Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 76, Wednesday 22 July 2026, Saint Mary Magdalene

A modern icon of Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene by Alexandra Kaouki in Rethymnon (Icon © Alexandra Kaouki)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar; this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII, 19 July 2026), and today is the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene (22 July 2026).

Later this evening, I hope to rehearse with the choir in Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Stony Stratford, our last rehearsal before the summer recess. Meanwhile, before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Saint Mary Magdalene depicted in a statue in Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Comerford Road, in Brockley, south London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

John 20: 1-2, 11-18 (NRSVA):

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’ 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Μη μου άπτου, ‘Noli me Tangere,’ an icon by Mikhail Damaskinos in the Museum of Christian Art in the former church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

When I was visiting Comerford Road in Brockley, South London, two weeks ago, I also visited Saint Mary Magdalene Church, the Roman Catholic parish church on Comerford Road. The church has a statue of Mary Magdalene on the façade facing Howson Road, another statue of her on the steps of the sanctuary beside the baptismal font, and she is also depicted at the foot of the cross in the reredos above the High Altar.

At times on my way back down the mountains from the Monastery of Arkadi to the coast of Rethymnon in Crete, I have stopped briefly to see the small church in Nea Magnesia that is dedicated to Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene.

This is one of only two churches dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene on the island of Crete.

Nea Magnesia is 12 km east of Rethymnon, near Skaleta and off the road to Panormos. Today it is fast becoming part of the resort facilities building up east of Rethymnon. But in the 1920s, this village was first settled by Greek-speaking people who had been expelled from their homes in western Anatolia.

They arrived in Crete with their Greek language, traditions and culture and dedicated their church to Saint Mary Magdalene, whose feast in the Church calendar, east and west, falls today [22 July 2026].

The other church in Crete dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene is an impressive Russian-style church on Dagli Street in Chania, with an onion dome and surrounded by a beautiful garden in the district of Chalepa. The church was built in 1901-1903 by Prince George, the High Commissioner of Crete before the island was incorporated into the modern Greek state.

The church was funded by Czarist Russia and was opened in 1903 in the presence of Queen Olga, Prince George, Bishop Evgenios of Crete and a small number of invited guests.

I often pass Chalepa on my way to the and from Chania Airport. With its imposing mansions and luxury villas, Chalepa is a beautiful part of Chania, east of the city on the coastal road to the airport and Akrotiri.

Chalepa was the venue for some of the most important political events in Crete in the 19th century. Here Prince George had his palace as the High Commissioner or governor of the semi-autonomous Cretan state in the closing days of Ottoman rule, and here too the Great Powers had their consulates.

Chalepa was also the home of Eleftherios Venizelos, who played a decisive role as Prime Minister of Greece during a critical time in Greek history in the early 20th century. The family house was built by his father, Kyriakos Venizelos, in 1877. Today, his family home houses the Eleftherios K Venizelos National Research and Study Foundation, which plans to turn the house into a museum.

An icon of Saint Mary Magdalene at the Resurrection, Μη μου άπτου (Noli me Tangere) by Mikhail Damaskinos, is one of the important exhibits at the Museum of Christian Art in the former church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion. This icon dates from ca 1585-1591. Initially it was in the Monastery of Vrondissi and was transferred to old church of Saint Menas in Iraklion in 1800.

One of the most inspirational icons of Saint Mary Magdalene I have seen in Crete is an icon by Alexandra Kaouki when she had her old workshop near the Fortezza in Rethymnon.

According to Greek tradition, Saint Mary Magdalene evangelised the island of Zakynthos in the year 34 CE on her way to Rome with Saint Mary of Cleopas. The village of Maries on the island is said to be named after both Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Mary of Cleopas. A relic of her left hand is said to be preserved in the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos, where she is revered as a co-founder of the monastery.

During the Middle Ages, Saint Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, but these claims are not supported in any of the four Gospels. Instead, the Gospels tell us she travelled with Jesus as one of his followers, and that she was a witness to his Crucifixion and his Resurrection. Indeed, she is named at least 12 times in the four Gospels, more times than most of the apostles. Two Gospels specifically name her as the first person to see Christ after the Resurrection (see Mark 16: 9 and John 20).

Ten years ago, in 2016, the late Pope Francis recognised Saint Mary Magdalene and her role as the first to witness Christ’s resurrection and as a ‘true and authentic evangeliser’ and he raised her commemoration today [22 July] from a memorial to a feast in the liturgical calendar.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship issued a decree formalising the decision, and both the decree and the article were titled Apostolorum Apostola (‘Apostle of the Apostles’).

Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the congregation, said that in celebrating ‘an evangelist who proclaims the central joyous message of Easter,’ Saint Mary Magdalene’s feast day is a call for all Christians to ‘reflect more deeply on the dignity of women, the new evangelisation and the greatness of the mystery of divine mercy.’

Archbishop Roche said that in giving Saint Mary Magdalene the honour of being the first person to see the empty tomb and the first to listen to the truth of the resurrection, Christ ‘has a special consideration and mercy for this woman, who manifests her love for him, looking for him in the garden with anguish and suffering.’

The decision means Saint Mary Magdalene has the same level of feast as that given to the celebration of the apostles and makes her a ‘model for every woman in the church.’

The Church of Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene, in Nea Magnesia, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 22 July 2026, Saint Mary Magadelene):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 19 to 25 July 2026 (pp 20-21), is ‘Flood Relief in Mozambique’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from the Revd Mauricio S Mugunhe, Executive Director Anglican Social Action, Igreja Anglicana de Moçambique e Angola (the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola).

The USPG prayer diary today (Wednesday 22 July 2026, Saint Mary Magadelene) invites us to pray:

Faithful God, as you called Mary Magdalene to witness to the resurrection, bring hope and new life to communities in despair. Restore what has been broken and renew their strength.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
whose Son restored Mary Magdalene
to health of mind and body
and called her to be a witness to his resurrection:
forgive our sins and heal us by your grace,
that we may serve you in the power of his risen life;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of life and love,
whose risen Son called Mary Magdalene by name
and sent her to tell of his resurrection to his apostles:
in your mercy, help us,
who have been united with him in this Eucharist,
to proclaim the good news
that he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Mary Magdalene at Easter … a sculpture by Mary Grant at the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Etz Hayyim Synagogue is one of two surviving synagogues in Athens

The Etz Hayyim synagogue in Athens was built in 1904 by Greek Romaniote Jews from Ioannina (Photograph credit: the Jewish Community of Athens)

Patrick Comerford

I have been writing in recent weeks about the restoration of the Etz Hayyim synagogue in Larissa, and the appeal to save the library beside the Etz Hayyim synagogue in Chania in Crete. Etz Hayyim or Tree of Life (כנסת עץ חיים, Ετζ Χαγίμ) is a name commonly used for Romaniote synagogues, and it was the name of one of the oldest synagogues in Thessaloniki.

It is not surprising then that there also a synagogue in Athens named Etz Hayyim. The Jewish community in Athens is the largest Jewish community in Greece, with over 3,500 members. Today, there are two synagogues in Athens, one facing the other, on Melidoni Street in the Thiseio area: the Beth Shalom Synagogue and the Etz Hayyim Synagogue.

There is historical and archaeological evidence of a Jewish presence in Athens dating back to the Hellenistic period. One early synagogues in Athens, dating back to the 2nd century CE, seems to have been identified in the Agora, at the foot of the Acropolis and the Parthenon. However, there is no evidence a Jewish presence in Athens for several centuries.

Jews began returning to Athens after Otto of Bavaria become the Greek king. During his reign, from 1832 to 1862, Athens was transformed from being a small market town with 4,500 residents into a modern European capital. Soon fter he became king, Otto told a group of leading Jewish figures that ‘he considered his kingdom blessed and honoured to contain within its bosom the biblical race of Israel’.

However, Otto’s attitude did not prevent outbreaks of antisemitism. In one of the best-known incidents, the ‘Don Pacifico Affair’, the warehouses of a Jewish businessman and British citizen, David Pacifico (‘Don Pacifico’, 1784-1854), were ransacked in the mid-19th century. The Irish-born diplomat Sir Thomas Wyse (1791-1862) from Waterford, who was the British minister or ambassador, responded swiftly, Britain intervened, and the port of Piraeus was blockaded in 1850 to secure substantial compensation.

The first Jewish community in Athens in modern times was organised formally in 1889. Before that, there were informal prayer meetings in many places, icluding the house of the Yussuroum family on the corner of Ermou street and Karaiskakis streets, often described as first synagogue in Athens. This was the heart of the Jewish quarter in Athens, between Aghion Asomaton Square, Sarri Street and Ermou Street.

The Jewish community in Athens was far smaller in size than the community in Thessaloniki, but relations between Jews in Athens and offiicials and the wider population were always better.

A reign of terror began with the German takeover of Athens during World War II. But prominent public figures, including Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens and the police chief Angelos Evert, worked tirelessly to defend the Jewish community. Evert later testified that he drew his inspiration from the actions, words, and deeds of Archbishop Damaskinos, who had urged the Greek people to save the remaining Jews of Greece. Both were honoured later by Yad Vashem as among the ‘Righteous among the Nations’.

Greece lost more of its Jewish population in the Holocaust, proportionately, than almost any other country in Europe during World War II. Around 65,000 men, women and children were sent to Auschwitz between 1941 and 1944, including about 1,000 Jews sent from Athens in April 1944 after thousands more had fled or had gone underground.

Inside Etz Hayyim, the Romaniote synagogue and the oldest synagogue in Athens (Photograph credit: the Jewish Community of Athens)

Etz Hayyim is the Romaniote synagogue and the oldest synagogue in Athens. It was built in 1904 by Greek Romaniote Jews from Ioannina, and so it is also known among the older members of the community as ‘Yanniotiki’ or ‘from Ioannina’.

Etz Hayyim can hold 300 people but now operates only on major holidays and special events. The synagogue is on the second floor of the building, while the ground floor was used by the Talmud Torah School, and part of it also served as the residence of the rabbi. The first mikveh in Athens was in the courtyard.

Outside, the building is neoclassical in style, while inside the atmosphere is traditionally Romaniote, with the bimah or teivah on the west wall and the holy ark or Aron haKodesh on the facing east wall, while the Torah scrolls are kept in wooden cases or tikim.

After World War II, the building served as a shelter for homeless survivors of the concentration camps, while the ground floor housed a community clinic. It was used in 1953 to accommodate Jews from earthquake-stricken Zakynthos who sought refuge in Athens.

The synagogue suffered serious damage from the 1999 earthquake, mainly to the roof. The entire building was renovated in 2006-2007 and officially reopened on 30 June 2007.

The Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Athens is now used only during High Holy Days and for the great religious celebrations. All regular religious ceremonies are held in the Beth Shalom Synagogue. Both synagogues are led by Rabbi Gabriel Negrin, who succeeded Rabbi Jacob Arar in 2014.

Across the street from the Etz Hayyim Synagogue, the Beth Shalom is a Sephardic synagogue built in 1935 and renovated in the 1970s. It can seat 500 people, and hosts all bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs, weddings, memorial services and visits.

The Holocaust Memorial nearby on Melidoni street was unveiled in 2010. The monument consists of stones laid down in the form of a Star of David set within a planted garden. The stones are engraved with the names of Greek towns and cities whose Jewish communities were destroyed during the Holocaust: Rhodes, Kos, Chania, Iraklion, Preveza, Patras, Zakynthos, Agrinion, Corfu, Ioannina, Kastoria, Florina, Arta, Trikala, Karditsa, Thessoloniki, Kavala, Drama, Serres, Xanthi, Larissa, Veroia, Volos, Halkis, Didimoticho, Athens, Komotini, New Orestiada, Soufli and Alexandroupolis.

The Lauder Athens Jewish Community School runs preschool and primary education programmes for more than 100 children. The Jewish cemetery in Athens is close to the Panathenaic stadium, in a section of the Third Cemetery of Nikaia.

The Jewish Museum of Greece, which faced the former royal garden for 20 years, has moved to a renovated neo-classical house in Plaka. It has collections from the Romaniote and Sephardic communities in Greece. The interior of the former Romaniote synagogue in Patras has been reconstructed on the ground floor.

After the Holocaust, there were still almost 5,000 Jews in Athens; today there are only 3,500, representing half of all Jews in Greece.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום

Chief Rabbi Gabriel Negrin places candles at a Holocaust memorial service … he leads both the Etz Hayyim and Beth Shalom synagogues in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Greeks have a word for it: 54, Φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (Philoxenia), true hospitality

Philoxenia is much more than polite hospitality and has been embedded in the Greek collective psyche since antiquity and is priority for classical writers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The news from Greece in newspapers in these islands and on television is often about aspects of life that have (usually devastating) impacts on tourists, especially in places that headline writers like to label ‘tourist islands’.

The Irish Times gave much space in recent daysk to reports and feature on the thousands of Irish students taking part in post-exams holiday on the Greek island of Zakynthos that has become one of the most popular destinations from Niamh Brownes for this ‘rite of passage’.

It discussed how the island is ‘buzzing with Irish teenagers enjoying blistering heat, booze cruises and beach parties’, many of them staying on the Laganas strip. For many of them, the island’s natural beauty, crystal-clear waters and turtle sanctuary are all mere ‘incidental attractions’.

By the end of the week, The Irish Times had turned its attention the widespread fires on the island of Crete that are threatening forests, olive groves and resorts, and on other fires near Athens and its suburbs, whisked up by gale-force winds.

I suppose it was only to be expected that there the reports from Athens gave details of the difficulties at Athens International Airport and the ports, while the reports from Ierapetra gave details of the evacuation of tourists who took shelter at an indoor stadium, were transferred to hotels in the north of the island, and ‘an exodus of about 5,000 holidaymakers.’

This emphasis on tourism is not neglecting the economic crisis that faces Crete: tourism is a key income earner, but Crete is so much more than ‘the popular tourist island’ it is labelled as in so many reports.

Greeks pride themselves on their innate hospitality and the genuine hospitality they offer tourists is a matter of cultural pride and honour that goes beyond the profits gained or income earned in any part of the tourism and hospitality sector.

The concept of φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (philoxenia) in Greek runs so deeply in the collective psyche in Greece that it is almost impossible to translate its depth and scope. It is so much more than shaking your hand and putting on a smile. It is so important, that I thought I would look at this word yet again, although it was one of the early words I looked at in this series. And it has new and renewed relevance and urgency when we think of how ICE and Homeland Security are responding to strangers and foreigners in the dystopian world of Trump’s regime in the US.

That complimentary after-drink is more than a polite ‘thank you’. Waiting for your bill a little longer than in other countries is a way of being reminded that you are a guest first, and only a customer second. And guests find they have the potential and offer of becoming friends, and friendship sometimes even leads to a form of kinship, a welcome inside the fringes of the family circle.

Filoxenia Hotel in Tsilivi … treasured memories of welcoming the stranger to Zakynthos in 2002

The fires in Crete in recent days I have been heartbreaking, because I know they are heartbreaking for many people who showed me philoxenia and made me feel more welcome than a guest normally feels. I have stayed there so often over the past 40 years, that I know people in Crete understand why I see their island as a sort of second home. And, yes, I have even been to Ierapetra, seen the house where Napoleon may have had a welcome of sorts before he invaded Egypt, and I have seen those places that were burning in the fires last week.

I have been to Zakynthos too, though that was almost quarter of a century ago, and back in 2002 it did not have the party reputation it has among school-leavers today. But I still remember that the hotel where I stayed in Tsilivi, and its name: Filoxenia.

The tradition of philoxenia goes beyond welcome and hospitality and dates back beyond antiquity. Homer frequently describes the Greek virtues of hospitality that are deeply embedded in religious, social and political values.

True hospitality in classical Greece was regarded as a sacred responsibility watched over by Zeus Xenios and the gods of Olympus. To behave inhospitably was a severe transgression, while true hospitality entailed duties and responsibilities for hosts and guests alike.

Ancient hospitality was a sacred duty almost akin to a religious sacrifice. Any stranger who rang the bell could be a god in disguise, there to test the mortal homeowner’s hospitality. Zeus, as Zeus Xenios, was the divine embodiment of hospitality, and Hestia, goddess of the hearth and household order, was also linked to the custom, while Hermes, the herald and messenger of Zeus, assisted in overseeing hospitality and protecting travellers.

In Classical Greece, city-states selected citizens to serve as hosts for foreign ambassadors who relied on hospitality. A good proxenos needed diplomatic skills, and then, as now, both parties exchanged gifts. A guest was welcomed with food, drink and shelter, with the host and the guest exchanging gifts and sharing stories as sign of potential or continuing friendship. The best food, wine and seats were offered in line with a guest’s high social status.

At least 18 scenes of hospitality are found in Homer’s writings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

At least 18 scenes of hospitality are found in Homer’s works, including four in the Iliad, 12 in the Odyssey and two in the Homeric Hymns.

In the Iliad, diplomatic hospitality is shown when Agamemnon sends an embassy to the disgruntled Achilles. The ambassadors, Odysseus, Ajax and Phoenix, are received in grand style and offer lavish gifts to Achilles, including ‘… seven tripods, that the fire hath not touched, and ten talents of gold and twenty gleaming cauldrons, and twelve strong horses … seven women skilled in goodly handiwork, women of Lesbos … and … the daughter of Briseus …’

Appropriate hospitality gifts also included finely crafted banquet equipment, such as the drinking cup and krater or mixing jar presented to Telemachus by King Menelaus in Sparta.

The Trojan War was the Greeks’ reaction to a blatant violation of xenia, when Paris, leaving Sparta, stole his host’s wife.

The Odyssey recounts the tireless search for hospitality by Odysseus on his homeward journey and also examines the nature of xenia. The hospitality recounted in the Odyssey ranges from the generosity shown to Odysseus by Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, King of the Phaeacians, or by the swineherd Eumaeus, to the amoral suitors’ final scene in which all the conventions of hospitality are inverted. The cruel giant Polyphemus, instead of feasting his guests, makes them the feast and offers Odysseus the gift of eating him last. The insolent suitor Ctesippus similarly mocks xenia by hurling the gift of a hoof at Odysseus.

The ill deeds of both the Cyclops and the suitors epitomise inhospitality and are later memorialised through Euripides’ artful terms xenodaites, one who devours guests, and xenoktonos, slaying guests and strangers.

The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens where ‘Medea’ was first staged … Euripides describes in ‘Medea’ how a host and guest would exchange distinctive tokens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In his play Medea, Euripides shows that in the 5th century BCE a host and guest would exchange a distinctive token that could be redeemed whenever hospitality might again be desired or that could be passed on to the next generation. It finds resonances in the Roman exchange known as sacramentum, which gives us the word sacrament. I must think a more again about the concept of the sacrament of hospitality or philoxenia.

Plato’s Laws record how four types of foreign visitors should be received by Athenians, depending on their purpose, position and social status.

In Roman times, Ovid tells the tale of Philemon and Baucis, an elderly couple who welcome Zeus or Jupiter and Hermes or Mercury into their humble home. They go to great lengths to offer their unknown visitors hospitality, and become a shining example of hospitality, so that they are spared from a sinkhole that swallows their area, and their house becomes a temple.

Often in ancient myth and literature, the rich and greedy declined to offer a proper welcome, while the poor but generous threw open their door to what is later revealed to be a deity. These values are shared in the Bible too and hospitality is central to understanding Biblical ethics.

A passage that is particularly relevant today, in the light of events in Trump’s dystopian America, tells us: ‘When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt’ (Leviticus 19: 33-34). In the epistles, we are told: ‘Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it’ (Hebrews 13: 1-2). The author uses the phrase τῆς φιλοξενίας μὴ ἐπιλανθάνεσθε.

The ancient Greek value of φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (phĭloxenĭ́ā), true and genuine hospitality, is still alive today, deep in the heart of every Greek. There is more to philoxenia than mere hospitality. For Greeks, it is about sharing their lives with others, inviting new-made acquaintances into the home to share a meal, offering food and drink, so that they become friends and may even become part of the family.

None of this is done for selfish reasons, or for self-gratification. Greeks genuinely want to share their culture, their customs and their homes with foreigners.

And that’s just who Greeks are.

Previous word: Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible

Series to be continued

Plato’s ‘Laws’ record how four types of foreign visitors should be received by Athenians (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Previous words in this series:

1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.

2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.

3, Bread, Ψωμί.

4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.

5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.

6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.

7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.

8,Theology, Θεολογία.

9, Icon, Εἰκών.

10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.

11, Chaos, Χάος.

12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.

13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.

14, Mañana, Αύριο.

15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.

16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.

17, The missing words.

18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.

19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.

20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.

21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.

22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.

23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.

24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.

25, Asthma, Ασθμα.

26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.

27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.

28, School, Σχολείο.

29, Muse, Μούσα.

30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.

31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.

32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.

33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.

34, Cinema, Κινημα.

35, autopsy and biopsy

36, Exodus, ἔξοδος

37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος

38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς

39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια

40, Practice, πρᾶξις

41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός

42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή

43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή

44, catastrophe, καταστροφή

45, democracy, δημοκρατία

46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end

47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse

48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

51, Bimah, βῆμα

52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.

53, Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible

54, Φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (Philoxenia), true hospitality

55, εκκλησία (ekklesia), the Church

56, ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), a church

57, series to be continued.

The beach at Palaiokastritsa in Corfu … Odysseus is said to have been shipwrecked there on his way home to Ithaki and was found by Nausicaa (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 74, Monday 22 July 2024, Saint Mary Magdalene

Saint Mary Magdalene at Easter Morning … a sculpture by Mary Grant at the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and the week began with the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII) yesterday. Today, the Church Calendar celebrates the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Μη μου άπτου, ‘Noli me Tangere,’ an icon by Mikhail Damaskinos in the Museum of Christian Art in the former church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 20: 1-2, 11-18 (NRSVA):

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’ 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

A modern icon or Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene by Alexandra Kaouki in Rethymnon (Photograph © Alexandra Kaouki)

This morning’s reflection:

On my way back down the mountains from the Monastery of Arkadi to the coast of Rethymnon in Crete, I have sometimes stopped briefly to see the small church in Nea Magnesia that is dedicated to Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene.

This is one of only two churches dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene on the island of Crete.

Nea Magnesia is 12 km east of Rethymnon, near Skaleta and off the road to Panormos. Today it is fast becoming part of the resort facilities building up east of Rethymnon. But in the 1920s, this village was first settled by Greek-speaking people who had been expelled from their homes in western Anatolia.

They arrived in Crete with their Greek language, traditions and culture and dedicated their church to Saint Mary Magdalene, whose feast in the Church calendar, east and west, falls today [22 July].

The other church in Crete dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene is an impressive Russian-style church on Dagli Street in Chania, with an onion dome and surrounded by a beautiful garden in the district of Chalepa. The church was built in 1901-1903 by Prince George, the High Commissioner of Crete.

The church was funded by the Czarist Russia and was opened in 1903 in the presence of Queen Olga, Prince George, Bishop Evgenios of Crete and a small number of invited guests.

I often pass Chalepa on my way to the and from the airport. With its imposing mansions and luxury villas, Chalepa is a beautiful part of Chania, east of the city on the coastal road to the airport and Akrotiri.

Chalepa was the venue for some of the most important political events in Crete in the 19th century. Here Prince George had his palace as the High Commissioner or governor of the semi-autonomous Cretan state in the closing days of Ottoman rule, and here too the Great Powers had their consulates.

Chalepa was also the home of Eleftherios Venizelos, who played a decisive role as Prime Minister of Greece during a critical time in Greek history in the early 20th century. The family house was built by his father, Kyriakos Venizelos, in 1877. Today, his family home houses the Eleftherios K Venizelos National Research and Study Foundation, which plans to turn the house into a museum.

An icon of Saint Mary Magdalene at the Resurrection, Μη μου άπτου (Noli me Tangere) by Mikhail Damaskinos, is one of the important exhibits at the Museum of Christian Art in the former church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion.

This icon dates from ca 1585-1591. Initially it was in the Monastery of Vrondissi and was transferred to old church of Saint Menas in Iraklion in 1800.

One of the most inspirational icons of Saint Mary Magdalene I have seen in Crete is an icon by Alexandra Kaouki in her old workshop near the Fortezza in Rethymnon.

According to Greek tradition, Saint Mary Magdalene evangelised the island of Zakynthos in 34 AD on her way to Rome with Saint Mary of Cleopas. The village of Maries on the island is said to be named after both Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Mary of Cleopas. A relic of her left hand is said to be preserved in the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos, where she is revered as a co-founder of the monastery.

During the Middle Ages, Saint Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, but these claims are not supported in any of the four Gospels.

Instead, the Gospels tell us she travelled with Jesus as one of his followers, and that she was a witness to his Crucifixion and his Resurrection, Indeed, she is named at least 12 times in the four Gospels, more times than most of the apostles. Two Gospels specifically name her as the first person to see Christ after the Resurrection (see Mark 16:9 and John 20).

Back in 2016, Pope Francis recognised Saint Mary Magdalene and her role as the first to witness Christ’s resurrection and as a ‘true and authentic evangeliser’ when he raised her commemoration today [22 July] from a memorial to a feast in the church’s liturgical calendar.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship issued a decree formalising the decision, and both the decree and the article were titled Apostolorum Apostola (‘Apostle of the Apostles’).

Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the congregation, said that in celebrating ‘an evangelist who proclaims the central joyous message of Easter,’ Saint Mary Magdalene’s feast day is a call for all Christians to ‘reflect more deeply on the dignity of women, the new evangelisation and the greatness of the mystery of divine mercy.’

Archbishop Roche said that in giving Saint Mary Magdalene the honour of being the first person to see the empty tomb and the first to listen to the truth of the resurrection, Christ ‘has a special consideration and mercy for this woman, who manifests her love for him, looking for him in the garden with anguish and suffering.’

The decision means Saint Mary Magdalene has the same level of feast as that given to the celebration of the apostles and makes her a ‘model for every woman in the church.’

The Church of Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene, in Nea Magnesia, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 22 July 2024, Saint Mary Magdalene):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Someone called my name – Mary Magdalene Reflection.’ This theme was introduced yesterday with a reflection by the Revd Cathrine Ngangira, Priest-in-Charge, Benefice of Boughton-under-Blean with Durnkirk, Graveney with Goodnestone and Hernhill.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 22 July 2024, Saint Mary Magdalene) invites us to pray:

We thank you that Mary Magdalene, who followed Christ in love, was the first to announce to his apostles that he had risen from the dead.

‘Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb’ (John 20: 1) … a statue of Saint Mary Magdalen above the gateway at Magdalen College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son restored Mary Magdalene
to health of mind and body
and called her to be a witness to his resurrection:
forgive our sins and heal us by your grace,
that we may serve you in the power of his risen life;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of life and love,
whose risen Son called Mary Magdalene by name
and sent her to tell of his resurrection to his apostles:
in your mercy, help us,
who have been united with him in this Eucharist,
to proclaim the good news
that he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

The tower of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalen in Stony Stratford … originally a chapel-of-ease for the parish of Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Stony Stratford, opened in 1958 and was consecrated in 1984 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

How Corfu became home to Dionysios Solomos, national poet of Greece

The Greek flag flying on a boat in the Ionian Sea … Greece’s national poet, Dionysios Solomos spent most of his working life in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Greece’s national poet, Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857) was born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos in 1798, but he spent most of his working life here in Corfu, and – although he was buried in Zakynthos – he died in Corfu on 9 February 1857.

Dionysios Solomos (Διονύσιος Σολωμός) was born into a family that originally hailed from Crete. His grandfather was from Iraklion but moved to Zakynthos after Crete was captured by the Ottoman Turks in 1669.

He was the central figure in the Heptanese School of poets, based in Corfu and the Ionian Islands. He is best known for his Hymn to Liberty (Ὕμνος εις την Ἐλευθερίαν), whose first two stanzas were set to music by Nikolaos Mantzaros and became the Greek national anthem in 1865. His other great poems include Τhe Cretan (Ὁ Κρητικός), The Day of Easter (Η ημέρα της Λαμπρής) and The Free Besieged (Ἐλεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι). However, none of his poems, apart from the Hymn to Liberty, was completed.

Solomos was born on Zakynthos, the illegitimate child of a wealthy count, Nikolaos Solomos, and his housekeeper, Angeliki Nikli. Count Nikolaos Solomos married the poet’s mother a day before he died on 27 February 1807, making the young Dionysios legitimate and a co-heir to the family estate, along with his half-brother.

The poet spent his childhood years on Zakynthos until 1808, and then studied law and literature in Italy.

He gained fame early on with his ‘Hymn to Liberty’ (1823), a 158‐quatrain poem – the first two stanzas are sung as the Greek national anthem.

After frictions and economic disputes with his brother Dimitrios, Solomos move to Corfu, the most important intellectual centre of the Ionian islands at the time. Corfu offered him a more stimulating environment and the isolation he sought for a solitary lifestyle.

His happiest years were the first years he spent on this island. Here he soon found himself at the centre of attention from admirers and poets in a group of well-educated intellectuals with liberal and progressive ideas. The most important people in his circle included Nikolaos Mantzaros who composed the tune for his Hymn to Liberty that would become the Greek anthem.

However, Solomos later alienated himself from many of these friends and after a third stroke he did not leave his house. He died in Corfu on 9 February 1857 from apoplexy. When the news of his death became known, Corfu’s theatre closed down, the Ionian Parliament suspended its sittings, and mourning was declared. His body was later moved to Zakynthos and buried there in 1865.

His poem ‘The Free Besieged’ regained fame and popularity in Greece some years ago with the 1998 film Eternity And A Day (Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα) by Theodoros Angelopoulos.

The film tells the story of Alexandros (Bruno Ganz), a poet in Thessaloniki with a terminal illness who is spending his last day getting his affairs in order before checking himself into a hospital.

Alexandros has one final project – to complete the unfinished poem, ‘The Free Besieged,’ by Dionysios Solomos.

As the story unfolds, he saves a young boy (played by Achilleas Skevis), a Greek-speaking illegal immigrant from Albania, first from police in traffic in Thessaloniki and later from child kidnappers in a warehouse, and tries to help the boy return home. In one eerie scene, with recollections of the Crucifixion, man and boy are at the snowy mountain border between Greece and Albania, where a barbed wire fence has the bodies of fleeing refugees clinging to it after being killed by border police.

It was a harrowing scene that came to mind when I visited Greek-speaking parts of southern Albania last week.

In one scene, Alexandros and the unnamed boy are on a bus journey when they come across the poet Solomos (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), who recites verses from this poem <Η ημέρα της Λαμπρής> (‘The Easter Day’), with the opening line: «Καθαρότατον ήλιο επρομηνούσε ...»

During the bus journey the dying Alexandros and the boy take through Thessaloniki, the poet Solomos gets on the bus. He sits across from Alexandros and the boy, and recites his unfinished poem, The Day of Easter. When Solomos gets to the unfinished last line of the poem, ‘Sweet is the life ... and, ...’ he repeats these first few words and is unable to complete the line. As he leaves the bus, Alexandros asks: ‘Tomorrow, how long does it last?’

Close to the end of the film, the dying Alexandros imagines he has met Anna once again, and he says to her: ‘One day, I had asked you, how long does tomorrow last?’ Anna answers: ‘An eternity and a day.’ She leaves, and Alexander is left alone, facing the sea.

The Greek anthem is based on the Hymn to the Liberty (Ὕμνος εἰς τὴν Ἐλευθερίαν) written by Solomos in a single month, May 1823, in Zakynthos in the home of his friend Loudovikos Stranis.

In 1828, the composer Nicolaos Mantzaros from Corfu set the Hymn to the Liberty by Solomos to music. He composed two choral versions – a long one for the whole poem and a short one for the first two stanzas. His 6/4 tempo is reminiscent of the Tsamiko, a traditional Greek men’s dance.

Although King Otho decorated both the poet and the composer in the 1840s, he retained his royal anthem, which was of German origin and praised King Otho and his Germanic dynasty. However, when Otho’s dynasty was overthrown, the new King George I adopted the Hymn to the Freedom as a new patriotic anthem in 1864.

The anthem has been performed at every closing ceremony in the Olympic Games as a tribute to Greece as the birthplace of Olympics.

The Liberty or Ελευθεριά (Eleftheria) of the anthem is female, and this is also a popular female name in Greece. But this Eleftheria is not as erotic and earthly as the Liberty of Delacroix. Instead she is more like an exiled ancient goddess, identified by Solomos with Greece itself.

In his hymn, the poet recalls the history of the Greek Revolution, and describes the pains and sacrifices of the rebels, criticises their dissensions, and calls for unity for the sake of Eleftheria.

However, the Greek anthem runs to only the first two of the 158 stanzas in the Hymn to Freedom. All 158 stanzas would make it the longest national anthem.

On this day, Greeks must be wondering who will say a strong and singular No to the forces of fascism in Golden Dawn that are bringing Greece to the precipice of violence? And who for the sake of Liberty will voice a strong and singular No to German and international fiscal demands that are bringing Greeks to the brink of defeat once again?



Σε γνωρίζω από την κόψη
Του σπαθιού την τρομερή,
Σε γνωρίζω από την όψη
Που με βιά μετράει τη γη.

Απ’ τα κόκκαλα βγαλμένη
Των Ελλήνων τα ιερά
Και σαν πρώτα ανδρειωμένη
Χαίρε, ω χαίρε Ελευθεριά!

Και σαν πρώτα ανδρειωμένη
Χαίρε, ω χαίρε Ελευθεριά!

Και σαν πρώτα ανδρειωμένη
Χαίρε, ω χαίρε Ελευθεριά!

I shall always recognise you
by the dreadful sword you hold
as the Earth with searching vision
you survey with spirit bold.

From the Greeks of old whose dying
brought to life and spirit free
now with ancient valour rising
let us hail you, oh Liberty!

Four Irish politicians in 19th century Corfu: 3, George Nugent-Grenville

Church ruins in the centre of Coru’s old town … George Nugent-Grenville, Lord Nugent of Carlanstown, became Governor of the Ionian Islands in 1832 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Four Irish politicians and administrators played key roles in shaping 19th century political life in Corfu: Sir Richard Church (1784-1873) from Cork; Sir Charles Napier (1782-1853) from Celbridge, Co Kildare; George Nugent-Grenville (1789-1850) from Co Westmeath, 2nd Baron Nugent of Carlanstown; and John Young (1807-1876) from Balieborough, Co Cavan, later Lord Lisgar.

The Irish general and poet Lord Nugent was a Philhellene and an early member of the London Greek Committee. He was among the British governors of the Ionian Islands, and was the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands from 1832 to 1835.

George Nugent Grenville, who was born on 31 December 1789, was a younger son of George Nugent-Temple, 1st Marquess of Buckingham. His mother, Lady Mary Elizabeth Nugent, was the only daughter and heiress of Robert Craggs Nugent (1709-1788) of Carnalstown, Co Meath, who became Viscount Clare in 1766 and the Earl Nugent in 1776.

Lady Mary was made a member of the Irish peerage in her own right in 1800 as Baroness Nugent of Carlanstown, with the stipulation that the title would pass to her son as an Irish peer when she died. When she died in 1813, George became the 2nd Baron Nugent of Carlanstown, Co Meath.

At one time, the family’s estates in Co Westmeath, Co Longford and Co Clare totalled 15,991 acres. Nugent was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and in 1810 received the honorary degree of DCL from Oxford.

He was a Whig MP for Buckingham (1810-1812), a rotten borough controlled by the Grenville family. As an Irish peer from 1812, he could still sit in the British House of Commons, and he was an MP for Aylesbury (1812-1832).

Nugent became one of the Lords of the Treasury in 1830, but he resigned this position and his seat in the House of Commons in August 1832 when he was appointed the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands.

As Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, Nugent entertained a visiting King Otho of Greece in the Solomos family villa in Zakynthos.

It may have been at the Solomos villa in Zakynthps that Nugent introduced Eliza-Dorothea Tuite, from Nenagh, Co Tipperary, to Count Giovanni Salomos or Solomos of Zakynthos. They were married in 1838, giving the Irish Philhellenes an interesting family connection with Dionysios Solomos, author of Hymn to Liberty, the Greek national anthem.

Nugent remained the High Commissioner in Corfu for three years, living at the Palace in Corfu. He was rewarded with being made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, an order associated particularly with Corfu.

When he returned, was defeated twice when he stood for his former Commons seat of Aylesbury (1837, 1839) and again in 1843 when he stood for Southampton. But he was returned for Aylesbury in 1847, and held the seat until he died in 1850.

In politics, Nugent was a Radical Whig and a strong supporter of Queen Caroline of Brunswick. He visited Spain as a partisan of the Spanish Liberals against the Carlists, advocated the abolition of capital punishment, and supported a measure for the further repeal of Penal Laws. He died on 26 November 1850.

Meanwhile, Eliza and Giovanni settled in the Greater Athens area, and both were buried from Saint Paul’s Anglican Church in Athens.

Saint Mary Magdalene: first to see the empty tomb and first witness to the resurrection

A modern icon of Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene by Alexandra Kaouki in her workshop in Rethymnon (Photograph © Alexandra Kaouki, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday, 22 July 2018,

Saint Mary Magdalene (Trinity VIII)

11.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick.

Readings: Song of Solomon 3: 1-4; Psalm 42: 1-10; II Corinthians 5: 17-22; John 20: 1-2, 11-18.

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

There is a new biblical drama film, Mary Magdalene, released earlier this year [2018]. The script is by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett, the film is directed by Garth Davis, with Rooney Mara as Mary Magdalene and Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus Christ.

The film had its world premiere in the National Gallery, London, on 26 February 2018, was screened at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival two days later, and went on general release in March.

In a review in the Guardian [27 February 2018], Peter Bradshaw said the movie ‘sets itself a bold task: to rescue Mary Magdalene from an age-old tradition of patriarchal condescension and misinterpretation. And yet it winds up embracing a solemn, softly-spoken and slow-moving Christian piety of its own.’

Of course, Saint Mary Magdalene is an intimate witness to some of the most important events in the life of Christ, including his Crucifixion, burial and Resurrection. But she has been wrongly recast in popular tradition as a ‘fallen woman’ and a ‘prostitute.’

Saint Mary Magdalene is mentioned by name 12 times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles. Her epithet Magdalene (ἡ Μαγδαληνή) probably means she was from Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Saint Luke (Luke 8: 2-3) lists Mary Magdalene as one of the women who travelled with Jesus and helped support his ministry ‘out of their resources,’ indicating she was probably quite wealthy. The same passage also states that seven demons had been driven out of her, a statement which is repeated in the longer ending of Saint Mark’s Gospel.

In all four gospels, she is a witness to the crucifixion of Christ, in the three Synoptic Gospels she is also present at his burial, and all four gospels identify her, either alone or as a member of a larger group of women, as the first witness to the empty tomb, and the first person to testify to the Resurrection. For these reasons, she is often referred to as the ‘apostle to the apostles.’

Mary Magdalene and the women who arrive at the tomb on Easter morning, ‘the first day of the week,’ are known in the Eastern Orthodox tradition as the Holy Myrrh-bearers (Μυροφόροι).

Mary and these women run to tell Saint Peter and the other disciple – presumably Saint John the Evangelist – that they suspect someone has removed Christ’s body. The ‘other disciple’ may have been younger and fitter, for he outruns Saint Peter. The tidy way the linen wrappings and the shroud have been folded or rolled up shows that the body has not been stolen. They believe, yet they do not understand; they return home without any explanations.

But Mary still thinks Christ’s body has been removed or stolen, and she returns to the grave. In her grief, she sees ‘two angels in white’ sitting where the body had been lying, one at the head, and one at the feet. They speak to her and then she turns around sees Christ, but only recognises him when he calls her by name.

Saint Peter and Saint John have returned without seeing the Risen Lord. It is left to Mary to tell the Disciples that she has seen the Lord. Mary Magdalene is the first witness of the Resurrection. In Saint John’s Gospel, the Risen Christ sends Mary Magdalene to tell the other disciples what she had seen. Mary becomes the apostle to the apostles.

The word apostle comes from the Greek ἀπόστολος (apóstólos), formed from the prefix ἀπό- (apó-, ‘from’) and the root στέλλω (stéllō, ‘I send,’ ‘I depart’). So, the Greek word ἀπόστολος (apóstolos) or apostle means one sent.

In addition, at the end of this morning’s reading (verse 18), Mary comes announcing what she has seen. The word used here (ἀγγέλλουσα, angéllousa) is from the word that gives us the Annunciation, the proclamation of the good news, the proclamation of the Gospel (Εὐαγγέλιον, Evangélion).

Mary, in her proclamation of the Gospel of the Resurrection, is not only the apostle to the apostles, but she is also the first of the evangelists.

I have often heard opponents of women’s ordination arguing in words like ‘Christ only chose men for his 12 apostles.’ But that was before the Resurrection. After the Resurrection, an apostle is one who is chosen and sent with the message of the Resurrection. That is Saint Paul’s claim to call himself an apostle (see I Corinthians 9: 1-2). That is what makes Saint Mary Magdalene the first apostle in the post-resurrection era.

A relic of Saint Mary Magdalene’s left hand is said to be preserved in the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

According to Greek tradition, she evangelised the island of Zakynthos in 34 AD on her way to Rome with Saint Mary of Cleopas. The village of Maries on the island is said to be named after these two women.

A relic of her left hand is said to be preserved in the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos, where she is revered as a co-founder of the monastery in a place that is otherwise an all-male enclave.

An early sermon by Hippolytus of Rome (ca 170-235) refers to Mary Magdalene as a ‘second Eve’ who, through her obedience, compensates for the disobedience of the first Eve. He also explicitly identifies Mary Magdalene and the other women as ‘apostles.’

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (ca 330-395) identifies Mary Magdalene as ‘the first witness to the resurrection.’

Elaborate mediaeval legends in western Europe tell exaggerated tales of her wealth and beauty, as well as her alleged journey to southern France.

In the Middle Ages, she was seen as an erudite, educated and wise woman, giving her name, for example to Magdalene College, Cambridge, and to Magdalen College, Oxford.

Magdalene College, Cambridge, where Archbishop Rowan Williams is the Master, was founded in 1482 as a Cambridge hostel for Benedictine student-monks. It was refounded by Lord Audley in 1542 and dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene. That choice of name may have been tinged with a touch of vanity, for the pronunciation of its name as ‘Maudleyn’ contains within it the name of Audley.

Magdalen College, Oxford, was founded earlier in 1458 and would later become the college of Oscar Wilde, John Betjeman, CS Lewis and Seamus Heaney.

But sometime in the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was conflated in western tradition with the unnamed ‘sinful woman’ who anoints Christ’s feet earlier in Saint Luke’s Gospel (see Luke 7: 36-50). This gives rise to the widespread but inaccurate belief that she was a repentant prostitute or a promiscuous woman.

This caricature of Mary Magdalene probably reached its low point in the musical Jesus Christ Superstarwith Mary’s song ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him,’ with its startling lines:

He’s a man, he’s just a man,
and I’ve had so many men before,
in very many ways …

Recently [10 June 2016], Pope Francis recognised Saint Mary Magdalene and her role as the first to witness the resurrection and as a ‘true and authentic evangeliser’ when he raised her commemoration today from a memorial to a feast in the church’s liturgical calendar.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship formalised the decision in a decree called Apostolorum Apostola (‘Apostle of the Apostles’).

Archbishop Arthur Roche said Saint Mary Magdalene’s feast day is a call for all Christians to ‘reflect more deeply on the dignity of women, the new evangelisation and the greatness of the mystery of divine mercy.’

He said that in giving Saint Mary Magdalene the honour of being the first person to see the empty tomb and the first to listen to the truth of the resurrection, Christ ‘has a special consideration and mercy for this woman, who manifests her love for him, looking for him in the garden with anguish and suffering.’

This means Saint Mary Magdalene has the same type of feast as any of the apostles and makes her a ‘model for every woman in the church.’

As we think about Saint Mary Magdalene this Sunday, and the way she has been maligned and traduced in the past, we may wonder why. Why was she forgotten so long as the apostle of the apostles and the ‘model for every woman in the church’?

Why did we give her name to the ‘Magdalene Laundries’ in Ireland that demeaned and belittled innocent women, depriving them of love, education, dignity and basic human rights?

Indeed, Saint Mary Magdalene, in the way she has been maligned over the centuries, represents so many women whose beauty, truth and witness have been denied by the Church for oh so long.

We must never do this again, not only to women, but to any group in the church, because of gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, culture or the other excuses that lead to discrimination, oppression and exclusion. For every time we do this, we are in danger of denying the Resurrection and of denying the Risen Christ himself.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Mary Magdalene at Easter … a sculpture by Mary Grant at the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

John 20: 1-2, 11-18 (NRSV):

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”.’ 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

The Second Court in Magdalene College, Cambridge … founded in 1482 and refounded in 1542 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical colour: White

Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son restored Mary Magdalene
to health of mind and body
and called her to be a witness to his resurrection:
Forgive our sins and heal us by your grace,
that we may serve you in the power of his risen life;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord, you are gracious and compassionate.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

You are loving to all.
and your mercy is over all creation. Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your faithful servants bless your name,
and speak of the glory of your kingdom.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

We are fellow-citizens with the saints,
and of the household of God,
through Christ our Lord,
who came and preached to those who were far off
and those who were near. (Ephesians 2: 19, 17)

Preface:

In the saints
you have given us an example of godly living,
that, rejoicing in their fellowship,
we may run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
and with them receive the unfading crown of glory:

Post-Communion Prayer:

God of life and love,
whose risen Son called Mary Magdalene by name
and sent her to tell of his resurrection to his apostles:
In your mercy, help us,
who have been united with him in this Eucharist,
to proclaim the good news
that he is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Blessing:

God give you the grace
to share in the inheritance of Saint Mary Magdalene and of his saints in glory:

Saint Mary Magdalene depicted as one of the myrrh-bearers above the entrance to Magdalen College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

288, Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;

606, As the dear pants for the water;

592, O Love that wilt not let me go.

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Μη μου άπτου, ‘Noli me Tangere,’ an icon by Mikhail Damaskinos in the Museum of Christian Art in the former Church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Mary Magdalene: a call for all to ‘reflect more deeply on the dignity of women’

Mary Magdalene at Easter … a sculpture by Mary Grant at the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday, 22 July 2018,

Saint Mary Magdalene (Trinity VIII)

9.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer, Castletown Church, Kilcornan, Co Limerick.

11.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick.

Readings: Song of Solomon 3: 1-4; Psalm 42: 1-10; II Corinthians 5: 17-22; John 20: 1-2, 11-18.

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

There is a new biblical drama film, Mary Magdalene, released earlier this year [2018]. The script is by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett, the film is directed by Garth Davis, with Rooney Mara as Mary Magdalene and Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus Christ.

The film had its world premiere in the National Gallery, London, on 26 February 2018, was screened at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival two days later, and went on general release in March.

In a review in the Guardian [27 February 2018], Peter Bradshaw said the movie ‘sets itself a bold task: to rescue Mary Magdalene from an age-old tradition of patriarchal condescension and misinterpretation. And yet it winds up embracing a solemn, softly-spoken and slow-moving Christian piety of its own.’

Of course, Saint Mary Magdalene is an intimate witness to some of the most important events in the life of Christ, including his Crucifixion, burial and Resurrection. But she has been wrongly recast in popular tradition as a ‘fallen woman’ and a ‘prostitute.’

Saint Mary Magdalene is mentioned by name 12 times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles. Her epithet Magdalene (ἡ Μαγδαληνή) probably means she was from Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Saint Luke (Luke 8: 2-3) lists Mary Magdalene as one of the women who travelled with Jesus and helped support his ministry ‘out of their resources,’ indicating she was probably quite wealthy. The same passage also states that seven demons had been driven out of her, a statement which is repeated in the longer ending of Saint Mark’s Gospel.

In all four gospels, she is a witness to the crucifixion of Christ, in the three Synoptic Gospels she is also present at his burial, and all four gospels identify her, either alone or as a member of a larger group of women, as the first witness to the empty tomb, and the first person to testify to the Resurrection. For these reasons, she is often referred to as the ‘apostle to the apostles.’

Mary Magdalene and the women who arrive at the tomb on Easter morning, ‘the first day of the week,’ are known in the Eastern Orthodox tradition as the Holy Myrrh-bearers (Μυροφόροι).

Mary and these women run to tell Saint Peter and the other disciple – presumably Saint John the Evangelist – that they suspect someone has removed Christ’s body. The ‘other disciple’ may have been younger and fitter, for he outruns Saint Peter. The tidy way the linen wrappings and the shroud have been folded or rolled up shows that the body has not been stolen. They believe, yet they do not understand; they return home without any explanations.

But Mary still thinks Christ’s body has been removed or stolen, and she returns to the grave. In her grief, she sees ‘two angels in white’ sitting where the body had been lying, one at the head, and one at the feet. They speak to her and then she turns around sees Christ, but only recognises him when he calls her by name.

Saint Peter and Saint John have returned without seeing the Risen Lord. It is left to Mary to tell the Disciples that she has seen the Lord. Mary Magdalene is the first witness of the Resurrection. In Saint John’s Gospel, the Risen Christ sends Mary Magdalene to tell the other disciples what she had seen. Mary becomes the apostle to the apostles.

The word apostle comes from the Greek ἀπόστολος (apóstólos), formed from the prefix ἀπό- (apó-, ‘from’) and the root στέλλω (stéllō, ‘I send,’ ‘I depart’). So, the Greek word ἀπόστολος (apóstolos) or apostle means one sent.

In addition, at the end of this morning’s reading (verse 18), Mary comes announcing what she has seen. The word used here (ἀγγέλλουσα, angéllousa) is from the word that gives us the Annunciation, the proclamation of the good news, the proclamation of the Gospel (Εὐαγγέλιον, Evangélion).

Mary, in her proclamation of the Gospel of the Resurrection, is not only the apostle to the apostles, but she is also the first of the evangelists.

I have often heard opponents of women’s ordination arguing in words like ‘Christ only chose men for his 12 apostles.’ But that was before the Resurrection. After the Resurrection, an apostle is one who is chosen and sent with the message of the Resurrection. That is Saint Paul’s claim to call himself an apostle (see I Corinthians 9: 1-2). That is what makes Saint Mary Magdalene the first apostle in the post-resurrection era.

A relic of Saint Mary Magdalene’s left hand is said to be preserved in the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

According to Greek tradition, she evangelised the island of Zakynthos in 34 AD on her way to Rome with Saint Mary of Cleopas. The village of Maries on the island is said to be named after these two women.

A relic of her left hand is said to be preserved in the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos, where she is revered as a co-founder of the monastery in a place that is otherwise an all-male enclave.

An early sermon by Hippolytus of Rome (ca 170-235) refers to Mary Magdalene as a ‘second Eve’ who, through her obedience, compensates for the disobedience of the first Eve. He also explicitly identifies Mary Magdalene and the other women as ‘apostles.’

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (ca 330-395) identifies Mary Magdalene as ‘the first witness to the resurrection.’

Elaborate mediaeval legends in western Europe tell exaggerated tales of her wealth and beauty, as well as her alleged journey to southern France.

In the Middle Ages, she was seen as an erudite, educated and wise woman, giving her name, for example to Magdalene College, Cambridge, and to Magdalen College, Oxford.

Magdalene College, Cambridge, where Archbishop Rowan Williams is the Master, was founded in 1482 as a Cambridge hostel for Benedictine student-monks. It was refounded by Lord Audley in 1542 and dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene. That choice of name may have been tinged with a touch of vanity, for the pronunciation of its name as ‘Maudleyn’ contains within it the name of Audley.

Magdalen College, Oxford, was founded earlier in 1458 and would later become the college of Oscar Wilde, John Betjeman, CS Lewis and Seamus Heaney.

But sometime in the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was conflated in western tradition with the unnamed ‘sinful woman’ who anoints Christ’s feet earlier in Saint Luke’s Gospel (see Luke 7: 36-50). This gives rise to the widespread but inaccurate belief that she was a repentant prostitute or a promiscuous woman.

This caricature of Mary Magdalene probably reached its low point in the musical Jesus Christ Superstarwith Mary’s song ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him,’ with its startling lines:

He’s a man, he’s just a man,
and I’ve had so many men before,
in very many ways …

Recently [10 June 2016], Pope Francis recognised Saint Mary Magdalene and her role as the first to witness the resurrection and as a ‘true and authentic evangeliser’ when he raised her commemoration today from a memorial to a feast in the church’s liturgical calendar.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship formalised the decision in a decree called Apostolorum Apostola (‘Apostle of the Apostles’).

Archbishop Arthur Roche said Saint Mary Magdalene’s feast day is a call for all Christians to ‘reflect more deeply on the dignity of women, the new evangelisation and the greatness of the mystery of divine mercy.’

He said that in giving Saint Mary Magdalene the honour of being the first person to see the empty tomb and the first to listen to the truth of the resurrection, Christ ‘has a special consideration and mercy for this woman, who manifests her love for him, looking for him in the garden with anguish and suffering.’

This means Saint Mary Magdalene has the same type of feast as any of the apostles and makes her a ‘model for every woman in the church.’

As we think about Saint Mary Magdalene this Sunday, and the way she has been maligned and traduced in the past, we may wonder why. Why was she forgotten so long as the apostle of the apostles and the ‘model for every woman in the church’?

Why did we give her name to the ‘Magdalene Laundries’ in Ireland that demeaned and belittled innocent women, depriving them of love, education, dignity and basic human rights?

Indeed, Saint Mary Magdalene, in the way she has been maligned over the centuries, represents so many women whose beauty, truth and witness have been denied by the Church for oh so long.

We must never do this again, not only to women, but to any group in the church, because of gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, culture or the other excuses that lead to discrimination, oppression and exclusion. For every time we do this, we are in danger of denying the Resurrection and of denying the Risen Christ himself.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

A modern icon of Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene by Alexandra Kaouki in her workshop in Rethymnon (Photograph © Alexandra Kaouki, 2017)

John 20: 1-2, 11-18 (NRSV):

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”.’ 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

The Second Court in Magdalene College, Cambridge … founded in 1482 and refounded in 1542 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical colour: White

Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son restored Mary Magdalene
to health of mind and body
and called her to be a witness to his resurrection:
Forgive our sins and heal us by your grace,
that we may serve you in the power of his risen life;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord, you are gracious and compassionate.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

You are loving to all.
and your mercy is over all creation. Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your faithful servants bless your name,
and speak of the glory of your kingdom.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

We are fellow-citizens with the saints,
and of the household of God,
through Christ our Lord,
who came and preached to those who were far off
and those who were near. (Ephesians 2: 19, 17)

Blessing:

God give you the grace
to share in the inheritance of Saint Mary Magdalene and of his saints in glory:

Saint Mary Magdalene depicted as one of the myrrh-bearers above the entrance to Magdalen College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

288, Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;

606, As the dear pants for the water;

592, O Love that wilt not let me go.

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Μη μου άπτου, ‘Noli me Tangere,’ an icon by Mikhail Damaskinos in the Museum of Christian Art in the former Church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)