still Vespers on Saturday and Liturgy on Sunday, but there are no fasts making us work hard to improve ourselves and no major feasts for which to be preparing.  So, what do we do with this month?

We can all tell the stories of the major feast days and the most famous saints, but there are so many saints that we don't really know.  So, first thing's first: use this month to read the lives of the saints.  There aren't many, but there are some children's books about individual saints, and if you want several for the price of one try A Child's Paradise of Saints by Nun Nectaria McLees.  Our church library has a copy of this one, which I checked out some time ago to read with my older daughter.  We read about one or two saints a day for several days at bedtime and talked about them during the next day.  Saints lives can sometimes be tough reading for kids, but short stories with nice illustrations make them easier to grasp and digest for young children.  If your kids are a little older, you might grab a church calendar and read about the saints of each day.  OCA.org offers a short biography for many saints that can be searched by date.

On July 22, we celebrate the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles.  Yes, I know she's not really a "lesser known" saint, but sometimes we focus on the Apostles (we just did an entire fast for them) while Saint Mary sits off to the side not fully known.  As I thought about what sort of project to do for this month, I knew I wanted to do something to teach my kids about Saint Mary Magdalene, but I wasn't really sure what.  What sorts of symbols do we associate with her?  What is her story?  I grew up Catholic and really should have a better idea of these things, but I really only had vague ideas about her.  Here's some of what I knew and what I learned, followed by a craft project in her honor.

St. Mary was from Magdala, hence her name.  In Luke 8:2 we learn that Jesus expelled seven demons from her, and from that moment Mary followed Him, when He went out preaching about the Kingdom of God in Judea and Galilee.  Unlike most of the Apostles, she remained with Him to the very end of His mission. She was among the women who followed after Jesus weeping and wailing as He carried the cross to Golgotha after the scourging (Luke), and the Gospels tell us that Mary Magdalene was present on Golgotha at the moment of the His Crucifixion with the Apostle John and the Theotokos. 

St. Mary was also present at the Jesus's burial and resurrection. She followed Joseph and Nicodemus when they took Jesus's body to the tomb. She watched as they covered the entrance to the cave with a large stone.  Then, when the Sabbath ended, she (and the other women) returned to the tomb early Sunday morning to anoint His Body according to Jewish custom.  When Mary arrived and saw that the tomb was open, she ran to tell Peter and John.  They returned and found the burial clothes.  After the Apostles went away, Mary remained and wept.  She went down to the tomb and saw two angels in white garments, one sitting at the head, the other at the foot, where the Jesus's Body had been. They asked her why she was crying, and she answered them, "They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him" (John 20:13). Then, she turned around and saw Jesus standing near the grave, but she did not recognize Him. He also asked her why she was crying.  When she recognized the His voice, she cried out, "Rabbi" (Teacher). Then, Jesus sent Mary to announce His resurrection to the Apostles.

The Bible does not tell us much about of Mary Magdalene's life after the resurrection of Christ, but she was probably among those of whom St. Like writes in the Acts of the Apostles when he says that all the Apostles stayed together in prayer and supplication, with certain women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and His brethren.

So, here's the new stuff, which I learned for OCA.org:

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. ... 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!" ...

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 brought 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.

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. In 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.

Let us be like St. Mary Magdalene, faithful to the Lord in both good times and bad.

Red Resurrection Egg Craft
(A reminder of where the red Pascha egg custom originated,
and a memento to Saint Mary Magdalene's faith)

Supplies:

• Newspaper
• Wooden Egg (or wooden egg shaker if you want to be multi-purpose)
• Red Paint
• Paint Brush
• Small Icon of Mary Magdalene (you can print a thumbnail from the internet)
• Scissors or Paper Cutter
• Decoupage Glue
• Glitter Glue
• "Gemstones" (optional)

Directions:

1.       Spread the newspaper to protect your work surface.  Paint the egg red.

2.       While the egg is drying cut out the icon.  A hairdryer can be used to speed the drying process if desired.

3.       Put glue on the back of the icon and attach it to the egg.  Paint glue over the icon and onto the egg, smoothing it down as you go.  Let dry.

4.       Frame the icon with glitter glue.  Squeeze a line across each edge of the icon.  Let dry.

5.        Use glitter glue to make a cross on the back side of the egg, or glue on gemstones.