St. Mary Magdalene

St. Mary Magdalene

St. Mary Magdalene is one of the greatest saints of the Bible and a legendary example of God's mercy and grace. She's known as the Apostle to the Apostles. The precise dates of her birth and death are unknown, but we do know she was present with Christ during his public ministry, death and resurrection. She is mentioned at least a dozen times in the Gospels. Mary Magdalene has long been regarded as a prostitute or sexually immoral in western Christianity, but this is not supported in the scriptures. It is believed she was a Jewish woman who lived among Gentiles, living as they did.

The Gospels agree that Mary was originally a great sinner. Jesus cast seven demons out of her when he met her. After this, she told several women she associated with and these women also became followers. There is also debate over if Mary Magdalene is the same unnamed women, a sinner, who weeps and washes Jesus' feet with her hair in the Gospel of John.

Despite the scholarly dispute over her background, what she did in her subsequent life, after meeting Jesus, is much more significant. She was certainly a sinner whom Jesus saved, giving us an example of how no person is beyond the saving grace of God. During Jesus' ministry, it is believed that Mary Magdalene followed him, part of a semi-permanent entourage who served Jesus and his Disciples.

Mary likely watched the crucifixion from a distance along with the other women who followed Christ during His ministry. Mary was present when Christ rose from the dead, visiting his tomb to anoint his body only to find the stone rolled away and Christ, very much alive, sitting at the place they laid Him. She was the first witness to His resurrection.

After the death of Christ, a legend states that she remained among the early Christians. After fourteen years, she was allegedly put into a boat by Jews, along with several other saints of the early Church, and set adrift without sails or oars. The boat landed in southern France, where she spent the remaining years of her life living in solitude, in a cave.

Credits:
 Discriptions of saints lives and biographies have been excerpted, summarized, or compiled from Franciscan Media, CatholicSaints.Info, Catholic Online, and Wikipedia.

The Rosary is the best therapy for these distraught, unhappy, fearful, and frustrated souls, precisely because it involves the simultaneous use of three powers: the physical, the vocal, and the spiritual, and in that order.

— Archbishop Fulton Sheen

The Rosary is THE WEAPON.

— St. Padre Pio

The rosary is the scourge of the devil

— Pope Adrian VI

The Rosary is a school for learning true Christian perfection.

— Pope John XXIII

The rosary is a treasure of graces.

— Pope Paul V

Among all the devotions approved by the Church none has been favored by so many miracles as the devotion of the most Holy Rosary.

— Pope Pius IX

If there were one million families praying the Rosary every day, the entire world would be saved.

— Pope St. Pius X

If our age in its pride laughs at and rejects Our Lady’s Rosary, a countless legion of the most saintly men of every age and of every condition have not only held it most dear and have most piously recited it but have also used it at all times as a most powerful weapon to overcome the devil, to preserve the purity of their lives, to acquire virtue more zealously, in a word, to promote peace among men.

— Pope Pius XI

There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessing upon the family than the daily recitation of the Rosary.

— Pope Pius XII

The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.

— St. Francis de Sales

The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our redeemer, who loves His Mother.

— St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort