Also known as
    •    Maria Maddalena
    •    Maria Magdalena
    •    Mary Magdalene
    •    the Sinner

Memorial
    •    22 July
    •    1 March (Basel, Switzerland)
    •    19 March (translation of relics)

Profile
We have very little solid information about Saint Mary, and both scholars and traditions differ on the interpretation of what we do know.
She was a friend and follower of Jesus. Filled with sorrow over her sin, she anointed Christ, washed his feet with her hair. He exorcised seven demons from her. She was visited by the Risen Christ.
There are also arguments about her life after the Crucifixion.

    •    The Greek Church maintains that she retired to Ephesus with the Blessed Virgin Mary and lived there the rest of her life.

    •    A French tradition says that Mary, Lazarus, and some companions came to Marseilles, France, evangelized and converted the whole Provence region, and then retired to live 30 years as a penitent hermitess at La Sainte-Baume.
Oh, some things we do know for certain – Mary wasn’t Jesus’ wife or mistress, she wasn’t the mother of His child, she didn’t found a royal dynasty or separate branch of Christianity, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam.

Died
    •    the Greek Church says
    ◦    she died in Ephesus of natural causes
    ◦    her relics were transferred to Constantinople in 886 where they remain today
   
    •    a French tradition says
    ◦    as she lay on her death bed, nine angels carried Mary to the oratory of Saint Maximinus in Aix where she received Communion and then died of natural causes

    ◦    she was interred in an oratory constructed by Saint Maximinus at Villa Lata (Saint Maximin)

    ◦    in 745 her relics were moved to Vézelay to save them from Saracen invaders

    ◦    at some point they were moved to a shrine at her hemitage on La Sainte-Baume; they were there in 1279 when King Charles II of Naples funded a Dominican convent on the hill

    ◦    in 1600 the relics were placed in a sarcophagus sent by Pope Clement VIII

    ◦    in 1814 the church on La Sainte-Baume, wrecked during the anti-Christian excesses of the French Revolution, was restored

    ◦    in 1822 the grotto was re-consecrated, still has the head of the saint, and is a pilgrimage centre

Canonized
    •    Pre-Congregation

Patronage
    •    against sexual temptation
    •    apothecaries
    •    contemplative life
    •    contemplatives
    •    converts
    •    druggists
    •    glove makers
    •    hairdressers
    •    hairstylists
    •    penitent sinners
    •    penitent women
    •    people ridiculed for their piety
    •    perfumeries
    •    perfumers
    •    pharmacists
    •    reformed prostitutes
    •    tanners
    •    women