July 22, O.S. / 4 July NT

According to St. Demetrius of Rostov

Remember your mentors who

preached to you the word of God; and, take-

paradise to their demise, imitate their faith.

(Last Apostle Paul Heb., ch. 13, v. 7)

The Great Equal-to-the-Apostles 1 Saint 2 Myrrh-bearing 3 Mary Magdalene 4, who was especially famous in the Christian Church for her fiery, unshakably self-sacrificing love for the Lord Jesus Christ, was from the then rich city of Magdala 5, which was located in the Galilee 6 region of Palestine, on the shore of Lake Gennesaret , or otherwise the Sea of ​​Galilee 7 , between the cities of Capernaum 8 and Tiberias 9 . By origin from the city of Magdala, the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary is called Magdalene, to distinguish her from other pious wives mentioned in the Gospel with the name of Mary.

Equal-to-the-Apostles Saint Mary Magdalene was a true Galilean. And the Galilean, the Galilean in the preaching and affirmation of Christianity means a lot of special things. Christ the Savior Himself was called the Galilean (Matthew 26:69), since He grew up and lived from infancy and then preached a lot in Galilee, and even in the fourth century the Greco-Roman emperor Julian the Apostate died (in 363) with words addressed to Christ:

You defeated me, Galilean!

The first-called Apostles of Christ, who forever remained closest to the Savior, were all Galileans, with the exception of only one Judas Iscariot, a traitor not a Galilean. When, after the Resurrection, Christ the Savior appeared on a mountain in Galilee to a large host (more than 500) of believers, most of them consisted of Galileans who followed the Lord during His sermon in Galilee, who listened to His teaching, witnesses His miracles and those who experienced the goodness of the merciful Healer Jesus 10 . And how, in general, the Galileans perceived and spread the teachings of Christ more zealously than the Jews of other regions of Palestine, therefore, in the beginning, all the followers of Christ the Savior were called "Galileans" (Acts 1:11). The Galileans also differed greatly and sharply from the Jews of other regions of Palestine, just as the nature of Galilee differed contrastingly from southern Palestine. In Galilee, nature was cheerful and the population was lively, simple; in southern Palestine - a barren desert and a people who do not want to recognize anything but the letter and form of rules. The inhabitants of Galilee readily accepted the ideas of the spirit of the law; among the Jews of Jerusalem, one routine appearance dominated. Galilee became the birthplace and cradle of Christianity; Judea was dried up by narrow Pharisees and short-sighted Sadducees. The Galileans were ardent, sympathetic, impetuous, grateful, honest, brave, - they were enthusiastically religious, they loved to listen to teachings about faith and about God, - they were frank, industrious, poetic and loved Greek wise education 11 ... And Mary Magdalene, healed by Christ the Savior, she showed in her life many wonderful distinctive qualities of her Galilean relatives, the first and most zealous Christians.

Regarding the first part of the life of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, we only know that she was subject to a serious, incurable illness, was possessed, according to the gospel words, by "seven demons" 12 (Luke 8:2). The cause and circumstances of her misfortune are unknown. But the Holy Gospel and the Fathers of the Church of Christ teach that the Providence of God allows such special heavy sufferings in order for the “works of God to appear,” that is, for the special actions of God in relation to people and the special actions performed by God through the Messiah Christ, which is in In this case, healing from demons, for the glory of God and Christ and for spiritual enlightenment, for the salvation of Mary Magdalene. According to the teaching of Christ the Savior about such circumstances, it should be assumed that Mary Magdalene was possessed by demons not because of her sins, or because of her parents, but the Providence of God allowed this so that the Lord Jesus Christ would manifest the work of the Glory of God, manifest the great miracle of the healing of Mary Magdalene, enlightening her mind, attracting her to faith in Christ the Savior and to eternal salvation. The reason for the grievous suffering of Mary Magdalene from demons, as the reason for other unknown, incomprehensible to man, actions and allowances of God in relation to people, lies in the world mysteries of the wisdom of God, which people cannot comprehend. Without suffering so grievously and incurably, Mary Magdalene could have either completely remained aloof from the work of Christ the Savior, or treated the miracles of Christ the God-Man with curiosity and wonder, but without a living and saving faith, and she would not have risen to that highest, in no way unshakable love for the Lord, for which she was comforted by the appearance of the resurrected Christ the Savior before even all of His closest Apostles (Mark 16:9; John 20:16). But helpless in suffering, the Galilean Mary Magdalene could not be indifferent to the rumor about the Miracle Worker, "healing every disease and every infirmity in people" (Matthew 9:35). And now she hurries to find this Wonderworker, becomes self-seeing, how "He healed many from diseases and ailments, and from evil spirits, and the deaf, and the blind, and the lame, and lepers, and raised the dead" (Luke 7:21,22 ; Matt. 11:5, etc.), - and Mary ardently believes in His omnipotence, resorts to His Divine power, asks for healing for herself and, by faith, receives what she asks: the tormenting power of evil spirits leaves her, she is freed from enslavement to demons 13 and her life is sanctified by the divine radiance of her Healer, to whom Mary Magdalene fully dedicates herself, like an ardent, grateful Galilean woman.

Since then, the soul of Mary Magdalene burned with the most grateful and devoted love for her Savior Christ, and she forever joined her Savior, followed Him everywhere to receive His saving instructions and take advantage of every opportunity to serve her Divine Healer. And according to the then earthly circumstances, in which Christ placed Himself, as the Son of Man, He needed both material service to Him and His work. After all, Christ was born in poverty in a cave into which they drove livestock in Bethlehem and His cradle there was a simple manger (Luke 2:7,12,16). His mother, as a sacrifice for a newborn, could only bring two young doves to the temple of God due to family poverty (Luke 2:24). In the small Galilean town of Nazareth 14 Christ until the age of 29 lived in the same poverty as an adopted member of the family of a simple carpenter. And during the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, so that there would be as few obstacles as possible in the fulfillment of the great mission of the God-man, Christ completely left aside the relationship to the family of His adoptive father Joseph (Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35 ; Luke 8:19-21), in which he was brought up, and all sorts of cares for His material well-being and personal property. Therefore, Christ did not have any property, except for the wearable clothing of the itinerant Galilean teacher of the faith, so that, after three years of His public ministry, Christ was valued only at thirty pieces of silver, that is, about 30 rubles, which was then the price in Palestine for the poorest indigent of slaves (Mt. 26:15). In the land that He came to save, Christ did not own any piece of land, any house.

Foxes have holes and nests of birds, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head (Matt. 8:29), Christ Himself said.

Without a dwelling and property, the ordinary food of the Savior consisted, like the food of the simplest poor Galilean, from barley bread 15 and caught in the Lake of Galilee and boiled in boiling water there on the shore of fish, and at times from a piece of wild honey, which the inhabitants freely collected. The reproach of the crafty Pharisees that the Son of Man “loves to eat and drink wine” (Matt. 11:19) referred to the fact that Christ did not refuse to share the meal of those who invited Him as a public teacher, since the teachers enjoyed hospitality there (Lk., chapters 5,7 and 10). And although the Apostles and some followers of Christ owned little property - the Apostle Peter had a house in Capernaum, John in Jerusalem - and other admirers of Christ were engaged in some crafts and they had a common money box (John 12:6; 13:29 ) to pay for basic needs, for helping other poor people and for alms to the poor. But even small amounts for emergencies were not always there in cash. So when the Jewish collectors of an insignificant tax on the temple came to the Apostle Peter and said:

If your teacher will not give a didrachma (only about 40 kopecks), then neither Christ the Teacher nor His disciples had such an insignificant amount! .. (Matthew 17:24-27)

And meanwhile about Christ and His miracles "there was a rumor throughout all Syria 16; and they brought to Him all the weak, possessed by various diseases, and seizures, and demon-possessed, and lunatics, and paralyzed, and He healed them. And a multitude of people followed Him from Galilee, and the Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan" (Matthew 4:25; Luke 6:17; Mark 3:7-8). And among this multitude of all kinds of people from different remote areas there were many poor people who needed not only food, but even clothing ...

So, for all this, many pious women who were healed by Christ from serious illnesses and had wealth from their property funds, accompanying their Benefactor in His walk with the preaching of the Gospel, "served Him with their possessions" (Luke 8: 3), that is, in cases of need, paying the expenses for the basic needs of the poor, accompanying their Savior and, at His direction, providing necessary benefits to those in need financial assistance. Of such grateful wives, the Evangelist Luke calls Mary Magdalene the first (Luke 8:2), because she was the first to give others an example of such grateful service to the cause of the God-man, or else she prevailed over all others with zeal in this holy cause. And their disinterested, zealous service to Christ the Savior at a time when "He had no where to lay his head," and from most people he saw coldness, surprise or enmity, was rejoicing to the Lord Jesus, comforting Him a lot amidst constant labors and frequent insults.

Particularly noteworthy was the extraordinary steadfastness and extraordinary courage with which Saint Mary Magdalene treated her Redeemer. And despite all the obstacles and terrible dangers, even in the difficult days and hours of the cruel suffering of Christ, Mary Magdalene showed herself more courageous and more devoted than the Apostles to the point that, when almost all the Apostles, despite their promises to die with the Lord, were defeated fear from the enemies of the Lord, "fled" (Matt. 26:56) and hid - Mary Magdalene overcame fear with love and by the steadfastness of her participation in the Suffering tried to soften the thorny path that He walked to save the world. The cruel suffering of the Savior, crucified on the cross, 17 was aggravated by the insolent mockery of the Jewish high priests, scribes and elders, who, not content with the execution of their vile vengeance, being near the cross of the Crucified Christ, mockingly expressed shameless and impudent reproaches to the Innocent Sufferer, saying:

He saved others (from death), but he cannot save himself. Let Him save Himself, if He is the Christ, the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, so that we can see and believe in Him (Matt. 27:41-43; Mark 15:31-32; Luke 23:35) ...

Likewise, the Roman soldiers cursed him and, coming up, said:

If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself (Luke 23:36-37)…

And the thieves who were crucified with Him cursed Him, and reviling Him, one said:

If you are the Christ, save yourself and us (Matt. 27:44; Luke 23:39)…

And those passing from the crowd cursed Him, shaking their heads and saying:

E, destroying the temple and building in three days, if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross (Matt. 27:39-40; Mark 15:29-30) ...

And when in this way the stupidity and savagery of the crowd with the low malice of the Jewish elders surrounded the Crucified Christ, His martyr's gaze with consolation noticed the tears of pious women, among whom Mary Magdalene was "of the very first" (Mt. 27:55-56; Mk. 15:40; Luke 23-27). In these compassionate tears, it was as if a ray of light flashed for the Son of Man in the midst of the gloomy kingdom of sin, and this ray from grateful women consoled the Innocent Sufferer with evidence of the not yet completely corrupted human nature.

The day of the great redemption by the God-man of fallen mankind was clear. It was already about noon, and according to the Hebrew name for the times of the day, it was the sixth hour (Luke 23:44; Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:43). But on this clear noon, "the sun fades and darkness falls 18 until the ninth hour, that is, according to the modern name of the hours of the day, until the third hour in the afternoon (Mt. 27:45; Mk. 15:33; Lk. 23:44). A terrible, majestic, impressive heavenly sign - the fading of the sun, darkness, embracing everything earthly, in the midst of the bright midday light, heavily squeezed the detractors of the Innocent Christ, led them into horror and silence. Familiar worshipers of the Crucified, at first standing in the distance and watching (Luke 23: 49; Mt.27:55; Mk.15:40), approached the Sufferer, surrounded His cross, and of them the Evangelist calls Mary Magdalene again the first (Mt.27:56; Mk.15:40). at the feet of Christ the Savior, not only the miracle worker, glorified and sung by babies, but also at the feet of Jesus the Nazarene, humiliated, dishonored, shamefully crucified, abandoned even by His Apostles! ..

And after the death of Her Healer, Mary Magdalene does not leave Him: she accompanied the transfer of His body by Joseph 19 of Arimathea and Nicodemus 20 from the cross to the tomb 21 , was at His burial, watched where Christ was laid (Matt. 27:61; Mark 15:47 ) and when, in order to salute, according to the law of God, the already coming great feast of Easter, she left His buried body, then the fiery grateful love of Mary Magdalene in deep sorrow opened her a source of comfort. Love instilled in her a desire to render, on her part, a possible last honor to her Savior, humiliated by the Jews. She buys myrrh and fragrances (Luke 23:56) in order to give Him the possible honor by anointing the body of the buried Christ, according to Jewish custom.

This enterprise, which gave Mary Magdalene the name also of the myrrh-bearing woman, belonged to her, since the two Evangelists put her first again, between some other women who followed her in it, and the third - only her (Mt. 28: 1; Mk. 16: 1; John 20:1) and names in this noble deed.

And now, in the midst of the dusk of the night (John 20:1), the first day of the week, after the mournful Sabbath, in the midst of the danger from the embittered Jews, who had already attempted to lay hands on the disciples of Christ, and at the time when the Apostles of the Crucified with a broken soul locked themselves in their room, - Mary Magdalene with some pious wives, despising the threatening danger, fearlessly goes to the tomb of the Savior, carrying aromas and myrrh 22 (Luke 23:56; Mark 16:1), prepared for anointing the body of Christ, in order to render the Reposed the last tribute love and reverence. Mary Magdalene did not know about the guards assigned by the Jews to the cave of the tomb of Christ, and about the sealing of the entrance to it by the high priests, since all this happened after the removal of all the worshipers of Jesus from the garden (Matthew 27: 62-66) of Joseph of Arimathea. But now, on the way from Jerusalem to the cave of Christ's tomb, Mary Magdalene remembered that the entrance to that cave was closed by Joseph and Nicodemus with such a large, heavy stone, which neither she nor her companion could roll away from the entrance. And now, in confusion about this obstacle, the myrrh-bearing women say to each other:

Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?.. (Mark 16:3)

Thinking about this, Mary Magdalene, ahead of the other myrrh-bearing women and coming closer to the cave of the tomb, looking, she suddenly sees that the stone that embarrassed her has already been rolled away from the entrance to the cave ... (John 20:1; Mark 16:4).

Among the Jews of that time, the stone that blocked access to the tomb of the deceased was considered inviolable, as if consecrated. And the falling off of a stone from the entrance to the cave of the tomb of Christ showed that something special had happened to the body of the Buried One. What exactly? - The simplest and first of all was the idea that the body of Jesus was taken by someone from this cave of Joseph of Arimathea and could be laid in another place. And this thought, to lose the opportunity to give Him the last honor, struck Mary Magdalene so much that she immediately, without entering the cave, ran back to Jerusalem to inform the Apostles Peter and John about what had happened at the tomb of Christ. She was sure that, informed by her, the Apostles would take an active part in the search for the body of Jesus:

They took the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they laid Him, she says to the Apostles (John 20:2).

And indeed the most zealous Apostles Peter and John immediately went to the tomb 23 . They both ran together; but John ran faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; bending down, he saw the sheets lying, but did not enter the cave of the tomb. Following him, Simon Peter comes, enters the tomb and sees the linen sheets lying and the cloth that was on the head of Jesus, not lying with the linen, but in a different place - and everything is folded in order. Then John also entered, saw, and silently believed that Christ had risen; for if someone had transferred the body of Jesus to another place, he would have done it without uncovering it, just as if someone had stolen it, he would not have taken care to remove the cloth, twist it and put it in another place, but took the body in the form in which it lay; and myrrh with scarlet, used by Nicodemus during the burial of Christ, very firmly glue the sheets to the body, - explains St. John Chrysostom (John 20:3-9) ... - But the Apostles did not depart with the same feeling from the empty tomb of their Teacher: Peter, instead of faith, only with astonishment "he went back, wondering in himself at what had happened" (Luke 24:12)...

When, in such a still vague and weak mood, the Apostles left the empty Tomb of Christ, Mary Magdalene returned to him again. Having reached the cave of the Sepulcher, she began to weep and, grieving inconsolably, leaned (John 20:11) into the low entrance of the cave in order to look further into the place where her Savior was buried. And there he sees, sitting in a white robe, two angels 24, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay. And they tell her:

Wife, why are you crying?

Mary answers them:

They took away my Lord, and I don't know where they put Him!

Mary's grief was so great that she did not realize that it was not people who were speaking to her, but angels who had taken the form of people to alleviate her grief with their bright, solemn festive appearance at the place of the sad burial of Christ, and she answers them all with the same words that she spoke To the Apostles about the disappearance of the body of Christ from the Tomb. And the angels, preparing Mary Magdalene with their solemn bright appearance for the announcement of the wondrous resurrection of Christ, however, do not tell her, like other myrrh-bearing women, that it is the One whom she is looking for with such zeal. gloriously resurrected, because the Lord was pleased to rank Mary Magdalene herself among the direct heralds of the Resurrection of Christ.

And at the time when Mary Magdalene, in response to her angels, told them the reason for her crying, Christ the Savior suddenly appeared behind Mary, which is why the angels took a particularly respectful position towards Him; Mary Magdalene, noticing a change in them, turned back and saw "Jesus standing, but did not know that it was Jesus" (John 20:14). - The burden of sorrowful thoughts, abundant tears prevented her from seeing well, Standing behind her, and, obviously, Christ the Savior Himself did not want her to immediately recognize Him, just as He did not suddenly reveal Himself to the Emmaus travelers (Luke 24: 13-32 ), and now Mary Magdalene took Him for the gardener (John 20:15) of the garden of Joseph of Arimathea, in which this cave of the Holy Sepulcher was located.

Not recognized by Mary Magdalene, Christ says to her:

Wife, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?

Hearing in these words compassionate participation in her grief, Mary answers with a trusting request:

Lord, if you have carried Him, tell me where you have put Him, and I will take Him (John 20:15).

How much selfless love and deepest devotion Mary Magdalene expressed in these short and simple words! She does not call the alleged gardener Jesus Christ by His name, but only says "Him" ... She herself honored her Teacher so highly that she believes others should know Him and be interested in Him. She begs the imaginary gardener to reveal to her where the body of Jesus was carried away, since the gardener of this garden should have known the secret of the disappearance of this body from the tomb of Joseph. The kidnapping could not have happened without his knowledge, because he was entrusted with this garden. And if Joseph himself, the owner of the garden, had transferred the body to another place, then this also could not have happened without the knowledge of the gardener. And Mary Magdalene asks this gardener for an indication of the location of the body of Christ, so that she can take it:

I'll take it, she says.

With immeasurable love for the Lord, Mary completely forgets about her weak strength and hopes to take and carry away the body of her Savior herself. Her zeal and love are so great and fiery that she considers herself excessively strong. And not receiving a quick answer to her lively question, Mary Magdalene, as is typical of a very worried person, again turned towards the angels, wanting, perhaps, to hear something about Jesus from them, or in order to find out the reason that prompted them to accept a particularly reverent position. The Lord, touched by the height and strength of her love, in a graceful voice already familiar to Mary, calls her by name:

Maria! (John 20:16)

Now Mary Magdalene heard that voice of her Savior, memorable for all her life, by the power of which He cast out a crowd of demons from her, that heavenly voice that penetrated and revived every soul, that wondrous voice that delighted the souls of listeners with His heavenly bliss. And Mary now felt the close presence of the Divine Teacher, in Whom were all her blessings, all her happiness, and unspeakable joy filled Mary's whole soul. From the fullness of happiness, she could not speak and, again turning to the Lord, she recognized Him with an enlightened look and, exclaiming with delight only one word: "Teacher!" (John 20:16) - threw herself at the feet of Christ the Savior ...

In joyful admiration, Mary Magdalene could not yet imagine and realize all the greatness of the Risen Christ. And therefore the Lord, in order to enlighten her thoughts and teach about the change through the resurrection already of His flesh, meekly said to her:

Touch me not 25 (John 20:17), for I have not yet ascended to my Father.

Mary Magdalene enthusiastically expressed worship to her humanity and Savior and Teacher, and Christ, by forbidding her to touch, elevates, sanctifies her thoughts, teaches her more reverent treatment and makes Mary Magdalene understand that the time for the closest spiritual communion with him will come when He completely hides from the sensual eyes of His disciples and ascend into heaven to God the Father. And since the other disciples of Christ, bringing news of His resurrection, might think that now He is already forever with them on earth and, perhaps, will fulfill the people's dreams of a great Jewish earthly kingdom, Christ the Savior sends Mary Magdalene to warn them against such thoughts and dreams. Now confirming to the Apostles the Resurrection of Christ by her clear contemplation of the Risen One and His speech, she is sent by the Lord to announce to them that Christ will not be on earth for long, that He must soon ascend to God the Father with the most glorified body. But so that the news of this departure would not lead them into confusion and sorrow, the Lord commands Mary Magdalene to tell His disciples that His Father, to Whom He ascends, is also their Father, graciously calling them His brethren:

Go to my brethren and tell them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God... 26 (John 20:17)

Having said this, Christ became invisible. And the rejoiced, happy Mary Magdalene goes and announces everything (John 20:18) that happened to her to the Apostles of Christ, and with delight consoles their grief with wondrous words:

Christ is risen!

That is why, as the first, sent from the Lord Himself, the herald of the accomplished Resurrection of Christ, Mary Magdalene is recognized by the Christian Church as Equal-to-the-Apostles.

Here is the brightest feature of the entire wondrous service of Mary Magdalene to the Church of Christ. On the morning of the Resurrection of Christ, she was honored to see the Lord risen, the first of all His disciples and disciples 27 (Mark 16:9; John 20:14-17), and the first, by the direct command of the Lord, was made a messenger, a preacher for them of His Resurrection. The Apostles preached the Resurrection of Christ to the whole world: Mary Magdalene preached the Resurrection of Christ to the Apostles themselves—she was an Apostle to the Apostles!.. The Holy Fathers of the Church see in this circumstance a special mystery and wisdom of God's providence.

The wife, - teaches St. Gregory the Theologian, - from the mouth of the serpent received the first lie, and the wife, from the mouth of the Risen Lord Himself, was the first to hear the joyful truth, so that whose hand would dissolve the drink of death, the same hand would give the cup of life ... Sanctified by the contemplation of the Risen One, who triumphed over the death of the victorious Christ, the ardent Mary Magdalene was a complete, resolute witness of the Resurrection of Christ without words. But the Apostles and all who were with them in the house of John the Theologian 28 did not believe her grace-filled news of the Resurrection of Jesus the Teacher. They "sad, wept, and when they heard that Christ was alive and that she had seen Him, they did not believe" (Mark 16:10-11; John 20:18). - Why? ..

Mary Magdalene enjoyed the full undoubted trust of the Apostles. In addition, among other myrrh-bearing women, who also informed the disciples of Christ about the resurrection from the dead of their Teacher announced to them at the Holy Sepulcher by angels (Luke 24: 9-11, 4-8; Matt. 28: 5-7; Mark. ch. 16 ), - were the mother of the Apostle John the Theologian, and the mother of the Apostle James, and Martha and Mary the sisters of Lazarus with other pious wives, who all also enjoyed the full confidence of the Apostles; but they "did not believe them, considering their story to be a dream"... (Luke 24:9-11; Mark 16:1; Matt. 28:1) - So great was the despondency of the small community of Christ's disciples then... the high priests of the Jews took and crucified their Teacher Jesus, and the Apostles fled and hid, they suddenly lost everything, all their personal and national hopes; their faith in Jesus the Messiah, in His power and glory, was eclipsed; with the loss of faith, the courage of the spirit was also lost; they were also oppressed by the consciousness of their unfulfilled duty to Christ the Teacher, whom they cowardly left alone in the hands of their enemies and fled (Matt. 28:56; Mark 14:50), and, having no support either in themselves or outside themselves, they they thought more about preserving their own security "for fear of the Jews" ... (John 20:19) Until the death of Christ, they all "hoped that He, their Teacher, is the Messiah who will deliver Israel" (Lk.24: 21), will open the glorious earthly kingdom of Israel, but His shameful death on the cross completely destroyed their hopes and dreams. In the eyes of all people of that time, crucifixion was the most terrible and shameful death, it was a sign of a terrible "curse" according to the law of Moses (Deut. 21:23; 1 Cor. only as a Prophet, "Who was mighty in deed and word before God and all the people"... (Luke 24:19) - In the heavily oppressed consciousness of Christ's disciples, the thought that the true Messiah, Christ, the Son of God could die could not fit like a man, and the way Jesus really died on the cross. And although they saw the miraculous resurrection by Jesus of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:41), the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 5:11-17) and Lazarus (John 11:44), but Jesus Himself died, like the other prophets , then He can only rise with all people on the last day; and before this, the miracle-working prophets themselves were resurrected, there was never an example ... - Peter and John, who saw the tomb of Christ, could not report anything, only that it was empty. Only all the women reported about the vision of angels and the Resurrected One... A tormenting, deeply grave situation... And now the more ardent Apostle Peter again goes to the holy Sepulcher, not giving himself an account, not knowing why he went, since he himself had already seen an empty place where Christ was buried. But now he soon returned and announced to his disciples with delight:

Truly, Christ has risen!.. I saw Him myself: He appeared to me on the way (Luke 24:33; 1 Cor. 15:5).

Now, it seemed enough eyewitnesses of the Risen One to assure the truth of the Resurrection of Christ, and many disciples joyfully believed, but still not all 29. And Mary Magdalene with other myrrh-bearing women, shining with happiness and despising all the dangers from the violent enemies of Jesus Christ, could not remain calm in one place and moving from house to house, from one disciple of Christ to another, in purity, simplicity, depth and strength of love for To their Healer and Teacher, they enthusiastically repeated countless times the joyful gospel:

And gracefully, quickly began to grow from the seed of the smallest of all grain seeds, the huge tree of the Church of Christ30. A small handful of disciples and disciples sincerely devoted to Christ the Savior, of whom the most zealous was the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles myrrh-bearing Mary Magdalene, triumphed over the arrogant superstition of paganism, owned entire kingdoms with their kings, and carried the Divine teaching of Christ from end to end - to the whole universe of the earth (Acts. 1:8), repeating the solemn words of the first gospel of St. Mary Magdalene:

Christ is risen! He has truly risen!

Here, Christians, are the most important features of the life of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles myrrh-bearing Mary Magdalene, which are not subject to any doubt, since they are testified by the very word of God in the Holy Gospel. Why are they preserved and offered by the Church, why are they read? - Is it not for the glorification of St. Mary Magdalene? - Oh no! The saints who live in the glory of heaven, in the high and eternal glory of God, have no need for earthly glory, for insignificant glory from men. But such remembrance of their earthly life, deeds and virtues is given to us ourselves by instruction and motivation to a charitable life and to soul-saving deeds. Through the holy Apostle of Christ Paul, the Lord commands us:

Remember your leaders who preached to you the Word of God; and, considering the end of their lives, imitate their faith (Heb. 13:7).

And so the holy Church of Christ preserves and offers to our attention sketches of the life of holy people for our self-examination, self-improvement and salvation through imitation of the faith and spirit of these God’s saints, so that we do not become lazy, but imitate those who by faith and longsuffering inherit the promises of God… (Heb. 6:12) - The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles myrrh-bearing Mary Magdalene selflessly fulfilled the first and main commandment of Christ the Savior: "I loved the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind and with all my strength" (Mark 12:30-33; Matt. 22:37-40). The fulfillment by Saint Mary Magdalene under all circumstances of such true, total love for the Lord serves as a vital model for the love of every Christian for God our Savior. And following the example of St. Mary Magdalene, all of us, Christians, must have and show selfless love for God, with all our hearts, with all our desires, aspirations and strengths of our souls and with all our understanding, with all our cognitive abilities, we must completely cling to the Lord our Savior. The strength of our love for God must be such that no one and nothing can separate us from this love: "neither life, nor death, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature, nor angels, nor principles, nor powers, nor the present, nor future" (Rom. 8:38-39).

From the time of the apparitions of the Resurrected Christ the Savior described by the holy Evangelists and the fiery preaching of St. Mary Magdalene about the Resurrection caused by these apparitions, the surviving New Testament books do not provide more details about the activity of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles, and information about her later life is now the subject of tradition. Traditions about her subsequent life of several local Christian churches vary greatly according to the area where they come from; in essence, however, everywhere these traditions report the zealous equal-to-the-apostles activity of St. Mary Magdalene. And the difference between these traditions depends on whom or which of the holy evangelical wives these churches understand under the name of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene? Some Christian churches of the West, and also Church Fathers with learned theologians, combine into one or two persons the three evangelical wives: a sinner who repented in the house of Simon the Pharisee, poured her tears on the feet of Christ the Savior, wiped them with her hair and anointed her with precious ointment (Lk. 7 :37-38; Mark. ch. 14; Matt. ch. 26), - then also Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus (Luke 10:39; John 11:28), - and also Mary Magdalene, who was released Christ the Savior from seven demons 32 (John ch. 11, 12, 19 and 20; Mark 16:3; Matt. 27:7). But the Eastern Greek-Russian Orthodox Church now, as before, recognizes all these three personalities, mentioned in the Gospels with different signs, as different, special ones, not wanting to base historical information on arbitrary, only probable interpretations. As a result, the tradition of the Eastern Greek-Russian Orthodox Church reports that, after the Gospel appearances of the Risen Christ, before His Ascension and after, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene remained with Holy Mother of God and the Apostles and was an active associate of the first successes in spreading the Christian faith, first in Jerusalem. But, full of zeal, ardent faith and zealous love for the gospel of God, she then preached in other countries, everywhere proclaiming heavenly grace, joy and salvation to all who believed in the Savior of the world, Christ the Risen.

Having visited, among other things, Italy 33 , the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene found an opportunity to appear before the then reigning emperor Tiberius I 34 and offered him, according to the generally accepted oriental custom, an egg dyed red, while saying:

Christ is risen!

The emperor was not surprised by the poverty of the offering of St. Mary Magdalene, who first appeared to him, because he knew the ancient custom, in general in the East and also among the Jews, appearing for the first time to the highest, or on a solemn occasion to acquaintances or patrons, to offer a gift as a sign of respect , with some known, or with a special, special, symbolic meaning. Examples of this are found in Jewish Old Testament history 35 (Gen.43:11; 1 Kings 10:2), and also represent the gifts offered by the rich magi 36 to Jesus Christ who was born in Bethlehem of Judea 37 . And poor people in such circumstances brought as a gift various fruits of their area or eggs of birds. So, following in part this ancient custom and with the aim of the red color of the egg and the hitherto unheard-of words "Christ is Risen!" - to arouse the curiosity of the suspicious Emperor Tiberius, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, with an explanation of the meaning of such an offering, began her ardent sermon on the Resurrection and the teachings of Christ the Savior. With great inspiration and conviction, she told the emperor about the life, miracles, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and a direct, ingenuous presentation of the extremely unfair, biased trial of Jesus Christ by the embittered members of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin 38 and the connivance at the same time of the cowardly Roman ruler of Judea, Pilate of Pontus 39 , to the condemnation on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, brought on them the wrath of the emperor. Tiberius brought them to justice, by which Pilate was deprived of power and exiled to Gaul, to the city of Vienna 40, where, according to one legend, dejected by remorse and despair, he himself took his own life. According to another tradition, sentenced to death by the court, Pilate repented, turned to Christ with a prayer, and was forgiven by the Savior, as a sign of which, after cutting off his head, she was received by an angel 41 .

Together with the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, according to legend, the sisters of Lazarus Martha and Mary 42 went to Italy; and Pilate, having learned about this and fearing that Christians would expose his illegal actions, himself sent a report about Jesus Christ to the emperor Tiberius 43 , in which he testified about the beneficent life of Christ, about the healing of all diseases, injuries, even the resurrection of the dead, and about other great miracles His. Pilate claimed that, having examined the accusations of the Jews, he found no fault in Jesus Christ; He struggled a lot to save Him from the hands of the seditious Jews, but could not achieve His deliverance and gave Jesus to their will, for the sake of the people's cry and seditious accusation by the Jews of Pilate himself ... And after the crucifixion of Jesus by the Jews, terrible signs occurred in nature, and many people who died were resurrected when On the third day, Jesus was resurrected, and Pilate, as a witness, possessed by great fear, reported to the sovereign Caesar about everything that had been done with Jesus Christ, Who became the object of faith, as God 44 ...

After such testimonies from the Roman ruler of Judea and from the admirers of Christ the Savior, the emperor Tiberius, according to legend, having believed in Christ the Savior himself, proposed to rank Jesus Christ among the gods of Rome, and even when the Roman Senate 45 rejected his proposal, Tiberius the royal by decree threatened to punish anyone who would dare to offend believers in Jesus Christ.

Thus, by her zealous and fearless sermon about Christ the Savior, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, with other pious Christians, prompted the pagan ruler of Judea to testify in writing to the world event of the Resurrection of Christ before the pagan world, and prompted the pagan emperor himself, the then universal Roman Empire, to recognize the greatness and Divine power of Christ Savior, all this facilitating the spread of Christianity. The Christians of that time, having learned about the meaning and power of the impression made by the offering of St. Mary Magdalene to Emperor Tiberius, a red egg with the words: "Christ is Risen!" - they began to imitate her in this and, with the recollection of the Resurrection of Christ, they began to give red eggs and say:

Christ is Risen!.. Truly Risen!..

So, little by little, this custom spread everywhere, became universal among Christians all over the world. And the egg at the same time serves as a symbol, or a visible sign, of the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead and our rebirth into the life to come, of which we have a pledge in Christ's Resurrection. Just as a chick is born from an egg and begins to live a full life, after being freed from the shell, and the most extensive circle of life opens up to him, so we, at the second coming of Christ to earth, throwing off everything perishable on earth with the earthly body, will be resurrected by the power of Christ's Resurrection and we will be reborn for another, higher, eternal, immortal life. The red color of the Easter egg reminds us that the redemption of mankind and our future new life were acquired by the outpouring of the pure blood of Christ the Savior on the cross. Thus, the red egg serves as a reminder to us of one of the most important tenets of our Divine faith.

The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene continued for a long time to preach the gospel of the Risen Christ in Italy and in the city of Rome, 47 both during the first visit to Rome by the Apostle Paul and after his departure from there two years later. In addition to tradition, evidence of this can be seen in the characteristic greetings to St. Mary by the Apostle Paul in his message from the Greek trading city of Corinth to the Christians who were then in Rome (Rom. 28:6). St. John Chrysostom teaches about this that, giving each believer the praise corresponding to him, the Apostle Paul greets the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary, as having already worked hard and devoted herself to apostolic labors. Her labors, mentioned here by the Apostle, were the exploits of the Apostles and Evangelists, and therefore equal to the apostles; she served, - adds St. Chrysostom, - and money, and fearlessly exposed to dangers and made difficult journeys, sharing with the Apostles all sorts of labors of preaching.

From Rome, according to the tradition of the Church, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene arrived in the city of Ephesus 48, then especially famous in Asia Minor. In Ephesus, according to the tradition and testimony of many holy fathers and church writers, the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene helped the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian in evangelistic labors, remaining there until her peaceful death, and she was buried in Ephesus.

The imperishable glorified relics of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene in the ninth century under Emperor Leo VI, the philosopher 49 , were solemnly transferred from Ephesus to Constantinople 50 and were placed in the temple of the monastery of St. Lazarus. Such is the tradition of the Orthodox Eastern Christian Church.

But it cannot be decisively asserted that the relics of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene remained entirely in Constantinople forever. They might have been transferred by the believers themselves to another place, for fear of the victorious attacks of the Turks; they could easily have been taken westward to Rome, from Constantinople, when it was seized at the beginning of the 13th century by the Italians with the crusaders of the fourth campaign 51, since then the relics of the saints of many southeastern regions were carried away and divided into different cities of the western countries of Europe.

The Roman Catholic Church claims that the relics of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, with the exception of her head 52, rest in Rome, near the Lateran Palace of the Popes in the main church of St. relics, consecrated in honor of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene. And besides, with the open relics of this holy Roman Catholic Church, since 1280, the relics, divided into parts, in France in Provage near the city of Marseille 56, where over those relics in a secluded valley, at the foot of steep mountains, erect a majestic temple in the name of St. Mary Magdalen 57.

The Orthodox Greek-Russian Eastern Christian Church and the Western Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Anglican Church, celebrate the memory of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles, July 22; in some local churches this is the most reserved holiday.

Here is everything that is known so far about the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Myrrh-bearing Mary Magdalene, undoubtedly true, betrayed to us by the holy Gospel, and probable according to the traditions of the local Christian churches, for which, as well as for all, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene was, by direct command from Christ the Savior, the first of the people to preach the saving Resurrection of Christ.

The Resurrection of Christ is for all of us, - teaches the great hierarch of the Church 58, - a source of reflection, contemplation, surprise, joy, gratitude, hope, always full, always new, no matter how long, no matter how often we draw from it; it is eternal news!.. And is it necessary to found faith, arouse hope, inflame love, enlighten wisdom, open up prayer, send down grace, destroy disaster, death, evil, give vitality to life, make bliss be not a dream, but essentiality, glory is not a ghost, but an eternal lightning of eternal light, illuminating everything and striking no one?.. - There is enough power for all this in one miraculous word: "Christ is Risen!"

Let us, Christians, respond to such a miraculous gospel of the great messenger of our Savior Himself, the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene with ecstasy: verily, verily, Christ is Risen!

Troparion, tone 1:

For the sake of Christ, who was born from the Virgin, the honest Magdalene Mary followed you, keeping that justification and laws: the same day, your all-holy memory is celebrating, sins are accepted by your prayers.

Kontakion, tone 3:

The glorious one is coming at the Cross of Spasov with many others, and the Mother of the Lord is compassionate, and sheds tears, offering this in praise saying: that this is a strange miracle; contain the whole creation to suffer if you please: glory to your power.

On the same day, the transfer of the relics of the Holy Hieromartyr Phocas by the year 404 to Constantinople from Pontus. (His memory is celebrated on September 22).

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1 In the Orthodox Christian Church, "equal-to-the-apostles" are called co-workers and co-workers of the Apostles of Christ, and also those righteous Christians who, like the Apostles, especially zealously preached and affirmed the Christian faith. For such special merits, they are compared in veneration with the Apostles. The word Apostle means "messenger" who is given to carry out a certain commission. Having chosen twelve of His disciples, Jesus Christ called them "apostles" (Lk.6:13) to send them to preach (Mk.3:14) and to heal every sickness and every infirmity (Mt.10:1-42) .

2 Saints in the Christian Church were originally called all Christians, all believers in Christ, as, for example, in the epistles of the Apostle Paul. And with the personal mention of the righteous, the ancient Christians avoided putting the name "saint", because this word was often used in pagan inscriptions, which Christians did not want to imitate. And in the ancient calendars, the word "holy" in the name of a righteous man honored by the Church began to be used only from the third and following centuries. And in the Gospels, holiness is presented as a property of a Christian in all its manifestations: "let the Your name"... "Holy Father" ... "Sanctify them in Thy truth" ...

3 The myrrh-bearing Mary Magdalene is named because the Evangelists call her the first of the pious women who came to the tomb of Christ to anoint His body with fragrant compositions according to the pious custom of the Jews of that time. These compounds were from the resinous substances of nard myrrh, or myrrh, frankincense, aloes and other fragrant plants, also mixed with pure olive oil. By anointing or shedding the body of the deceased with such fragrant compositions, they expressed love and honor to the face of the deceased.

4 The name Mary from the Hebrew Mariam means: "high, exalted, steadfast, excellent, exalted"; and this Mary is called Magdalene, after her origin from the city of Magdala, just as the pious member of the Sanhedrin Joseph is called Arimathea, after his origin from the Palestine city of Arimathea. And the title of Magdalene is added to the name of this Mary to distinguish her from other pious wives, just like she, who served Jesus Christ (Luke 8:3) and had the same name of Mary, such as Mary, the sister of Lazarus, and Mary, the wife of Cleopas.

5 Magdala, from the Hebrew word magdelaya, meaning tower, was a city on the western shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, not far from the cities of Capernaum and Tiberias. Magdala was famous for dyeing and fine woolen fabrics; in addition, there was an extensive trade in turtledoves and doves for the victims of purifications; Tradition ascribes to Magdala three hundred pigeon shops and near a whole valley of "pigeons". The wealth of Magdala was at that time so significant that it is mentioned that the tax paid from the city was so great that it was sent to Jerusalem by a whole wagon. The moral depravity of the inhabitants was also great. Of the many cities and villages that dotted the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret, all have disappeared, except for one Magdala, which is now called Mejdel and is a group of dirty shacks built from coastal stones, and on the flat roofs of the houses the upper floors were made in the form of huts made of reeds and brushwood. . But the remains of the ancient watchtower still exist and the location is beautiful to this day: the beauties of nature are also solemn and awaken the holy raptures of miracles and the preaching of Christ on the wondrous Lake of Gennesaret or Galilee.

6 The Galilee region in the north of Palestine, or Galilee (from the Hebrew word "galil", meaning "region", "district") during the life of Mary Magdalene was the third region of Palestine, and Galilee itself was divided into northern, upper, "pagan", and to the south, lower, Galilee occupies a prominent place in world history, as the birthplace and place of the preaching of Christ the Savior. Galilee had about 120 versts from east to west and 40 versts from north to south. In the north it was in contact with Syria and the mountains of Lebanon, in the west with Phenicia, in the south with Samaria, and in the east it was bordered by the Jordan River. There were more than 200 cities and large villages in Galilee and a population of up to four million, defended not only from Jews, but also from a mixture of Israelites with Syrians, Phoenicians, Arabs and other foreigners, of whom many adopted the Jewish faith. According to the wonderful climate, fertility and wealth, Galilee was the best region of Palestine. A mild, invigorating climate, the most diverse marvelous beauty of nature, an inexhaustible abundance of soil fertility - everything was in Galilee. And geographical position and the mass of communications also favored Galilee: it was crossed by several Roman trade routes from east to west to Damascus, to the Phoenician shores, to the Mediterranean, to Egypt and Assyria; other paths cut it from south to north. Industry and life were in full swing in Galilee ... Quite a lot of pages of the Gospel reflect the nature and life of Galilee. According to the birthplace of Christ the Savior, the city of Nazareth, childhood, youth, and mainly His preaching there, Galilee was the cradle of the Christian faith. And parables, miracles, events of the everyday earthly life of Jesus Christ, all these are images that reproduce the riches and beauties of nature and the mores of life in Galilee. Heaven, earth, sea, grain fields, gardens, flowers, vineyards, grass meadows, fish and birds - everything served there for the Savior as the basis and image of the wondrous teachings of His Divine preaching ... And in our time, Galilee represents only the ruins of cities and villages and complete desolation …

7 The Sea of ​​Galilee, the Lake of Gennesaret, and the Sea of ​​Tiberias are the names of the same vast lake in the Galilee of Palestine. In the books of Numbers (ch. 34, v. 11) and Joshua (ch. 12, v. 3) it is called Kinneareth because of its oval shape. It is called Tiberias from the name located on its shore, the city of Tiberias; and Gennesaret on behalf of the coastal city of Genissare, or Gennesaret, according to the beauty of the nature surrounding it. This lake stretched for 30 versts in length and 8 versts in width. At the north end it enters the Jordan River, and at the south end it flows out. The rich industrial center of Palestine was concentrated around this lake; cities and villages with a very large population stretched along the shores of the lake in an almost continuous line. The water in the lake is clear, pleasant to the taste and cool; up to four thousand vessels of various kinds cut through it: the warships of the Romans, the crude boats of the fishermen of Bethsaida, and the gilded boats of Herod. The usually quiet and calm Lake of Gennesaret sometimes became stormy and dangerous from the winds from the mountains. It was famous for its extraordinary abundance of all kinds of fish, so that everyone was allowed to catch it, and fish was a favorite food there until three hundred different varieties of fish were served at a dinner for one great rabbi. Fish was eaten fresh, salted, dried; delicacies were prepared from it; even the rabbis were engaged in advice on its preparation and what to eat, at what time, instructing to wash fish better with beer and wine. A lot of people were engaged in catching and selling fish; one of the gates of Jerusalem was called "fish" because a lot of fish from Galilee was delivered there and even the members of the Sanhedrin were engaged in fish trade, loading whole ships with fish. Fishing was not only very profitable, but also honorable... At the western shore of the lake was the "land of Gennesaret" (Mt.14:34; Mk.6:53), which was the first and main place where Christ the Savior preached. The very word Gennesaret means: "gardens of abundance", and nowhere was there such beauty of nature and an abundance of all kinds of plants and fruits of various climates, as in the "land of Gennesaret". The fruits on the trees lasted ten months. The Jewish historian of that time Joseph Flavius, enthusiastically describing the beauties of the Lake of Gennesaret, the marvelous climate, palm trees, vineyards, figs, oranges, almond trees, pomegranates, says that the seasons seem to be arguing for the honor of owning this paradise... And the Jewish The Talmud teaches that the expected Messiah will one day appear from this lake of Tiberias or Gennesaret…

8 Capernaum in Hebrew means "the village of Naum", a city located on the western shore of the Lake of Gennesaret. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament because it is of relatively recent origin and grew into a city from a fishing village, thanks to the rise of commercial and industrial activity. It had a very beautiful location. The Herods had a palace in it; The Romans had a military post and customs. The Gospels speak of Capernaum as the main residence of Christ the Savior after He left Nazareth, so that Capernaum began to be called "His city" (Matthew 9:7). In Capernaum and its environs, Christ performed many miracles, uttered many parables and teachings, but, despite all His admonitions, the inhabitants remained deaf to the new gospel, which did not correspond to their commercial and industrial bustle, did not believe, and Christ pronounced a terrible judgment on Capernaum: "And you, Capernaum, ascended to heaven, you will be cast down to hell" (Matt. 11:23). Now there are no traces of Capernaum left ...

9 Tiberias - a city on the same western shore of Lake Gennesaret, somewhat south of Capernaum; It was built in the year 17 after the birth of Christ by the ruler of Galilee, Herod Antipas, and named after the then Roman emperor Tiberius. Herod made Tiberias his capital, built a magnificent palace, a temple, a synagogue, an amphitheater, and surrounded the city with a wall. Near the city there was a healing warm mountain stream. Since ancient tombs were dug up during the construction of Tiberias, the Jews considered the city unclean, they were afraid to settle in it, and at first it had a completely pagan character. In the vicinity of Tiberias, Christ the Savior preached and fed five thousand listeners with five loaves (John, ch. 6). After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70, the Jews established 13 synagogues and a high school in Tiberias, and the Sanhedrin of Tiberias became the highest religious authority. The Greek Empress Helen erected a temple with 12 thrones in Tiberias; and from the middle of the 5th to the half of the 6th century there was a bishopric here, later restored during the first crusade. On the ruins of Tiberias, the town of Tabariye was built, and in 1837 it was destroyed by an earthquake, and now only poor huts are visible, but the Jews have the same deep respect for this area as they do for Jerusalem.

10 Appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ after His Resurrection. Lives. holy book eight (April), p. 514.

11 Even the Jerusalem Talmud testifies that the Galileans cared more about fame, and the people of Judah about money. Among the Galileans, the widow was left in the house of the deceased husband, while among the Jews, the heirs removed her. The responsiveness of the Galileans to someone else's need extended to the point that, for example, fellow villagers carefully supplied an impoverished old man every day with the living creatures that he used to use during his well-being. But the Galileans did not start scientific schools, and therefore the proud scribes and Pharisees of the Jews called the Galileans ignorant and fools; for the obscure, indistinct distinction and pronunciation by the Galileans of some Jewish guttural letters, the Jewish rabbis did not allow them to read prayers aloud on behalf of the congregation and ridiculed them ...

12 The word "demon" is a translation of the Greek word demon, the devil. In the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, "demon" usually means an evil spirit or devil. Although the demons believe and tremble, and recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God, they are the servants of Satan. Among the miracles of Christ the Savior, the healings of those possessed by demons were especially striking. People who have fallen under the power of demons are called possessed, suffering from unclean spirits (Matt. 4:24; Luke 6:18). The healing of the possessed, in relation to demons, is called exile (Mt. 8:16), and in relation to the suffering themselves, it is called healing. The influence of demons on people possessed by them is always revealed through their influence on the body; At the same time, the soul of a person loses its power over the body, some alien force intervenes between the body and the soul, which adversely affects the bodily organs of the soul. The demon first affects the nervous system of the body and acts through it, producing the same symptoms that are produced by other influences that disturb the correct life of the body. Demonic power operates not through the spiritual and moral nature, but through the physical and mental nature. The devil entered into Judas Iscariot the traitor, that is, the feat of betrayal, but Judas was not possessed by a demon. Possession is revealed in clairvoyance, when those possessed by demons recognized Christ as the Son of God (Lk.4:34), also in madness, in epilepsy, dumbness, crouching, in blindness (Mk.5:3; Lk.8:27; Mt.9: 32 and others). This gave reason to rationalists to assert that possession is only a bodily disease. But the fact that possession is accompanied by diseases does not in the least explain the terrible unnatural, non-physical features of possession, in which a physically weak person, for example, breaks iron chains or prophesies (Mark 5:4). The resemblance of certain signs of possession to natural diseases of the body is only external, determined only by the general laws of life, violations of which can always be detected in the same way, no matter what different reasons they may occur. And such a teaching of the Gospel about demon possession does not in the least contradict the data of physiology and psychology. Since the human soul can be influenced even by material forces through the medium of the body, it can fall all the more strongly under the influence of spiritual forces, if the soul is unable to resist such influences; this is clearly confirmed by the numerous facts of hypnotism. And just as in hypnotism one person with a stronger will, through suggestion, can influence another to the extent of completely possessing him and depriving him of the ability to self-determine, so, by virtue of the same psychological law, an evil spirit, a demon, can completely take possession of the soul of a weak person who due to his personal sinfulness, or for some other reason, he becomes a victim of a terrible demonic influence. And it is remarkable that there were especially many demon-possessed just before the coming of Christ the Savior. This was the peculiarity of that age, and it is partly due to the fact that by that time that mental unrest and weakness, which were the result of spiritual dissatisfaction and impatiently anxious expectation of a change in this unbearably difficult state, had reached the highest degree of tension. Such a state of mind embraced at that time both the Jewish and the pagan population of the east. And the dark forces of evil spirits hurried to spread the nets of their evil destructive dominion, foreseeing, anticipating their imminent defeat by Christ the Savior.

13 Some interpreters of St. The Scriptures and compilers of lives and even the Fathers of the Western Church, who unite Mary Magdalene with the famous sinner who repented in the house of Simon the Pharisee and received the forgiveness of sins, believe that the Evangelists Luke and Mark did not accurately express the position of Mary Magdalene, saying that Christ cast out demons from Mary Magdalene; such writers believe that Mary Magdalene was not possessed by demons, but was only a sinner, and that the words of the Evangelists "seven demons" mean many sins and vices (thus is believed, for example, by Blessed Jerome, Augustine, Gregory the Great, etc.). But it is possible to interpret the direct words of the two evangelists in this way only on the basis of Jewish demonology, according to which the rabbis attribute all the most ordinary human passions and all illnesses to evil spirits. And the Jewish Talmud ascribes a lot of shameless vices, talks about the extraordinary beauty and braiding of Mary Magdalene’s hair and about her wealth ... But the Orthodox Eastern Church does not confuse the sinner of an unknown name, forgiven in the house of Simon the Pharisee, with Mary Magdalene and does not reinterpret the direct words of the two Evangelists about exile namely demons from Mary Magdalene. And St. Dimitri, Met. Rostovsky, thoroughly writes: “If Magdalene were a harlot, then after Christ and His disciples she is obviously a sinner, walking for a long time, what would the haters of Christ say to the Jews, looking for some kind of guilt on Him, but they will blaspheme and condemn Him. those who saw the Lord with the Samaritan, sitting, wondering, as if talking with a wife, how much more hostile would not be silent, if they would clearly see a sinner following and serving Him all the days "...

14 Nazareth (the word means offspring, according to others, guardian, protector) was a town in Galilee, located southwest of Capernaum and Mount Tabor. It was located on a mountain that rose 600 feet above sea level. The view from the top of the mountain, in beauty and variety, was beautiful on the valleys, mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. The population was poor, small and not respected by the Jews (John 1:46). Nazareth gained worldwide fame as the place of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin about the birth of the Son of God, the Savior of the world. The childhood, youth and life of Jesus Christ passed in Nazareth until His appearance in open ministry for the salvation of people (Luke 2:39-51). From this He was called the Nazarene, the Nazarene (John 19:19), and even for a long time Christians in the East were called Nazarenes.

15 Barley bread was the bread of the poor and was given to Roman soldiers only as a punishment, for example, for the loss of banners. The Jews considered barley the food of horses and donkeys.

16 The word Syria (high) in the Hebrew text is signified by the word Aram, which refers to Syria and Mesopotamia together. All the space from the Euphrates to mediterranean sea and from the Taurus Mountains to Arabia was Syria. The valleys of Syria are very fruitful, abounding in wheat, grapes, tobacco, olives, oranges, dates, and so on. The climate is very healthy and pleasant. No country was as famous in antiquity as Syria, even for its civilization.

17 Crucifixion on the cross, that is, execution on the cross, from ancient times and among the Romans served as a slave, the most shameful, most cruel execution, by which only traitors, murderers and the greatest villains were put to death. The Jews recognized this punishment as "cursed" (Deut. 21:22-23; 1 Cor. 1:23). According to Roman custom, the crime of the crucified was written briefly on a tablet attached to the top of the cross. Death on the cross contained everything that is the most terrible and most painful in torture and in death without deprivation of consciousness and feelings: the unnatural hanging of the body on nails made every slightest movement painful, inflamed and constantly more and more torn wounds near the nails were corroded by gangrene; the arteries, especially in the head and abdomen, swelled and filled with blood, producing a terrible heat and unbearable thirst. The sufferings of the crucified were so great and terrible, sometimes lasting for several days, that among the Romans they usually hastened the approach of death by blows and piercing with a spear. The Jews, by virtue of the law of Moses (Deut. ch. 21), were allowed to end the suffering of those crucified before sunset and it was customary to give the crucified to drink wine mixed with myrrh (Mark 15:23; or with gall (Matt. 27:34) which befuddled consciousness in order to somewhat alleviate suffering, but Jesus Christ did not accept, did not drink such a drink that alleviates suffering. Wealthy Jerusalem women delivered such an intoxicating drink at their own expense, not paying attention to the personalities of the crucified. He destroyed the outrageous execution by crucifixion on the cross in Roman Empire, only Emperor Constantine the Great, and in the Roman Republic even children were crucified ...

18 This darkness was not ordinary solar eclipse, according to the known natural laws of the motion of the sun and moon. It was a supernatural phenomenon, which, together with the subsequent special signs in nature, testified to the exceptionally great significance of the event of the Redemption. The unusualness and authenticity of this darkness was attested by three pagan writers of that time: the Roman historian and astronomer Phlegont, Julius Africanus, the historian Phallus, and the fourth pagan historian, still unnamed by the historian Eusebius. In their notes, the hours of this darkness also coincide with the apostolic instructions that stars were visible in the sky. St. John Chrysostom, Theophylact and Euthymius believe that this darkness was produced by the massive thickening of clouds between the earth and the sun by the action of supernatural power, as a sign of God's wrath on the wickedness of people. The daily day was considered from six o'clock in the evening to 6 o'clock in the evening of another day. Actually, the light of day was considered from six o'clock in the morning. From 6 o'clock in the morning to 9 the first part of the day was considered, which was called the third hour of the day; from 9 to 12 o'clock was the second part of the day, which was called the sixth hour; from noon to 3 o'clock was the third part of the day, called the ninth hour; from 3 to 6 pm was considered the fourth part, which was called the twelfth hour of the day. The night was also divided into four watches, each of three hours.

19 Joseph from the city of Arimathea or Ramathaim, a rich man, strong character, impeccable life, was an honorary member of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, due to timidity of temper he had not previously dared to declare himself an admirer of Christ, but did not take part in the verdict against Jesus. In indignation for His crucifixion, I wanted to express my devotion to the honorable burial of Christ, as a martyr and victim of evil intentions.

20 Nicodemus was a famous Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin. He visited Christ the Savior in Jerusalem at night with the aim of learning the teaching of Christ in more detail and more freely, and the Lord revealed to him the main foundations of the teaching of the Gospel (John, ch. 3). He was very rich, honored Christ with a burial, bringing 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes to anoint the Body of Christ. Subsequently, he received baptism from the Apostles.

21 The tomb was then called the tombs of the Jews, or caves, dug, carved into the rocky hills, inside which they arranged a bed for the buried. Near the tomb he prepared for himself. The Jews were in awe of their tombs, but Joseph without hesitation gave it to the Innocent Sufferer, in a hurry to finish the burial, as Easter Saturday was approaching.

22 Myrrh, myrrh is a fragrant resin from the balsam tree, which grows in Arabia, Egypt and Abyssinia. This resin partly flowed by itself from the tree, partly obtained by cutting the bark of the tree. She is oily, thickening received a white-yellow color; having hardened, it became reddish; the taste of this resin is sharply bitter, the smell is especially aromatic to the point that it produces whirling in the head and loss of consciousness. Myrrh or this resin, according to its ability to resist any decay, was used by the Jews and Egyptians for anointing and embalming the bodies of the dead (John 19:39). In the Old Testament, myrrh for holy anointing was made from myrrh, oil (Ex. 30:23-25). This world, by the command of God, were anointed, the Tabernacle of the Covenant, then Aaron and his sons for the sacred service of God, and then the kings and prophets were anointed with the world. Anointing with chrism is an external, visible sign of the sanctification of an object and the communication to the anointed person of the gifts and powers of the Spirit of God. And in the Orthodox Christian Church, from the time of the Apostles, there has been the sacrament of chrismation, through which the believer, when anointed with sanctified chrism, on his head, perseus, eyes, ears, lips, hands and feet, in the name of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given, which restore and strengthen in spiritual life. Anointed with holy myrrh Christian temples and kings during their coronation for their great royal service ... - In addition to myrrh, the Jews also used aromatic powders during the burial of the dead, which they showered on the veils and the very bed on which the body relied. Such powdered fragrances, apart from chrism, were prepared for the tomb of Christ by the myrrh-bearers.

23 In the description of the siege of Jerusalem in 70 by Titus Flavius ​​Vespasian, who was proclaimed Roman emperor at the same time, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was mentioned, arranged according to the type of ordinary single cave Jewish tombs. This also confirms from the side that the Tomb, where Christ was buried, was carved in natural rock, inside a low hill in the form of two chambers or parts: the entrance and the actual burial. The entrance to the cave was arranged, as usual, to the east and moved, closed with a large stone. The burial place in the second part of the cave was carved in the form of a bed, or a counter to the wall, or a couch, on the right side of the entrance. The height of the tomb was slightly higher than human height, and the height of the entrance was about a third of a person's height. The distance of Joseph's tomb from Golgotha ​​was about 17 fathoms (or 120 feet) ... About half of the second century, the Roman emperor Adrian, having decided to Hellenize the Jews, ordered to fill up all the uneven terrain and the hills of Jerusalem, and then pagan temples for Jupiter and Venus were erected on the site of Christian shrines . But in 333, by order of Emperor Constantine the Great, these temples were demolished, the mounds were brought down, and then the cave with the Holy Sepulcher was opened intact. A magnificent rich temple surrounded this Christian shrine, but the appearance of the cave of the Holy Sepulcher was changed: in order to make it more convenient to place it in the temple, the tomb itself was separated from the rock of the entrance (vestibule) part, so that only the funerary part of the cave was preserved ... Then, from the seventh century, the Persians, Jews, Arabs and Turks, defeating the Greeks, used all means to wipe out the burial bed of the God-Man from the face of the earth, and although most of the walls and the top of the cave were destroyed, the bed itself and the lower part of the walls of the cave have indestructibly stood up to the present day, like authentic and undoubted monuments, consecrated by the presence of Christ the Savior in them. And until the end of the days of the many-sinful earth, this consecrated stone bed will attract believers to itself, give them consolation, reassurance to let go with a reconciled soul those who fall to it ...

24 The word "angel" means: messenger, messenger and is used in Holy Scripture in many different meanings. But in its own narrow sense, the word "angels" in the Bible means personal, spiritual beings, the most perfect of man and created by God, who proclaim to people the will of God and fulfill His commands on earth. Angels were created by God before the creation of the visible world, they are spiritual and, if not incorporeal, then they have some kind of especially light ethereal body. There are no human spatial conditions for angels, but they are not omnipresent. In perfection they are limited, and, despite the speed and depth of understanding, they are not omniscient; despite purity and holiness, angels can be tempted because they were created free, which is why they could freely stand in goodness, like bright angels, and fall like evil spirits like angels. Angels stand before the Face of God, constantly glorify Him, fulfill His will and enjoy bliss. There are an innumerable number of angels, and among them there are different virtues and degrees of perfection ... The whole history of mankind and the people of God takes place during the service of angels, and they appear in important points in the history of the old and new Testaments of God, serving Jesus Christ and His Church, for which angels take on a visible, accessible image for humans. Therefore, the Evangelists Mark and Luke, telling about the appearance of angels to the myrrh-bearing angels, call them "men" (Luke 24:4) and "young men" (Mark 16:5) according to the form, according to the image of the appearance in which the myrrh-bearing angels contemplated these angels. Angels are revered by the Orthodox Church as servants close to God and executors of His will.

25 On the same day, only a few times after the first appearance of Mary Magdalene, Christ the Savior did not forbid her, Mary Magdalene, with other myrrh-bearing women, to grasp at the feet of Him, Christ the Savior (Matt. 28:9; Lk. 24:10); also in the evening of the same day, Christ offered the disciples to touch Himself, showed them the wounds on His hands and feet (Luke 24:39). From these circumstances, it should be concluded, the Church Fathers and interpreters believe, that the prohibition of touching at the first appearance of Mary was based on the simplicity of her thoughts at that time, with which she rushed to the Lord. Like other disciples, she did not expect and did not understand the resurrection of Christ the Savior, and suddenly she sees Him alive before Her. What confusion of thoughts and excitement of the soul must have occurred in her at this appearance of the dead alive - and she rushes to Christ in order to be sure by touch that her eyes see, in order to hold Him, so ardently sought ... Christ, knowing what was happening then, in the thoughts and soul of Mary Magdalene, meekly eliminates the most sincere, but inappropriate in her thoughts, and satisfies her legitimate desire to make sure - whether He is before her - satisfies with the confirmation of the word and the commission to announce the resurrection to His Apostles ...

26 From such words of the Risen One, the disciples should have understood that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is not of the earthly world, that it should be distinguished from earthly kingdoms and that in the risen Christ they should see not an earthly King, but a heavenly one; but the Apostles, even after explaining this and warning the Lord, still did not leave their people's unrealizable hopes and asked Him even before the ascension: "Are you not at this time, Lord, restoring the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6).

27 The Holy Evangelists are silent about the appearance of the Resurrected Mother of God, but the Church contains in her tradition the belief that the Mother of God, before the myrrh-bearing women, was informed by an angel about the resurrection of Christ, and that, having risen from the tomb, Christ appeared before all people. The expression of this belief of the Church is found in the Paschal liturgical hymns.

28 In Jerusalem, the Apostle John the Theologian had his own home on Mount Zion. All the other Apostles were there. And after the ascension of the Savior there was the focus of the new Christian life. All Christians turned to this new Zion for the resolution of their perplexities...

29 Even after the appearance of the Risen Christ at Emmaus, witnessed by two more disciples, many “did not believe” them either, until that same evening in the very house of the Apostle John, where the disciples had gathered, and despite the closed doors, Christ appeared and reproached them for unbelief and hardness of heart, that they did not believe those who saw Him risen (Mark 16:13-14). This circumstance is of the greatest importance in the stories about the resurrection of the Lord, precisely as an irrefutable proof of the truth of His resurrection. It can be seen that the Apostles were not mistaken in this truth, could not be deceived, and that this is not their dream, not the fruit of enthusiasm or frustrated imagination. The apostles did not believe and they needed reproaches from the Risen One Himself and permission to touch themselves and eat with them in order to overcome this unbelief, and if later the Apostles believed and preached about the real resurrection of their Teacher and Lord, then this resurrection is an undoubted truth and no one can accuse students of being gullible...

30 Christ the Savior said: The kingdom of heaven, God's, is like a mustard seed that is sown, and although the smallest of all seeds, when it grows it becomes a tree, so that birds fly and hide in the shade of its branches ... (Mt. 13:31-32; Mk. 4:31; Luke 13:19). Here Christ spoke about a grain of mustard, not ordinary, not herbal, not our annual (sinapis), but about a special oriental perennial, growing abundantly in Palestine and called in botany - "phytolacca dodecandra", the seed of which is the smallest, and chemical elements the same as for annual mustard and are used for the same needs as ordinary herbal mustard; in North America woody perennial mustard phytolacca is called forest mustard ... Jews, when they wanted to designate any smallest thing, said that it was like a mustard seed in size. With the short parable mentioned above, the Lord showed the way of spreading the gospel sermon. Although His disciples and disciples were the most powerless, most humiliated of all, but as the hidden power in them was great, their preaching spread throughout the whole universe. And the Church of Christ, small in the beginning, unnoticeable to the world, has spread on earth in such a way that many nations, like birds in the branches of a mustard tree, take refuge under its canopy. The same thing happens with the kingdom of God in the soul of a person: the breath of the grace of God, barely noticeable at the beginning, with the diligence of a person, more and more embraces his soul, which then becomes a temple of God, a receptacle for various virtues ...

31 The word tradition means a story, a narration, a memory of an event, passed orally from ancestors to descendants; also teachings, instructions, rules of life, handed down from one generation to another - the voice of antiquity, the legends of antiquity. - The scribes and Pharisees say to Jesus: "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?" (Matthew 15:2). - "I praise you, brethren, stand firm and hold the traditions which you have been taught, either by our word or by our epistle," he teaches (Thess. 2:15). And tradition, St. Philaret of Moscow teaches, could be used on a par with Holy Scripture only if, like the direct disciples of the Apostles, we would have before our eyes direct apostolic true tradition ... But Christian traditions have already passed through many countries, peoples, languages, and through many centuries. The original traditions of the apostles were joined by the traditions of the fathers of various degrees of antiquity, and there turned out to be diversity to the point of contradiction. Therefore, in order to use tradition as a source, it is necessary to study the authenticity and dignity of traditions, in order to eliminate from them wrong changes and alien admixtures ... And the Orthodox Church recognizes tradition not as an independent, but as an auxiliary source of Christian teaching.

32 Some Church Fathers and scholars believe and teach that St. The evangelists in all the stories about the three wives mentioned above understand only one person who, in her youth, was probably given over to debauchery and, for her vicious lifestyle, was possessed by seven demons. Having heard about the miracles of Christ, she goes to Him in the house of Simon the Pharisee: for the liveliness of her contrition for her sins, she deserved and received forgiveness from the Savior, and as a result she was freed from the seven evil spirits that tormented her; then she could leave, with her relatives, Lazarus and Martha, Galilee and choose Bethany as her dwelling, where Jesus often honored their house with visits. Such an opinion was, for example, Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great and others. This has been the opinion of the Western Roman Catholic Church up to the present time. But most of the newest and Western scholarly writers already distinguish Mary Magdalene from Mary, the sister of Lazarus. They say that Magdalene did not leave the Savior in last years His life followed Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, when He came there for the last feast of the Jewish Passover, while Lazarus' sister, Mary, remained at that time with her brother and Martha in Bethany, because not one of the Evangelists mentions her name, listing wives who then followed Jesus, who came with him to Jerusalem. Indeed, these two pious wives appear in St. Scriptures worn perfectly various signs: one is always called Magdalene and is numbered among the women who followed Christ from Galilee; the other, on the contrary, in the name of a sister of Lazarus of Bethany. Such a constant difference between them in their distinctive nickname could not be without significance for St. Evangelists and necessarily leads to the idea that they should not be confused. Saint Irenaeus, the famous Origen, St. John Chrysostom and many other Church Fathers and scholars distinguish St. Mary Magdalene from St. Mary, sister of Lazarus, but recognize the penitent sinner mentioned by St. Luke at the end of the seventh chapter, in one person with St. Magdalena. But even this opinion is not positively proved by anything ... Saint Gregory the Great and some other interpreters of St. Scriptures that recognize St. Mary Magdalene, for one person with a penitent sinner in the house of the Pharisee Simon (in Nain), is understood by the seven demons expelled by Christ from Magdalene, various sins that she accustomed to herself with a bad life and which, after her repentance before the Savior, seemed to have left her. But this interpretation of the words of St. The Gospels are completely arbitrary and contradict the general meaning in which these expressions are used in the Gospels, where they everywhere directly and definitely mean the infusion of unclean spirits into a person, which, by the permission of God, invaded the bodies of the unfortunate not only as one, but even as a whole. legion. Many later Western interpreters of St. The Scriptures accept, in accordance with the Eastern Orthodox Church, the words of the Evangelists Luke and Mark about the expulsion of seven demons literally.

33 Italy (Acts 18 ch. and 27:28; Heb. ch. 13) is a well-known European country with the city of Rome as the capital of the state.

34 Tiberius Caesar - Roman emperor from 14 to 37 years. according to R. Chr.

35 In the ancient and even modern East, the appearance of subordinates to the ruler and, in general, the lower to the higher, without a gift, is recognized as an expression of impoliteness and even irreverence. So, for example, it is said that when Saul was elected, only "the worthless people despised him and offered no gifts to the mind ..." (1 Sam. 10:27).

36 Magus is a word of Persian origin, and wise people were called Magi, possessing high, extensive and even secret knowledge, especially astronomical and medical. They enjoyed great respect and were mostly ministers of religion, priests.

37 Jewish Bethlehem was a small town south of about 10 miles from Jerusalem. The word Bethlehem means "House of bread", the name given to this place by the unusual fertility of the surrounding soil. It was called in ancient times Bethlehem of Euphrates, and unlike Bethlehem in Galilee, it was called Jewish; after the birth of the king-prophet David in it, he was also called "the city of David" (Lk. 2:4).

38 The Sanhedrin of Jerusalem was the supreme court of the Jews, consisted of 72 members, mostly Pharisees and Sadducees, elected by voting and partly by lot. The Sanhedrin met at the Jerusalem temple, but on special occasions also in the house of the high priest, its chairman (Matthew 26:3; John 18:24). The decision of the Sanhedrin was obliged to obey unconditionally everyone. After the conquest of Judea by the Romans, the power of the Sanhedrin was limited and the execution of the death sentences pronounced by him required the consent of the Roman ruler. After the destruction of Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin was no longer a court, but only a school of the Jewish Law.

39 Pilate is named Pontius from the marshy Italian Pontic province, of which he was formerly ruler. From the age of 27 according to R. Chr. Pilate was the ruler of Judea, but he hated the freedom, customs and religion of the Jews; he did not hesitate to sell justice and betrayed the torment and death of the innocent without trial, which is why his ten-year reign was extremely hostile to the Jews and caused popular indignation; since he did not hesitate to put to death a whole crowd of Galileans in the very temple of Jerusalem, even during the sacrifice, so that their blood was mixed with their sacrifices (Luke 13: 1).

40 Gaul was the country of the Gauls or Franks, conquered by the Romans; This is modern France. The city of Vienna on the river Rhone, on the road to the city of Marseille, a district city of the Isère department of present-day France. According to legend, Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary were put into a boat by the Jews and launched into the sea to the will of the waves and wind. This boat washed ashore in southern Gaul, and those who arrived on it converted the inhabitants of the cities of Marseilles, Aix and others to the Christian faith.

41 According to one of the editions of the "Epistle of Pilate to Tiberius Caesar", which is part of the apocryphal, so-called Gospel of Nicodemus, with the addition that after cutting off the head of Pilate, who condemned Jesus Christ, the high priests, Anna was sewn up in cowhide and hanged, and Caiaphas was killed arrow to the heart...

42 Martha and Mary were two sisters who lived with their celibate brother Lazarus at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Bethany. This was a pious family with whom Christ the Savior was in friendship, going to rest in their house when visiting Jerusalem (Luke 10 ch.; John ch. 11 and 12; Matt. ch. 26; Mark. ch. 14). When Lazarus died, Christ the Savior resurrected him on the fourth day, demonstrating His full power over death, after which the members of the Sanhedrin decided to kill Lazarus as well. But according to legend, he lived for another 30 years and was a bishop on the island of Cyprus, where he died. His memory is celebrated by the Church on October 17.

43 Under the title "The Exaltation or Epistle of Pilate to Tiberius Caesar," this report is placed in the Slavic editions of the so-called "Gospel of Nicodemus" immediately after the first part of this Gospel and constitutes its conclusion; but besides that, in the form of a separate and more detailed article, it occurs even more often in manuscripts than the Gospel of Nicodemus; also this report is inserted completely into the book called "The Passion of Christ" or "The Passion of the Lord", distributed in many lists and with colorized images ...

44 Pilate's writing to Emperor Tiberius about the miracles, death and resurrection of Christ the Savior is undeniable and is evidenced by the most ancient writers, such as the former pagan Justin philosopher, early II century, Tertullian, Roman legal adviser, in the II century and the historian Eusebius Pamphilus; they had access to the archives of state affairs.

45 The Roman Senate was recognized as established by the founder of the Roman state, Romulus. The Senate was considered the bearer of the people's mind and the keeper of state traditions, was dependent on the king for the appointment of senators by the king. Any decision of the people in the republican and royal periods of Roman history needed an authoritative confirmation by the Senate, indicating that the decision was in line with the basic religious and political foundations of the state.

46 That this custom was adopted from the offering to Tiberius of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, confirmation of this is, in addition to the sameness of tradition in all Christian churches also, for example, that in an ancient handwritten Greek charter on parchment, stored in the library of the monastery of St. Anastasia near Thessalonica, after prayers on the day of St. Easter, the following is written: “A prayer is also read for the blessing of eggs and cheese, and the abbot, kissing the brethren, distributes eggs to them and says:“ Christ is risen .. ”So we received from the holy fathers, who have preserved this custom from the very times of the apostles, for Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene was the first to show the believers an example of this joyful gift-giving...

47 Rome is the capital of the then great Roman Empire; a city located on the banks of the Tiber River. According to legend, it was founded by Romulus in 750 BC. At first he occupied only one hill, then seven and then 15 hills. The population had up to one and a half million, half of which were slaves. There were 420 pagan temples, the inhabitants were very superstitious and the most rude idolaters, and in the arts and wars they decisively ruled over the whole world. Roman Empire with up to a hundred million inhabitants.

48 Ephesus was the most famous city in Asia Minor on the Kanstra River (now Kuchuk-Menderets), served as the center of trade and was especially famous for the famous temple of Artemis-Diana, the pagan goddess, whose service was performed by eunuchs with special splendor and splendor.

49 Leo VI - Greek emperor (from 886 to 912), nicknamed the philosopher, or the wise, for his love of science and knowledge in astrology; was a student of Patriarch Photius.

50 Constantinople, ancient Byzantium according to the popular Russian and Slavic Tsaregrad, was founded under the name of Byzantium in 658 BC. on the European coast of the strait by the Greeks of the trading city of Megara of central Greece. Constantine the Great in 330 AD Chr. transferred the capital to Byzantium with its temples, palaces, works of art; he attracted a large population to the new capital and generally made it a strong center of civil and ecclesiastical life in the Greco-Roman world.

51 Crusades - military expeditions undertaken by the Christian peoples of Western Europe from the end of the 11th to the end of the 13th century to recapture the Holy Sepulcher and Palestine from the Mohammedans.

52 Under the name of the relics in St. The Church in the broadest sense means the body of every deceased Christian. So in the rite of burial of the dead it is said: "Having taken the relics of the deceased, he departs (with them) to the temple." But actually under St. relics means "the honest remains of the holy saints of God." However, here too the word "relics" has a different meaning. Relics are primarily called the "bones" of Sts. saints.

53 Ancient church named after St. John in the Lateran "san giovanni in Laterani" near the Lateran Palace of the Popes in Rome has existed since the time of Emperor Constantine the Great and is called "the mother and head of all the churches", of course the Roman ones.

54 Pope (from the Greek "father") - a title that until the end of the 5th century was used as an honorary title for bishops, then referred mainly to the Roman archbishop.

55 Honorius III Pope of Rome in the thirteenth century.

56 Marseille is a seaside city in the ancient, vast Provencal region of southwestern France. It is located at the eastern bay of the Gulf of Lion. In ancient times, Marseille was called Massilius and was a Greek republican colony conquered by the Romans. From here, Christianity spread throughout southern Gaul, now France.

57 Even Western Christians asserted that St. the relics of Mary Magdalene rest in Burgundy, in the abbey of Veuzelay, and worshiped them there, until they changed this opinion to those discovered in southern France, in Provence, the relics of a certain saint, given out by Provencal tradition and some church writers, merging Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus , and the Nainskaya sinner in the house of the Pharisee with St. Mary Magdalene, for St. relics of Mary Magdalene. But this and similar information of the Western Roman Catholic Church about the life and resting of the relics of St. Mary Magdalene and everything true and authentic in these traditions of the Western churches most likely refers to actually one of the other saints Mary mentioned in St. Gospels, about the activities of which the Eastern Church has no undoubted information following the Ascension of Christ.

58 Words and Speeches of Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, 1848, part 1, pp. 35, 36 and 44.

On the shores of Lake Gennesaret, between the cities of Capernaum and Tiberias, was located small town Magdala, the remains of which have survived to this day. Now only the small village of Mejdel stands in its place.

A woman was once born and raised in Magdala, whose name entered the gospel history forever. The Gospel tells us nothing about Mary's early years, but Tradition tells us that Mary of Magdala was young, beautiful and led a sinful life. The Gospel says that the Lord cast out seven demons from Mary. From the moment of her healing, Mary began new life. She became a faithful disciple of the Savior.

The Gospel tells that Mary Magdalene followed the Lord when He and the Apostles passed through the cities and villages of Judea and Galilee preaching the Kingdom of God. Together with the pious women - Joanna, the wife of Khuza (the steward of Herod), Susanna and others, she served Him from her estates (Lk. 8:1-3) and, undoubtedly, shared with the apostles the evangelistic labors, especially among women. Obviously, the Evangelist Luke, along with other women, is referring to her, saying that at the moment of Christ's procession to Golgotha, when, after the scourging, He carried the heavy Cross on Himself, exhausted under its weight, the women followed Him, weeping and sobbing, and He comforted them. The Gospel tells that Mary Magdalene was also on Golgotha ​​at the time of the crucifixion of the Lord. When all the disciples of the Savior fled, she fearlessly remained at the Cross together with the Mother of God and the Apostle John.

The Evangelists list among those who stood at the Cross also the mother of the Apostle James the Less, and Salome, and other women who followed the Lord from Galilee itself, but everyone calls Mary Magdalene the first, and the Apostle John, except for the Mother of God, mentions only her and Mary Cleopova. This indicates how much she stood out from among all the women who surrounded the Savior.

She was faithful to Him not only in the days of His glory, but also in the moment of His extreme humiliation and reproach. She, as the Evangelist Matthew narrates, was also present at the burial of the Lord. In front of her eyes, Joseph and Nicodemus carried His lifeless body into the tomb. In front of her eyes, they blocked the entrance to the cave where the Sun of life had set with a large stone...

Faithful to the law in which she was brought up, Mary, along with other women, remained all the next day at rest, for the day of that Sabbath was great, which coincided that year with the feast of Easter. But still, before the day of rest, the women managed to stock up on fragrances so that on the first day of the week they would come at dawn to the tomb of the Lord and Teacher and, according to the custom of the Jews, anoint His body with funeral aromas.

It must be assumed that, having agreed to go to the Sepulcher on the first day of the week early in the morning, the holy women, dispersing on Friday evening to their homes, did not have the opportunity to meet each other on the Sabbath day, and as soon as the light dawned next day, went to the tomb not together, but each from his own house.

The Evangelist Matthew writes that the women came to the tomb at dawn, or, as the Evangelist Mark puts it, very early, at sunrise; Evangelist John, as if supplementing them, says that Mary came to the tomb so early that it was still dark. Apparently, she was looking forward to the end of the night, but, not waiting for dawn, when darkness still reigned all around, she ran to where the body of the Lord lay.

So Mary came to the tomb alone. Seeing the stone rolled away from the cave, she hurried in fear to where the closest apostles of Christ, Peter and John, lived. Hearing the strange news that the Lord had been carried away from the tomb, both Apostles ran to the tomb and, seeing the linen and folded kerchief, were astonished. The apostles left and did not say anything to anyone, and Mary stood near the entrance to the gloomy cave and wept. Here, in this dark coffin, her Lord lay so recently lifeless. Wanting to make sure that the coffin was really empty, she went up to him - and here a strong light suddenly shone on her. She saw two angels in white robes, sitting one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus was laid. Hearing the question: "Woman, why are you crying?" - she answered in the same words that she had just said to the Apostles: "They carried away my Lord, and I do not know where they laid Him." Having said this, she turned around, and at that moment she saw the Risen Jesus standing near the tomb, but did not recognize Him.

He asked Maria: "Woman, why are you crying, Who are you looking for?" She, thinking that she saw the gardener, answered: "Sir, if you carried him out, tell me where you put him, and I will take him."

But in that moment, she recognized the voice of the Lord, a voice that had been familiar from the very day He healed her. She heard this voice in those days, in those years, when, together with other pious women, she followed the Lord in all the cities and villages where His sermon was heard. A joyful cry broke out of her chest: "Rabbouni!", which means Teacher.

Respect and love, tenderness and deep reverence, a sense of gratitude and recognition of His superiority as a great Teacher - all merged into this one exclamation. She could say no more and threw herself at her Master's feet to wash them with tears of joy. But the Lord said to her: "Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brothers and tell them: "I ascend to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God."

She came to her senses and again ran to the Apostles to fulfill the will of the One who sent her to preach. Again she ran into the house, where the Apostles were still in confusion, and proclaimed to them the joyful news: "I saw the Lord!" It was the first sermon on the Resurrection in the world.

The apostles were supposed to preach the gospel to the world, but she preached the gospel to the apostles themselves...

Holy Scripture does not tell us about the life of Mary Magdalene after the resurrection of Christ, but there is no doubt that if in the terrible moments of the crucifixion of Christ she was at the foot of His Cross with His Most Pure Mother and John, then there is no doubt that she was with them and all the nearest time after the resurrection and ascension of the Lord. So St. Luke writes in the book of the Acts of the Apostles that all the Apostles were with one accord in prayer and supplication with some women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Holy Tradition tells that when the Apostles departed from Jerusalem to preach to all parts of the world, Mary Magdalene went with them to preach. The brave woman, whose heart was full of memories of the Resurrected, left her native land and went to preach in pagan Rome. And everywhere she proclaimed to people about Christ and His teachings, and when many did not believe that Christ had risen, she repeated to them the same thing that she had said to the Apostles on the bright morning of the Resurrection: "I saw the Lord." With this sermon, she traveled all over Italy.

Tradition says that in Italy, Mary Magdalene appeared to the emperor Tiberius (14-37) and preached to him about the Risen Christ. According to legend, she brought him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a symbol of new life with the words: "Christ is Risen!" Then she told the emperor that in his province of Judea, Jesus the Galilean, a saintly man who worked miracles, strong before God and all people, was innocently condemned, executed on the slander of the Jewish high priests, and the sentence was approved by the procurator appointed by Tiberius Pontius Pilate.

Mary repeated the words of the Apostles that those who believe in Christ are redeemed from a vain life not with corruptible silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as an immaculate and pure Lamb.

Thanks to Mary Magdalene, the custom of giving each other Easter eggs on the day of the Holy Resurrection of Christ has spread among Christians around the world. In one ancient handwritten Greek charter, written on parchment, stored in the library of the monastery of St. Anastasia near Thessaloniki (Thessalonica), there is a prayer read on the day of Holy Easter for the consecration of eggs and cheese, which indicates that the abbot, distributing the consecrated eggs, says to the brethren : "So we received from the holy fathers, who preserved this custom from the very times of the apostles, for the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene was the first to show the believers an example of this joyful sacrifice."

Mary Magdalene continued her evangelism in Italy and in the city of Rome itself. Obviously, it is precisely this that the apostle Paul has in mind in his Epistle to the Romans (16:6), where, together with other ascetics of the gospel preaching, he mentions Mary (Mariam), who, as he puts it, "has worked hard for us." Obviously, they wholeheartedly served the Church both with their means and with their labors, being exposed to dangers, and shared with the Apostles the labors of preaching.

According to Church tradition, she stayed in Rome until the arrival of the Apostle Paul there and two more years after his departure from Rome after the first trial of him. From Rome, Saint Mary Magdalene, already in her old age, moved to Ephesus, where the holy Apostle John worked tirelessly, who wrote the 20th chapter of his Gospel from her words. There the holy earthly life ended and was buried.

Her holy relics were transferred in the 9th century to the capital of the Byzantine Empire - Constantinople and laid in the temple of the monastery in the name of St. Lazarus. During the era of the Crusades, they were transferred to Italy and placed in Rome under the altar of the Lateran Cathedral. Part of the relics of Mary Magdalene is located in France near Marseilles, where above them at the foot steep mountain erected in honor of her magnificent temple.

The Orthodox Church sacredly honors the memory of St. Mary Magdalene - a woman called by the Lord Himself from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

Once mired in sin, she, having received healing, sincerely and irrevocably began a new, clean life and never wavered along the way. Mary loved the Lord, who called her to a new life; she was faithful to Him not only when He, having cast out seven demons from her, surrounded by enthusiastic people, passed through the cities and villages of Palestine, earning Himself the glory of a miracle worker, but also when all the disciples left Him out of fear and He, humiliated and crucified hung in agony on the Cross. That is why the Lord, knowing her fidelity, appeared to her first, having risen from the tomb, and it was she who was worthy to be the very first preacher of His Resurrection.

Memory Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene takes place in the Orthodox Church on August 4 according to the new style, as well as on the week of the myrrh-bearing women, on the second Sunday after Easter.

Life of Saint Mary Magdalene
Very little reliable information about the life of St. Mary Magdalene has come down to us. It is known that she was from the city of Magdala, located near Capernaum. Her name is mentioned several times in the Gospel. She suffered from demonic possession and received healing from Christ, after which she began to follow Him, serving Him and helping with her money (Luke 8:3). In the Catholic Church, it is generally accepted that the evangelical sinner who washed the feet of Christ with the world was Mary Magdalene, however, in Orthodoxy this point of view is not shared, and in the akathist and canon dedicated to this saint, there is no mention of the prodigal life that she led before meeting with Christ. It is known from the Gospel that Mary Magdalene, along with other women, was present at the death of the Savior on the Cross, as well as at His burial (Matt. 27:56, Matt. 27:61). Evangelist John also tells that Mary Magdalene was the first to whom the resurrected Christ appeared. According to this story, she came to the tomb of the Lord early in the morning, without waiting for other myrrh-bearing women, and there she was honored with a meeting with the Savior, whom she did not recognize at first and mistook for a gardener (John 20, 11:18). Having received a command from Him to convey everything she saw and heard to the disciples of Christ, Mary Magdalene went to them with joyful news, thus beginning her preaching ministry.
Tradition tells us that after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene begins, together with other apostles, the preaching of Christianity, first in Jerusalem, and then in Rome, where she also visits the emperor Tiberius. According to legend, she had to bring him some gift, and, having nothing, brought the emperor an egg. After Tiberius listened to her sermon on the life and teachings of Christ, as well as on His resurrection, he said that it was as impossible as a red hen's egg. After that, the egg brought by Mary Magdalene turned red, and since then there has been a tradition to give red eggs to each other.
It is also known from tradition that Mary Magdalene preached in Ephesus together with the Apostle John the Theologian, where she died peacefully.

Veneration of Saint Mary Magdalene
The relics of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene were for a long time at the place of her burial in Ephesus and only in the 9th century were transferred to Constantinople, but during the Crusades they were captured by the Crusaders and transferred to Rome. Currently, particles of the relics of Mary Magdalene are in Jerusalem, Mount Athos, as well as in France.
In the Orthodox Church, St. Mary Magdalene is venerated equal to the apostles and is remembered on the day of the myrrh-bearing women, who became the first witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ. In the Catholic Church there is a special cult of Mary Magdalene, in the image of which it is customary to see a sinner who, through repentance and ascetic deeds, achieved holiness. According to Western traditions, Mary Magdalene spent the last years of her life in the desert, where she received the forgiveness of her great sins through tears and repentance and was buried by a certain hermit monk. Thus, in the Catholic tradition, the image of Mary Magdalene merges with the image of Mary of Egypt. In Western countries, there are many churches consecrated in honor of this saint, although in our country she is highly revered and is the patron saint of many Christian women. The example of her sacrificial love and self-denial in the service of the Lord deserves respect and is worthy of emulation.

Troparion, tone 1:
You followed Christ, born of the Virgin for our sake, / honest Magdalene Mary, / You keep that justification and laws.

Kontakion, tone 3:
Coming, glorious, at the Cross of the Savior with many others, / and the Mother of the Lord is compassionate, and tears are sharpened, / this is in praise of you, saying: / what is this strange miracle?

Greatness:
We magnify you, / myrrh-bearing holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, / and we honor your illnesses and labors, / you worked in the image / in the gospel of Christ.

Prayer:
O holy myrrh-bearing and all-praise Equal-to-the-Apostles of Christ disciple Mary Magdalene! To you, as if more faithful and powerful for us to God as an intercessor, sinful and unworthy, now we diligently resort and pray in contrition of our hearts. You have experienced the terrible machinations of demons in your life, but by the grace of Christ you have clearly freed those, and deliver us from the network of demons with your prayers, but take us out in our whole life with our deeds, words, thoughts and secret thoughts of our hearts, we will faithfully serve the one Holy Sovereign God, like Esmas were promised to Tom. You loved the sweetest Lord Jesus more than all the blessings of the earth, and through all your life you followed him well, by His divine teachings and grace you not only feed your soul, but also bring many people from pagan darkness to Christ to the wonderful light; then we lead, we ask you: ask us from Christ God the grace that enlightens and sanctifies, yes, we overshadow it, we succeed in faith and piety, in the ascetic labors of love and self-sacrifice, and let us lazily strive to serve our neighbors in their spiritual and bodily needs, remembering the example of your philanthropy. You, holy Mary, cheerfully by the grace of God, have flowed your life on earth and peacefully departed thou to the abode of heaven, pray to Christ the Savior, that with your prayers he will make us unhesitatingly make our journey in this vale of weeping and in peace and repentance, end our life, and so having lived in holiness on earth, we will be honored with eternal blessed life in Heaven, and there with you and all the saints together we will praise the Indivisible Trinity, we will sing the One Divinity, the Father and the Son and the All-Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

Mary Magdalene remains the most enigmatic and mysterious figure.

Throughout church history, it has been the subject of many different theories and myths. Of the Scriptures regarding this woman, about whom all four Gospels say that she was present both at the crucifixion of Christ and at the empty tomb on the morning of the Resurrection, we know nothing more about her.

The Bible nowhere specifically says that Mary Magdalene was a harlot at any time in her life. Luke does not mention her name in his account of the "repentant harlot" wiping Christ's feet with her hair.

Neither is she named as a woman who was caught in an act of adultery and saved by Jesus from being stoned. She is mentioned only once, as being possessed by a demon.

However, the assumption that her sinful past represented primarily sexual sin is an assumption that is not usually made for previously sinning men.

"Magdalene" is traditionally deciphered as "a native of the city of Migdal-El." The literal meaning of this toponym is “tower”, and since the tower is a feudal, knightly symbol, in the Middle Ages this noble connotation of meaning was transferred to the person of Mary and she was given aristocratic features.

In the ancient Greek language of medieval writers, "Magdalene" can be interpreted as "constantly accused" (Latin manens rea), etc.

The Orthodox tradition does not identify Mary Magdalene with the evangelical sinner, but honors her exclusively Equal-to-the-Apostles holy myrrh-bearer from which demons were simply cast out.

In the Catholic tradition, Magdalene takes on the features of a penitent harlot. Its main attribute is a vessel with incense.

According to this tradition, Magdalene earned fornication, after seeing Christ, she left the craft and began to follow him, then in Bethany she washed his feet with the world and wiped them with her hair, was present at Golgotha, etc., and then became a hermit in the territory of modern France.

One of the main reasons for identifying Magdalene with a harlot is the recognition by the Western church that she was the nameless woman who washed the feet of Jesus with the world.

And behold, a woman of that city, who was a sinner, having learned that He was reclining in the house of a Pharisee, brought a vessel of ointment, and, standing behind at His feet and weeping, she began to pour her tears over His feet and wipe them with the hair of her head, and kissed His feet, and smeared with peace. (Luke 7:37-38).

The many positive contributions made by women to the development of the early church have been minimized throughout history.

But women, especially Mary Magdalene, were the main witnesses to the resurrection of Christ. The prominent role of female disciples was an early and deeply ingrained part of a tradition that quickly became a hindrance to the male leaders of emerging church institutions.

Jesus taught the disciples by example how to treat everyone with equal dignity and respect, including the sick, the poor, the oppressed, outcasts, and women. Jesus certainly did not object to men and women sharing the power and position of leaders. Some of his followers, however, were not brave enough to be so radical. Thus, in the case of the Gospel of John, the beloved female disciple had to become a man.

Today, most bibliologists, both Catholic and Protestant, argue that St. John Zebedee did not write the gospel that bears his name. They attribute authorship to an anonymous "beloved student".

There is no doubt that the "beloved disciple" in the canonical version of the Fourth Gospel is the anonymous male disciple. Yet, as we have seen, the scriptures repeatedly refer to Mary Magdalene as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

The relationship between Peter and the "beloved disciple" in the Fourth Gospel is very similar to the relationship between Peter and Mary Magdalene.

This suggests that the editor of the Fourth Gospel replaced Mary Magdalene with an anonymous male disciple.

If Mary Magdalene was the leader and hero of the Fourth Gospel community, then she was probably recognized as an Apostle within that community. Indeed, given the fact that she was the first to announce the Resurrection of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church honored her with the title "apostola apostolorum", which means "apostle over the apostles."

Why Mary Magdalene is known as the world's most promiscuous woman when the Bible nowhere says she was ever a prostitute

The evidence supporting the view that Mary Magdalene is the author of the Fourth Gospel is much stronger than that which established John Zebedee as its author for nearly two thousand years.

The church has no problem with mainstream lore, which says that a man whose name we don't even know wrote one of the most sacred Christian documents.

Imagine - even a nameless person is preferable to a woman. Despite gnostic documents and structural inconsistencies, the church, as a system that has developed by now, will probably never recognize Mary Magdalene the author of the New Testament.

The legend of Magdalene has many parallels or even possible direct borrowings from the life of St. Mary of Egypt, her namesake and late contemporary, who, unlike Magdalene, is directly evidenced that she was a harlot.

The researchers note that the borrowing probably took place in the 9th century and the attributes merged with the plot of both saints. That is, the harlot Mary of Egypt is another woman whose image was combined with Magdalene and contributed to the perception of her as a sinner.

Mary was born in Egypt in the middle of the 5th century and left her parents at the age of twelve, going to Alexandria, where she became a harlot.
Once Mary, seeing a group of pilgrims heading to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, she joined them, but not with pious thoughts, but "so that there would be more with whom to indulge in debauchery."

In Jerusalem, Mary tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but some kind of force held her back. Realizing her fall, she began to pray in front of the icon of the Mother of God, which was in the porch of the temple. After that, she was able to enter the temple and bow to the Life-Giving Cross. Coming out, Mary again turned with a prayer of thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary and heard a voice that said to her - “If you cross the Jordan, you will find blissful peace.”

Having listened to this command, Mary took communion and, having crossed the Jordan, settled in the desert, where she spent 47 years in complete solitude, fasting and prayers of repentance.

After these many years of temptations, passions left her, the food taken from Jerusalem ended, and her clothes decayed from decay, but, as her life tells, “since that time… the power of God has transformed my sinful soul and my humble body in everything.”

They also mention the influence of the legend of the harlot of St. Taisia ​​of Egypt, a famous courtesan, converted by abbot Paphnutius.

According to the life, Taisia ​​was the daughter of a harlot who taught the girl, who was distinguished by her beauty, her craft.

Taisia ​​became a highly paid courtesan who ruined men and played with them. Hearing about this, the Monk Paphnutius the Great came to her. After a conversation with him, Taisia ​​burned all the treasures she had earned in the city square. Then she went after Paphnutius to a convent, where she closed herself in a cell for three years, eating food only once a day.

Three years later, Paphnutius went to Anthony the Great to find out if God had forgiven Taisia ​​or not. Anthony ordered his disciples to pray in order to receive an answer, and one of them, Paul the Simple, had a vision in heaven of a bed covered with robes of inimitable beauty and guarded by three divas with bright and beautiful faces. Paul enthusiastically said, "That's right, it's ready for my father Anthony." Then a voice announced to him: “No, this is not for Anthony, but for the harlot Taisia.”

So Paphnutius learned the will of God about Taisia.

Paphnutius returned to the monastery and decided to take Taisia ​​out of her cell, which she resisted. But he still said that the Lord forgave her and brought her outside. 15 days later, Taisiya fell ill and died three days later.

Researchers analyze the development of the cult of Magdalene, arguing that the thoughts of churchmen about women in the Middle Ages began with the opposition of Eve and the Virgin Mary.

The first personified ordinary women, the second was an unattainable ideal. And in the XII century, the foremother Eve turned into an object of even more fierce criticism (up to the definition of “daughter of the devil”).

Matryal from "Mary Magdalene: Author of the Fourth Gospel?" by Ramon K.Jusino, M.A.
published in the journal "Knowledge of Reality" in 1998.

Thus, Mary Magdalene, or rather, her cult, arose "from the yawning abyss between two diametrically opposed symbols
Magdalene begins a new life. But who needed this new Mary Magdalene? Women for whom the road to heaven was thorny and almost endless. The sinner woman pointed the way to possible salvation. She gave a small but real hope associated with confession, repentance and penance; hope that opened the middle path between eternal life and eternal damnation.

Thus, for the next five hundred years, church culture was dominated by three female images: the woman-tempter, the woman-forgiven sinner, and the woman-Queen of Heaven. Magdalene occupied the psychological niche necessary for ordinary parishioners who did not have the courage to compare themselves with the Mother of God and desires with the temptress; and found the closest analogy to their earthly life in the repentant Magdalene.
In the minds of the inhabitants medieval Europe the image of the penitent harlot Mary Magdalene has gained extreme popularity and brilliance and has been entrenched to this day.
In the 20th century, the Catholic Church, in an effort to correct possible errors of interpretation, softened the wording - after the reform of 1969, Magdalene no longer appears as a "repentant" in the Novus Ordo calendar.
But despite this, the traditional perception of her as a repentant harlot by the mass consciousness, which has developed over the centuries due to the influence a large number works of art remains unchanged.

Icon of the Cathedral of Saints named after the family of Tsar Alexander III: Alexander Nevsky, Mary Magdalene, Nicholas the Wonderworker, George the Victorious, Princess Olga, Prince Mikhail of Chernigov, Saint Xenia. 1888. On the lower field of the icon there is an inscription: “In memory of the miraculous salvation of the Sovereign Emperor and all of His Most August family from the danger that threatened them during the train crash on October 17, 1888 on the Kursk-Kharkov-Azov railway between the Taranovka and Borki stations.” Comes from the church of the village of Znamenka, Irbit district. Now it is located in the Holy Trinity Church in Irbit.

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Life Mary Magdalene, shrouded in many myths and legends, until now
causes fierce controversy among historians of religion and theologians. Who is she, this mysterious woman, who did she belong to Christ, why was her image deliberately distorted, and to whom it was beneficial to attribute the past of a harlot to her. This review answers these controversial questions.

In the Orthodox and Catholic denominations, the interpretation of the image of Mary Magdalene is fundamentally different: in Orthodoxy, she is honored as a holy myrrh-bearing woman cured of seven demons by Jesus, and in the tradition of the Catholic Church, she is identified with the image of the penitent harlot Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus. Although it is known from the Bible that Holy Scripture nowhere does it explicitly say that Magdalene was a harlot at any time in her life.

Mary Magdalene - the gospel harlot

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It is the Roman Catholic Church, either by accident or intentionally in the person of Pope Gregory the Great, who came up with a nickname offensive to Magdalene - “harlot” and identified her with the evangelical sinner.

Mary Magdalene - Equal-to-the-Apostles Holy Myrrh-bearer

However, the Orthodox saint Dmitry of Rostov spoke out against considering Mary a corrupt woman, who argued his opinion as follows: "If Magdalene had a tarnished reputation, Christ's opponents would not fail to take advantage of this. But for all their hatred of the Savior, the Pharisees never convicted Him of having a former harlot among the apostles."

The Orthodox Church was inclined to see in Mary one of the women healed by Christ, possessed by demons. This liberation became the meaning of her life, and in gratitude the woman decided to devote her whole life to the Lord. And according to the Orthodox tradition, in contrast to Catholicism, Mary is considered a symbol of the personification of a Christian woman and is revered as the Equal-to-the-Apostles holy myrrh-bearer.

Mary Magdalene - the best disciple of Christ and the author of the Fourth Gospel

Among the disciples of the Savior, Mary occupied a special place. She was revered for such a sincere and ardent devotion to Christ. And it is no coincidence that the Lord honored Mary to become the first witness who saw him resurrected.

Not only that, most Bible scholars today claim that the Fourth Gospel was written by an unknown follower of Jesus, referred to in the text as the Beloved Disciple. And there is an assumption that this was Mary Magdalene, who was one of the first founding apostles and leaders of the early Christian church.

But over time, her image became a banal victim of the struggle for church power. By the 4th-5th centuries, even imagining a woman leader had already become heresy, and they decided to overthrow Mary Magdalene. "This topic has become part of the constant intra-church struggle between supporters of the authority of the Church and defenders of personal revelation."

Mary Magdalene - wife of Jesus Christ and mother of his sons

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0mariya-0004.jpg" alt="(!LANG: "Penitent Mary Magdalene". State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Author: Titian Vecellio." title=""Penitent Mary Magdalene". State Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

The image of the gospel Magdalene was widely popularized by the masters of Italian painting, especially Titian, Correggio, Guido Reni. By her name"кающимися магдалинами" стали называть женщин, после развратной жизни одумавшихся и вернувшихся к нормальной жизни.!}

According to the traditions of Western art, Mary Magdalene has always been depicted as a penitent half-naked exile with her head uncovered and her hair loose. And all the creations of art on this subject are so similar that most of us are still confident in its great sinfulness.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0mariya-0005.jpg" alt="(!LANG:"Penitent Mary Magdalene". Paul Getty Museum (USA). Author: Titian Vecellio." title=""Penitent Mary Magdalene". Paul Getty Museum (USA).

In 1850, the first version of this canvas was purchased by Nicholas I for the Hermitage museum collection. Now it is in one of the Italian cabinets of the New Hermitage.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0mariya-0016.jpg" alt="Mary Magdalene holding the crown of thorns of Christ. Author: Carlo Dolci" title="Mary Magdalene holding the crown of thorns of Christ.