Today is her feast day, the woman that most Christians insist on calling a prostitute despite the fact that there is no evidence to support the claim. We are told very little of Mary, Called Magdalene:Only that Jesus exorcised her of seven demons, she stood at the foot of the cross while He was dying and that it was she who first saw His Resurrected Self. While at the Baptistery in Florence, we saw Donatello’s wood sculpture of Mary, Called Magdalene. The wood sculpture of Mary Magdalene is a study in human anguish, torment; the face is ravaged with indescribable pain. The sculpture seemed wrong to me when I viewed it several years while in Florence.
Just now, studying the images of her face once again to see if I had misremembered the emotions I had when I first saw the sculpture, I realize they are even stronger today. There is something fundamentally wrong with Donatello’s depiction of the woman who the Church calls, The Apostle’s Apostle.
This is the woman who left her home and family to travel at least part-time with Jesus and his companions, to cook for them with provisions from her own household. This is the woman who refused to leave the tomb. Once the apostles saw that it was empty, they left. She stayed, weeping. Just as she stayed at the foot of the cross when all the other apostles save John, and Mary, mother of Jesus, had left.
In her marvelous book, Mary, Called Magdalene by historical fiction writer Elizabeth George, the life of Mary is described in a way that rings true, that fits with the few tidbits of information given us in the Gospels. Mary was no prostitute but rather a married woman who had prayed to one of the fertility demons as a young girl; ergo the seven demons requiring exorcism.
Upon meeting the Christ, Mary called Magdalene is changed forever; she meets the Answer to questions she never knew she had; she falls in love, eternally. Her face is better depicted as filled with light, the light of Christ, the God-Man who captured her heart and soul. Imagine the radiance of that face when she recognizes Him, the joy when she hears her name from those beloved lips.
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