Why is the head of Mary Magdalene in Provence, France?

Mary Magdalen after the Resurrection and Ascension

There are two distinct legends that speak of Mary's life after Our Lord ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.

The Eastern tradition maintains that she went to Rome, and then to Ephesus with Our Lady, where she died. Her relics were taken to Constantinople in the 9th c., to be translated later to Rome and France. The Roman tradition is that, in A.D. 48, she -- along with SS. Martha and Lazarus -- were seized by the Jews of Palestine who put them on a rickety boat without any oars and cast them away into the stormy sea. They made their way to France, and once there, settled in and converted all of Provence. While St. Martha gathered about her a community of women, and while St. Lazarus became a Bishop, Mary is said to have retired to a cave in a hill in La Sainte-Baume to live a life of penance for thirty years. When she was dying, the angels are said to have carried her to the Oratory of St. Maximinus in Aix where she received Viaticum and died. Her body is said to have been deposed in St. Maximin Oratory in Villa Lata until A.D. 745, when she was moved to protect her relics from the Muslim Saracens.


Later, when the Dominicans built a convent in La Sainte-Baume, the shrine was found intact, with an inscription indicating why the relics were hidden. This church was destroyed during the French Revolution, but was later restored, and the head of Mary Magdalen is said to be there to this day.

St. Mary Magdalen is the patroness of penitents, reformed prostitutes, perfumers, hairdressers, and apothecaries. She is usually depicted artistically in a posture of penance or an attitude of reflection, annointing Our Lord's feet, at the Foot of the Cross or before a Crucifix, at the empty tomb, meeting the risen Christ (often with the words "Noli me tangere" -- "Touch Me not" -- in the painting), being fed Viaticum at death, or carried by angels after her death. She is symbolized by her alabaster jar; a skull symbolizing penance and acting as a memento mori; a mirror; long, unveiled hair (often red); tears; red robes; and an egg (especially a scarlet one; see the Easter page).