St Mary Magdalene

Mary of Magdala, a town on the Sea of Galilee, was healed by the Lord of seven demons and thereafter followed him, serving him from her means together with the other women disciples. She stood by the Cross when most of the apostles had fled, watched where the Lord was buried, and came to the tomb while it was still dark on the first day of the week. In St John's Gospel the risen Christ appears to her first of all, calling her by name in the garden, and sends her to the apostles with the news of the resurrection — for which the Church calls her Equal-to-the-Apostles and the apostle to the apostles. A cherished tradition tells that she later traveled to Rome and greeted the emperor Tiberius with a red egg and the words 'Christ is risen.' She is said to have ended her life in Ephesus with St John the Theologian, whence her relics were later translated to Constantinople.