St Mary Magdalen
Today is the feast day of St Mary Magdalen, one of my holy patrons, so I thought I would post about her and some of the images I have seen of her.
Medieval stained glass of St Mary Magdalen at Ludlow. She is always easily identifiable in imagery from the pot of ointment she holds and her long, loose, hair which is usually blonde in coloured images in Britain.
These days, people get caught up in the issue of whether she was the “sinner” who washed and anointed Jesus’ feet or not. Actually, that whole argument really misses the point. Dom Gueranger, in his Liturgical Year, reminds us that, according to the Chruch Fathers, Magdalen is a type of the gentile church, “called from the depth of sin to perfect holiness.” She embodies the searching of the human race for God; cast out of Eden, humanity falls into sin.
Mary Magdalen still stands high above the east end of the church dedicated to her in Newark.
