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Article: Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor.
- Article from:
- Free Inquiry
- Article date:
- December 22, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Around 591, Pope Gregory the Great preached a homily that was highly popular and many times repeated. In it - quite without scriptural warrant - he made three women characters of the New Testament into one. For this fictional composite he retained the name of its least characteristic component, Mary Magdalen.
The newly created being, made a saint and prayed to by millions, lived a rich cultic and artistic life for over 1,400 years. Haskins describes that life in vivid detail, country by country, art form by art form - painting, sculpture, drama, music, poetry, fiction, even a ballet. The false Magdalen turned up in paintings by Titian and Caravaggio, sculptures by ...