July
29: Saint Martha
Martha of
Bethany is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John.
Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary, she is described as living in the
village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She is the middle child of her family with
Lazarus being the eldest and her sister Mary the youngest. She was witness to
Jesus' resurrection of her brother, Lazarus.
In the Gospel
of Luke, Jesus visits the home of two sisters named Mary and Martha. The two
sisters are contrasted: Martha was "cumbered about many things" while
Jesus was their guest, while Mary had chosen "the better part", that
of listening to the master's discourse.
In the Gospel
of John, Martha and Mary appear in connection two incidents: the raising from
the dead of her brother Lazarus (John 11) and the anointing of Jesus in Bethany
(John 12:3).
Martha appears
again in John 12:1-8, where she serves at a meal held in Jesus' honor at which
her brother is also a guest. The narrator only mentions that the meal takes
place in Bethany, while the apparently parallel accounts in the Gospels of
Matthew (Matthew 26:6-13) and Mark (Mark 14:3-9) specify that it takes place at
the home of one Simon the Leper.
Martha is
venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox
churches, and commemorated by the Lutheran Church and the Anglican Communion.
Through time, as the cult of Martha developed, the images of maturity,
strength, common sense, and concern for others predominated.
According to
legend, St Martha left Judea after Jesus' death, around AD 48, and went to Provence
with her sister Mary (conflated with Mary Magdalene) and her brother Lazarus.
With them, Martha first settled in Avignon (now in France). The Golden
Legend, compiled in the 13th century, records the Provençal tradition.
The Tarascon
Monster
A further
legend relates that Martha then went to Tarascon, where a monster, the
Tarasque, was a constant threat to the population. The Golden Legend describes
it as a beast from Galicia; a great dragon, half beast and half fish, greater than
an ox, longer than an horse, having teeth sharp as a sword, and horned on
either side, head like a lion, tail like a serpent, that dwelt in a certain
wood between Arles and Avignon. Holding a cross in her hand, Martha
sprinkled the beast with holy water. Placing her sash around its neck, she led
the tamed dragon through the village. There Martha lived, daily
occupied in prayers and in fastings. Martha eventually died in Tarascon, where
she was buried. Her tomb is located in the crypt of the local Collegiate
Church.
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