So many Marys, so little time!

Today the Roman church commemorates the Feast of St Mary Magdalene. She was one of Christ's disciples and was at the cross when He died. She was also, according to the Gospel of Mark (16:9), the first to see Him after he had risen. Various traditions over the centuries have also identified her as the woman being stoned for committing adultery, and the woman who anointed Christ's feet and washed them with her hair. Far more vivid imaginations have claimed that she and Jesus married and had children. Or that she married James the Less "the brother of Jesus" (if not Jesus Himself). and that they and their descendents went to Britannia with Joseph of Arimethea.

But really? Some say she brought the Gospel to Gaul (France, mainly the southern part). After that, or maybe instead of that, she is said by some to have retired to Ephesus with Mary the Mother of Jesus, where she lived out her final days.

Radical feminists use her patronage to promote the ordination of women, or goddess worship, or tree-hugging, or whatever else they've been whining about lately.

There's no evidence that Mary ever married James the Less (who was the cousin of Jesus, as we understand the term), much less Jesus. Think that'll stop these gals? I think not.

Then again, what do I know? Especially when you can look it up in the 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia like everybody else. In referring to this text, it is worth mentioning hat both the "Latins" and the "Greeks" held different opinions about how which Mary is which and how many.

Modern biblical scholarship has tended to favor the Greek view. Don't ask me why. It's all Greek to me.