Long gone are the days when Magdalene.org was #1 on Google, but that’s okay. There are some great resources at the top of the heap these days, so I thought it was worth a post to talk a little bit about them. Here are the top 3, in order, as displayed on Google:

#1: Mary Magdalene – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Over the years I’ve watched this Wikipedia entry grow from a relatively brief description of the saint to a very informative resource. It hits on all of the major threads of Mary Magdalene thought, discusses Gospel references, Gnostic references, and the biggest modern perspectives circulating today. In addition, there are a number of fantastic images that portray Mary Magdalene in different aspects of her legend. The endnotes are very useful, but I found the references to be a bit spare. Regardless, this is a page worthy of the #1 spot.

#2: The Life of Mary Magdalene

I have to say that I’m a little surprised that this page is so high in the search ranking. The page is divided up into sections of Legend, Fact, and Allegorical interpretation of scripture. Included are several of the more common medieval legends about Mary Magdalene (such as those described in Jacobus de Voragine’s “Golden Legend”) as well as some of the newer legends (Mary Magdalene was sitting to Jesus’ right in Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”). What troubles me isn’t that so much legend is present, but that the allegorical interpretations of scripture aren’t always interpretations of scripture at all, but interpretations of interpretations of legends of legends. These stories are rich and fascinating, but there is very little in the way of scripture represented. There are no footnotes or references.

#3: CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Mary Magdalen

I have to admit that I’ve used this reference page myself a number of times. The resource is very old, taken from the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia published in 1910, but it is still very useful if you are able to sidestep the assumptions of the author that were typical of the time. For example:

“If the foregoing argument holds good [that St. Luke veiled her identity to avoid defaming someone still living], Mary of Bethany and the ‘sinner’ are one and the same. But an examination of St. John’s Gospel makes it almost impossible to deny the identity of Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalen.”

There isn’t any information in this article that isn’t available elsewhere in a more current form, but it is a handy resource for a quick and dirty look at what the more traditional view of Mary Magdalene was in the Roman Catholic Church pre-Vatican II.

And yes, dear readers, I’m happy to say that Magdalene.org is still among the top 5, making an entry at #4. I’m satisfied with #4 considering that I’ve been such an unreliable webmaster and have gone years at a time without updating my site. Today, Magdalene.org is in the throes of yet another redesign, with large swaths of the site still unusable. It’s getting there, but until then, please keep linking!

So you say you’ve never heard of Lolita fashion? Wikipedia to the rescue!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_fashion

Now that the definition is out of the way, I can share my discovery: a brand of Lolita clothing called Mary Magdalene.

http://www.marymagdalene.jp/

(The site is in Japanese, but the images still load…)

I’m filled with wonder!

What!? You don’t see the resemblance?

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.

A quick Wikipedia search this morning revealed that the oldest versions of the legend place the children’s removal on June 26th, and that it wasn’t until the 16th century that not only was the date changed, but the rat infestation component of the story was added. It is possible, the article notes, that the disappearance of the children and the rat infestation were two distinct events that became merged in popular memory.

Regardless, this is a July 22nd event that I hadn’t been previously aware of. Apparently there is even a “Ratcatcher’s Day” celebrated on either June 26th or July 22nd to commemorate the work of the Pied Piper.

How very odd.