“The Conversion of Mary Magdalene”.
Artist: Paolo Veronese (1528–1588).
Date: Circa 1548.
Collection: National Gallery
Source/Photographer: National Gallery
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Feast Day of Saint Mary Magdalen was Celebrated, yesterday, 22 July.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Time After Pentecost.
Volume 13.
Book IV.
Please note: There are several alternate spellings of the name Magdalen, e.g., Madalene, Madeleine, etc.
“Three Saints”, said Our Lord to Saint Brigid of Sweden [Editor: Revelationes S. Birgittæ, lib. iv. cap. 108], “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 anti-type in past ages. Let us follow the history of this great Penitent as traced by unaminous Tradition: Magdalen’s glory will not be thereby diminished.
Saint Mary Magdalen.
Available on YouTube at
When, before all ages, God decreed to manifest His glory, He willed to reign over a World drawn from nothing; and, as His goodness was equal to His power, He would have the triumph of supreme love to be the law of that kingdom, which the Gospel likens “unto a king who made a marriage for his son”. [Editor: Saint Matthew xxii. 2.]
Passing over the pure intelligences whose Nine Choirs are filled with Divine Light, the immortal Son of The King of Ages looked down to the extreme limits of creation; there he beheld human nature, made, indeed, to know God, but acquiring that knowledge laboriously; its weakness would better show His Divine condescension: With it, then, He chose to contract His alliance.
Man is flesh and blood; So, The Son of God would be made flesh; He would not have Angels, but men for his brothers. He that in Heaven is the Splendour of His Father, and on Earth the most beautiful of the sons of men, would draw the human race “with the cords of Adam”. [Editor: Osee xi. 4.]
“The Descent from the Cross”
(“The Deposition of Christ”).
Mary Magdalen is the weeping figure
on the extreme right of the painting.
Artist: Rogier van der Weyden (1399–1464).
Date: Before 1443.
Collection: Museo del Prado
(Wikimedia Commons)
In the very act of creation, He sealed His espousals by raising man to the supernatural state of grace, and placing him in the paradise of expectation.
Alas, the human race knew not how to await her Bridegroom even in the shades of Eden. Cast out of the garden of delights, she prostituted to vain idols in their groves what was left her of her glory.
For she had much beauty still, the gift of her Spouse, though she had profaned it: “Thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I had put upon thee, saith The Lord God”. [Ezechiel xvi. 14.]
“The Descent from the Cross”
(Detail)
(“The Deposition of Christ”).
Mary Magdalen weeps as Christ is taken down from The Cross.
Artist: Rogier van der Weyden (1399–1464).
Date: Before 1443.
Collection: Museo del Prado
(Wikimedia Commons)
God would not suffer His love to be defeated. Leaving humanity at large to walk in the ways of folly, He chose out a single people, sprung from a holy stock, to be the guardian of His promises. Coming forth from Egypt and from the midst of a barbarous nation, this people was consecrated to God and became His inheritance.
In the person of Balaam, the former Bride saw Israel pass through the desert, and filled with admiration at the glory of The Lord dwelling with Him in His tent, her heart for a moment beat with bridal love. “I shall see Him”, she cried in her transport, “but not now: I shall behold Him, but not near”. [Editor: Numbers xxiv. 17.[
From those wild heights, whence the Spouse would one day call her, she hailed the Star that was to rise out of Jacob, and predicted the ruin of the Hebrew people who had supplanted her for a time.
“Holy Women at Christ's Tomb”.
Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” encounter an Angel at the tomb, who tells them that Christ has risen.
Artist: Annibale Carracci
Date: Circa 1590.
Collection: Hermitage Museum
Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art
(Wikimedia Commons)
Too soon was this sublime ecstacy followed by still more culpable wanderings ! “How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering daughter ? Know thou, and see, that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee to have left The Lord thy God”. [Editor: Jeremiah xxxi. 212, and ii.19.]
But the ages are passing, the night will soon be over, and the day-star will arise, the sign of the Bridegroom gathering the nations. Let Him lead thee into the wilderness and there He will speak to thy heart. Thy rival knows not how to be a queen; the alliance of Sinai has produced but a slave. The Bridegroom still waits for His Bride.
At length, the hour came: Bending the heavens, He was “made sin” [Editor: 2 Corinthians v. 21.] for sinful men; and hidden under the servile garb of mortals, He sat down to table in the house of the proud Pharisee. The haughty Synagogue, who would neither Fast with John nor rejoice with Christ, was now to see God justifying the delays of His merciful love.
English: Christ’s Appearance to Mary Magdalene
after the Resurrection.
Mary Magdalene sees the risen Jesus alone and He tells her: “Don’t touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.”
Русский: Явление Христа Марии Магдалене
после Воскресения.
Artist: Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov (1806 - 1858).
Collection: Russian Museum
(Wikimedia Commons)
“Let us not, like Pharisees,” says Saint Ambrose, “despise the counsels of God. The sons of Wisdom are singing: Listen to their voices, attend to their dances; it is the hour of the nuptials. Thus sang the Prophet when he said: Come from Libanus, my spouse, come from Libanus.”
“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 hair of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment”. [Editor: Saint Luke vii. 37, 38.]
“Christ with Martha and Mary”.
Showing the conflated “composite Magdalene” sitting at Jesus’s feet, while her sister, Martha, does the chores.
Artist: Henryk Siemiradzki.
Date: 1886.
Source/Photographer: wikipaintings
(Wikimedia Commons)
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