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words ". To the Catholic mind it all seems fitting and
natural. At a later period Maiy and Martha turn to
"the Christ, the Son of the Livmg God", and He re-
stores to them their brother Lazarus; a short time
afterwards they make Him a supper and Mary once
more repeats the act she had performed when a peni-
tent. At the Passion she stands near by; she sees
Him laid in the tomb; and she is the first witness of
His Resurrection — excepting always His Mother, to
whom He must needs have appeared first, though th^
New Testament is silent on this point. In our view,
then, there were two anointings of Christ's feet — it
should surely be no difficulty that St. Matthew and St.
Mark speak of His head — the first (Luke, vii) took
place at a comparatively early date; the second, two
days before the last Passover. But it was one and the
same woman who performed this pious act on each
occasion.
Subsequent History of St. Mary Magdalen. — The Greek Church maintains that the saint retired to Ephesus with the Blessed Virgin and there dieti, that her relics were transferred to Constantinople in 886 and are there preserved. Gregory of Tours, "De miraculis", I, xxx, supports the statement that she went to Ephesus. However, according to a French tradition (see Lazarus of Bethany, Saint), Mary, Lazarus, and some companions came to Marseilles and converted the whole of Provence. Magdalen is said to have retired to a hill, La Sainte-Baume, near by, where she gave herself up to a life of penance for thirty years. When the time of her death arrived she was carried by angels to Aix and into the oratory of St. Maximinus, where she received the viaticum; her bod>[ was then laid in an oratory constnicted by St. Maximinus at Villa Lata, afterwards called St. Maxi- min. History is silent about these relics till 745, when, according to the chronicler Sigebert, they were re- moved to Vezelay through fear of the Saracens. No record is preserved of their return, but in 1279, when ' Charles II, King of Naples, erected a convent at La Sainte-Baume for the Dominicans, the shrine was found intact, with an inscription stating why they were hidden. In 1600 the reUcs were placed in a sarcophagus sent by Clement VIII, the head being
g laced in a separate vessel. In 1814 the church of La te Baume, wrecked during the Revolution, was re- stored, and in 1822 the grotto was consecrated afresh. The head of the saint now lies there, where it has lain so long, and where it has been the centre of so many pilgrimages.
Acta SS.f 22 July; Faillon, MonumcnU irUdUs sur Vapoa- tolat de Ste-M arte- Madeline en Provence (2 vola., Paris, 1859), I, 1-282, where a full discuasion of the Identity of the saint is to be found; also 878-9; Bahonius, Ann. EccL, I, 117-121, 251; Baillet, Vies dca Saints (Paris, 1724). For the common non-Catholic opinion cf. Simpson in Expositor (Oct., 1900).
Hugh Pope.
Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi, Saint, Carmelite Vir- gin, b. 2 April, 1566; d. 25 May, 1607. Of outward events there were very few in the saint's life. She came of two noble families, her father being Camillo Geri de' Pazzi and her mother a Biioudelmonti. She was baptized, and named Caterina, in the great bap- tistery. Her childhood much resembled that of some other women saints who have become great mvstics, in an early love of prayer and penance, great charity to the poor, an apostolic spirit of teaching religious truths, and a charm and sweetness of nature that made her a general favourite. But above all other spiritual cliaracteristics was Caterina 's intense attrac- tion towards the Blessed Sacrament, her longing to receive It, and her delight in touching and being near those who were speaking of It, or who had just been to Communion. She made her own First Communion at the age of ten, and shortly afterwards vowed her virginity to God. At fourteen she was sent to school at the convent of the Cavalaresse, where she lived in fo mortified and fervent a manner as to make the
sisters prophesy that she would become a great saint ;
and, on leaving it, she told her parents of her resolve
to enter the religious state. They were truly spiritual
people; and, after a little difficulty in persuading them
to reUnquieh their only daughter, she finally entered
in December, 1582, the Carmelite convent of Santa
Maria degl' Angeli, founded by four Florentine ladies
in 1450 and renowned for its strict observance. Her
chief reason for choosing this convent was the rule
there followed of daily Communion.
Caterina was clothed in 1583, when she took the name of BCaria Maddalena; and on 29 Biay, 1584, being then so ill that they feared she woulcT not recover, she was professed. After her profession, she was subject to an extraordinary dailv ecstasy for forty consecutive da>^s, at the end of which time she ap- p€».red at the point of death. She recovered, however, miraculously; and henceforth, in spite of constant baa healthy was able to fill withenergv the various offices to which she was appointed. She became, in turn, mistress of extems — i. e of girls coming to the convent on trial — teacher and mistress of the juniors, novice mistress (which post she held for six years), and finally, in 1604, superior. For five years (1585-90) God allowed her to oe tried by terrible inward desola- tion and temptations, and by external diabolic at- tacks; but the courageous severity and deep humility of the means that she took for overcoming; these only served to make her virtues shine more brilliantly in the eyes of her community.
From the time of her clothing with the religious habit till her death the saint's life was one series of raptures and ecstasies, of which only the most notable characteristics can be named in a short notice. First, these raptures sometimes seized upon her whole being with such force as to compel her to rapid motion (e. g. towards some sacred object). Secondly, she was frequently able, whilst in ecstasy, to carry on work belonging to her office — e. g., embroidery, painting, etc. — with pjerfect composure and efficiency. Thirdly
md this is the point of chief importance — ^it was
whilst in her states of rapture that St. Mary Magdalen
de' Pazzi gave utterance to those wondeitul maxims
of Divine Love, and those counsels of perfection for
souls, especially in the religious state, which a modern
editor of a selection of them declares to be more f re-
guently quoted by spiritual writers than those even of t. Teresa". These utterances have been preserved to us by the saint's companions, who (unknown to her) took them down from her lips as she poured them forth. She spoke sometimes as of herseli, and some- times as the mouthpiece of one or other cf the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. These maxims of the saint are sometimes describee! as her Works", although she wrote down none of them herself.
'This ecstatic life in no wise interfered with the saint's usefulness in her community. She was noted for her strong common-sense, as well as for the high standard and strictness of her government, and was most dearly loved to the end of her life by all for the spirit of intense charity that accompanied her some- what severe code of discipline. As novice-mistress she was renowned for a miraculous gift of reading her sub- jects' tearts — ^which gift, indeed, was not entirely confined to her community. Many miracles, both of this and of other kinds, she performed for the benefit either of her own convent or of outsiders. She often saw things far off, and is said once to have supemat- urally beheld St. Catherine de' Ricci in her convent at Prato, reading a letter that she had sent her and writing the answer; but the two saints never met in a natural manner. To St. Mary Magdalen's numerous
Eenances, and to the ardent love of suffering that made er genuinely wish to live long in order to suffer with Christ, we can here merely refer; but it must not be forgotten that she was one of the strongest upholders of the value of suffering for the love of God and the
