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Did you know that the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene is celebrated on July 22nd? And that it has been celebrated on that day at least since the 8th century?
The Feast of St. Mary Magdalene - July 22
As early Christians were martyred for their faith, their names were recorded and remembered locally on certain days. Such lists were kept widely and were gradually incorporated into the overall construct of the liturgical year. Although feast days started as remembrances of martyrs, during the eleventh century, the designation of "saint" cam into more popular use to recognize those who, although not necessarily martyrs, had lived holy and otherwise notable lives in service of God and the Church.
During the Middle Ages, important feast days required church attendance and sometimes occasioned special community festivals. Feast days were a crucial part of the cultural landscape, and it is from them that we've developed our modern practice of celebrating the holidays. Jut look at the words involved and you can see what kind of events the medieval feast days were: the "fest" in "festival" and "festive" comes from "feast," and the "holi" in "holiday" comes from "holy."
The list of feast days was changeable throughout the centuries, and there were sometimes as many as 85 days on which people were obligated to refrain from work. Even though that may sound pleasant to us now, no work meant no livelihood and sometimes no food. The Church worked to reduce the number of these days and the European liturgical calendar remained in flux until well after the French Revolution.
In the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, many saints have been associated with days of the year on which their lives are remembered. Saints are rarely celebrated in Protestant branches of Christianity because it is believed that they were like any other true believers and only God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are, well, holy. In spite of this, the Anglican Church does have a feast-day calendar that includes saints.
There are some differences between the feast-day calendars of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. For example, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, several of the people associated with Mary Magdalene are given both separate and common feast days:
- Holy Myrrhbearers Sunday: second Sunday after Pascha
- Mary, Myrrhbearer and Wife of Cleopas: May 23
- Martha and Mary, Sisters of Lazarus: June 4
- Joanna, the Myrrhbearer: June 27
- Salome, the Myrrhbearer: August 3
In all branches of Christianity that recognize saints' days, Mary Magdalene's feast day is observed on July 22. It was first mentioned in the 8th century by the Venerable Bede, and early Anglo-Saxon historian of the Church. Her feast day was mentioned in association with a legend that she traveled to Ephesus, a city in what is now called Turkey, after the resurrection.
When July 22 falls on a day when church services are held, there is usually a special liturgy spoken in her honor. Very often, it includes a reading from the Song of Songs. Even so long after Hippolytus's memorable commentary on this poetic work and even though most people don't associate Mary Magdalene with the Shulamite woman, she is on this occasion compared with her as she looks for her beloved. In Mary Magdalene's case, this is similar to her search for Jesus in the garden outside of his tomb.
Besides a reading from Song of Songs, a feast-day service usually includes a discussion of her role as witness of the crucifixion and resurrection. Often she is admired for her faithfulness not only during Jesus' ministry, but during the dangerous and torturous time of his public execution. Sometimes prayers are recited that detail her legendary life and request her intercession on behalf of the faithful.
[Article taken as an excerpt from my book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Mary Magdalene, ©2005 by Lesa Bellevie, published by Alpha Books, a division of the Penguin Group.]
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