Yesterday my son and I sat in the children’s literature section of the UW library, randomly picking up books and giving them a read. I came across several copies of Robert Browning’s “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” and decided to read it. Much to my surprise, the date Browning gave for the Pied Piper’s “abduction” of the town’s children was July 22nd (the feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene).

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From my book:

“Clearly, the legend of Helen is meant to be a Gnostic allegory for the fall of Sophia (which is in turn an allegory of the fall of the soul), but the parallels between Simon Magus and Jesus should also make us look more closely at the parallels between Helen and Mary Magdalene.

Both Helen and Mary Magdalene have represented Sophia’s presence in the physical world; wouldn’t the fact that Helen was incarnated as a prostitute have had some bearing on what was thought of Mary Magdalene’s pre-Jesus life as well? This is a question that hasn’t been fully explored by scholars, but as the studies of Mary Magdalene’s roles in Gnosticism continue, it very well could be the earliest indirect reference to Mary Magdalene as a prostitute.”

Apparently, someone in academia picked up the gauntlet I tossed down in this section in 2004. Here is the first paragraph of the conclusion of a 2007 thesis that very studiously explores the theme I mentioned above as well as the importance of MM’s medieval identity as a fallen woman.

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Magdalene.org and The Magdalene Review (this blog) now have a Twitter identity! If you’d like updates on what’s happening with the site, the blog, and Mary Magdalene research in general, please follow magdaleneorg.

You never know, I might even give away some books once in awhile as the mood strikes…

I obtained a recording of a UK television documentary from Demand Five called “Mary Magdalene: Saint or Sinner?” and watched it this evening. A fairly typical documentary, it includes dramatic narration asking all of the sensational questions being bandied about in our post-Da Vinci Code culture, a round-up of experts, and actors dramatizing the topics being discussed.

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Best wishes to all on this, the Feast of Mary Magdalene!

I thought that the following traditional litany, copied from the Catholic Culture website (formatting is mine), would be a fine reading for the day:

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I found a post in this blog from several years ago, in which I commented that it was odd that most Google searches for the keyword “mary magdalene” came from the Philippines and Raleigh, NC. Today I revisited Google Trends to see if the same is still true.

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Two fun pieces of Mary Magdalene news for today.

1. True Blood

The popular HBO vampire series, True Blood, had a Mary Magdalene reference this week. A preacher’s wife (Sarah) was seducing one of the main characters while he was in the bathtub, and the following conversation (give or take a few words here and there) took place:

Sarah: “You know, Mary Magdalene showed her love for Jesus by washing his feet and then drying them off with her hair.”

Jason: “Oh yeah?”

Sarah: “Yes.”

Jason: “But, uh, wasn’t she, uh….a hooker?”

Sarah: “No, not at all. See, everybody thinks that, but it’s not in the Bible.”

Jason: “Oh, okay.”

This is the conversation to the best of my recollection. If the character Jason seems a bit dull above, it’s probably not because of my memory…he’s about as smart as a bag of rocks.

The messages sent about MM in this episode are a bit mixed. On one hand, her honor is defended when Sarah sets the record straight on whether MM was a prostitute. On the other hand, she is invoking MM’s patronage as a sexual woman doing favors for a man in the name of love. This, however, is difficult to avoid; even though it’s clear MM probably didn’t deserve the reputation of a harlot, she remains a red-blooded, sensual figure in Western imagination.

In any case, I’m applauding HBO on their excellent timing in making a not-completely-outrageous reference to MM just before her feast day.

2. La Danza de los Zancos

This week zancos, dancers in the Spanish village of Anguiano, La Rioja, whirl on meter-high stilts up and down the cobbled streets as they move an icon of their patron saint, Mary Magdalene, from the village church down to a chapel by the sea. It appears to be a colorful, festive occasion all to honor MM!

The article I’ve linked to above includes a video.

I’m excited. I’m thrilled. How thrilled am I? I am veritably bouncing with exuberance over something I just read a little while ago.

The early church father, Hippolytus, Bishop of Rome, penned a commentary on Song of Songs sometime in the 3rd century. For those of us who are unlearned in the German language, it has been very difficult to access the commentary which is available only in Greek or a German translation from the 19th century (Werke des Hippolytus, ed. Bonwetsch, 1897). Incidentally, I don’t have any information about what manuscripts of this work might be extant.

The good news is that today I learned that a doctoral student published a thesis earlier this year containing an English translation of the commentary: Hippolytus’ Commentary on the On the Song of Songs in Social and Critical Context, Yancy Smith. Smith successfully defended the dissertation, and as far as I know it is by now available on ProQuest for anyone with access.

I’ll be off to the UW library sometime in the near future to see if I can get a copy. This is great news for Mary Magdalene research since the commentary contains discussions of a “Mary Martha” figure visiting the tomb of Jesus, during which she is compared her to Eve, and may contain a reference to Magdalene as an apostle. In the 3rd century!

Project Redesign is under way!

Curious what the brightened up Magdalene.org will look like? Why not take a look as we continue to develop it?

http://www.magdalene.org/new

Please keep in mind that many links may not work and the design may change slightly before it goes live, but it’s a good opportunity to preview our new look and feel.

Comments? I’d love to hear what you think!

Please send mail to comment [ a t ] magdalene [ d o t ] org.

I’ve been out of the loop for a long time. In 2007, James Cameron and a film crew produced a Discovery Channel documentary about a tomb discovered in south Jerusalem in 1980. Allegedly, the tomb contained the ossuaries of Jesus’ family, including his mother, brothers, and –you guessed it– presumed wife, Mary Magdalene. Not only that, but an ossuary for someone named Judah, or Judas, who is speculated at having been Jesus and Mary Magdalene’s son.

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