Feast of St Mary Magdalene

Saint Mary Magdalene was Beatified in 1626, Rome by Pope Urban VIII and Canonized April 28, 1669, Rome by Pope Clement X

Patron Saint of pharmacists, contemplatives, converts, glovemakers, hairdressers, penitent sinners, people ridiculed for their piety, perfumers, reformed prostitutes, tanners, women
Invoked against sexual temptations


On June 3, 2016, Pope Francis elevated the memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene to the status of a Feast on the liturgical calendar with the date remaining on July 22. He did so during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy as a way of highlighting the important role that Saint Mary Magdalene played in the Gospels, the depth of her love for Christ, and to highlight the Divine Mercy of God.

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments confirmed the English translation of the Preface for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene on September 21, 2019. It may be used during Masses in honor of St. Mary Magdalene

Divine Office Saturday Prayer, July 22, 2023 Honors Saint Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection. "Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to encounter the Risen One. Thus the women were the first messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves. They were the next to whom Jesus appears: first Peter, then the Twelve. Peter had been called to strengthen the faith of his brothers, and so sees the Risen One before them; it is on the basis of his testimony that the community exclaims: "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" CCC 641


All information about Mary comes from the Gospels. Luke 8:1–3 introduces her as one of the many women who accompanied Jesus and the Twelve, providing for them out of their own resources.

Mary Magdalene is mentioned by name twelve times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels, other than Jesus's family.

Luke Chaper 8 mentions the women who supported Jesus and records some of the great miracles he performed, as well as several parables told by him : " 2 along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons;( Luke 8.2)

All the four gospels identified her, either alone or as a member of a larger group of women which includes Jesus's mother, as the first to witness the empty tomb, and, either alone or as a member of a group, as the first to witness Jesus's resurrection.

My Catholic Life says that "being delivered from seven demons carries significant implications. It could 

mean that Mary was genuinely possessed, obsessed, or oppressed by seven distinct demons. The number seven also symbolizes perfection, implying she may have been completely possessed or that her deliverance from these demons, and from a life of sin and evil, was a perfect deliverance. In other words, she never returned to the sins from which Jesus delivered her. Some suggest that the seven demons represent the seven capital sins, implying that Mary had committed grave violations of all seven capital sins and was delivered from each of these sinful habits"

The second time that Mary Magdalene is explicitly mentioned in the Bible is at Jesus’ crucifixion. Matthew, Mark, and Luke state that she and other women were present and were looking on from a distance. John’s Gospel, however, states that she was standing close to the Cross next to Jesus’ mother and aunt: “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala” (John 19:25).

The third time Mary Magdalene is mentioned is after the Resurrection. Matthew, Mark, and Luke state that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early on Sunday morning to anoint Jesus’ body and that she was accompanied by one or more other women. However, John’s Gospel states that she went alone, found the stone rolled away, and Jesus’ body missing. She then ran to tell Peter and John, who went to investigate and found the tomb empty, just as she had said. Peter and John left, but Mary sat by the tomb crying. Two angels appeared in the tomb and conversed with her. She then turned around and saw someone whom she mistook for the gardener and asked if he had taken Jesus’ body, but it was Jesus Himself. When Jesus said her name, “Mary!”, she recognized Him. Jesus told her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17). Mary quickly went and informed the disciples that she had seen the Lord.

Because it was Mary who was first sent to announce the Resurrection of Christ to the other disciples, Saint Thomas Aquinas referred to her as the “Apostle to the Apostles.” Though it could be inferred from the Bible that Mary Magdalene was the first to 

see the risen Lord, others hold that Jesus appeared first to His own Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, even though this is not explicitly stated in the Gospels. Pope Saint John Paul II addressed this, saying, “Indeed, it is legitimate to think that the Mother was probably the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared. Could not Mary’s absence from the group of women who went to the tomb at dawn (cf. Mark 16:1; Matthew 28:1) indicate that she had already met Jesus?” (General Audience, 3 April 1996). Nothing else is known about Mary Magdalene after this biblical account of Jesus’ Resurrection. One ancient tradition holds that she accompanied John and the Blessed Mother to Ephesus, where she spent the remainder of her days.

It was Saint John Paul II who dedicated a lot of attention, not only to the importance of women in Christ’s and the Church’s very mission, but also with special emphasis, to the particular function of Mary Magdalene as the first witness who saw the Risen One and the first messenger who proclaimed the resurrection of the Lord to the Apostles (cf. Mulieris dignitatem, n. 16

Pope Francis made the decision to elevate the memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene precisely within the context of the Jubilee of Mercy to highlight the relevance of this woman who had such a great love for Christ and who was tremendously loved by Christ…. It is also of note that ecclesial tradition in the West, especially after Saint Gregory the Great, identified Mary Magdalene with the woman who washed Jesus’s feet with perfume in Simon the Pharisee’s house. This interpretation continued to influence western Church writers, and artists, as well as the liturgical texts connected with the Saint.

Saint Mary Magdalene Pray For Us