The Cult of Mary Magdalen REQUIRED READING Susan Haskins Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, 1993 pages 98-133 Mary Magdalen: Legend and Cult EXCERPT FROM: Witcombe, "The Chapel of the Courtesan and the Quarrel of the Magdalens," Art Bulletin, 2002 The Legend of Mary Magdalene (through The Nazarene Way of Essenic Studies) Mary Magdalen in the Golden Legend REQUIRED READING Susan Haskins Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, 1993 pages 222-228 PARTIAL TEXT AND DESCRIPTION: Life of Mary Magdalen from the Aurea Legenda (13th century) by Jacopo di Voragine COMPLETE TEXT: Here followeth the life of S. Mary Magdalene (text through Medieval Sourcebook) The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda). Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275. Englished by William Caxton, 1483 RECOMMENDED READING Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1229-1298) The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, 2 vols. 1993 SWEET BRIAR LIBRARY: BX 4654 .J334 1993 Life and Legend in Art REQUIRED READING Susan Haskins Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, 1993 pages 192-222; 229-316 Mary Magdalen's life and legend my be divided into the following phases. The primary source for her life is Jacobus de Voragine's 13th-century account in the Aurea Legenda. THE PAGES IN THIS SECTION ARE STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION Early Life ILLUSTRATED EXCERPT FROM: The Life of Mary Magdalen, Aurea Legenda (13th century) by Jacopo di Voragine Later Life in Provence ILLUSTRATED EXCERPT FROM: The Life of Mary Magdalen, Aurea Legenda (13th century) by Jacopo di Voragine Mary Magdalen in the Middle Ages ILLUSTRATED EXCERPT FROM: The Life of Mary Magdalen, Aurea Legenda (13th century) by Jacopo di Voragine As the perfect image of woman for a misogynist society, but perhaps also for reasons that may, unconsciously at least, have to do with her ancient associations, Mary Magdalen rose in prominence and in the later Middle Ages, beginning in the 12th century, there developed a widespread cult of Mary Magdalen, which at its height in the 14th century rivalled that of the Virgin. Her feast day, July 22, was listed in all Roman Catholic missals, an Office of Saint Mary Magdalen was included in the Roman Breviary, liturgies and hymns were composed in her honour, religious orders and churches were founded in her name. All this attention, however, was focused not so much on her significance as the "apostle of the apostles," the true bearer of Christ's wisdom and first witness to his resurrection, but on her fictional life, especially that as recounted by Jacobus de Voragine in the Golden Legend in which she was extolled chiefly as an exemplary penitent. In the 15th century, however, she begins to appear more frequently as a fashionably dressed young woman, though no doubt in the eye of the period, also as a seductress, a Renaissance femme fatale (see Mary Magdalen in Renaissance and Later Art

Further Reading both scholarly and populist Margaret George Mary, called Magdalen, 2002 SWEET BRIAR LIBRARY PS 3557 .E49 M36 2002 Thomas Gordon The Thirteenth Disciple: The Life of Mary Magdalene, 2001 Esther De Boer Mary Magdalene: Beyond the Myth, 1997

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