Mary Magdalene

One of Jesus’ female disciples, although she was not counted among the Twelve Apostles. All four Gospels make her the first witness to the Resurrection – alone or with others. For that reason early Christian writers gave her the title “Apostle to the Apostles.” Due to the frequency of the name Mary in the New Testament, and also of significant unnamed women, for many centuries Catholic tradition attributed stories about other Marys and some unnamed women – including a repentant sinner and the woman caught in adultery – to Mary Magdalene. The result was that she was erroneously depicted as a repentant adulteress and later, based on early Protestant preaching, as a reformed prostitute. The Catholic Church officially corrected this depiction of Mary Magdalene in 1968, when her feast day on the church calendar was separated from that of the other Marys, and the readings were changed from those about a sinful woman to her witnessing of the Resurrection.