Saint Mary Magdalene, Equal-to-the-Apostles and Myrrh-bearer
Myrrh-bearer, Equal-to-the-Apostles
- Feast day
- July 22
- Lived
- 1st century
- Patronage
- Women in ministry, those delivered from oppression, Pascha
First witness of the Resurrection and apostle to the apostles, Saint Mary Magdalene is remembered in the East as a faithful disciple and preacher — never as a prostitute, a Western conflation the Orthodox Church has never accepted.
Life
Delivered by Christ from seven demons, Mary of Magdala followed Him and supported the company from her own means. She stood at the Cross when most of the disciples had fled, came to the tomb before dawn with myrrh, and was the first to see the risen Lord, who sent her to tell the others.
After Pentecost she preached in Rome and, according to tradition, appeared before the Emperor Tiberius with a red egg and the words 'Christ is risen' — the origin of the Orthodox custom of red Paschal eggs. She ended her life in Ephesus with the Apostle John and the Theotokos, and her relics were later translated to Constantinople.
Liturgical place
She is commemorated on July 22 and again on the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, the third Sunday of Pascha, together with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.