Mary Magdalene
— – — · Magdala
Feast: 22 July
Mary Magdalene funded Jesus's ministry — Luke 8:3 says she and other women supported him 'out of their own means.' She was at the cross when most of the men had run, and she was the first witness to the resurrection. In all four Gospels. The early church called her 'apostle to the apostles' because Jesus sent her to tell the others he was risen. The medieval Western confusion that turned her into a reformed prostitute has no basis in the text — that conflation came from a sermon by Gregory the Great in 591. Read the Gospels straight and she's a wealthy patron, a faithful disciple, and the first preacher of the resurrection.
Primary source for this figure.
— Gospel of John 20:1-18
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