Maria Magdelena

“St. Mary Magdalene”, by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM.

Mary Magdalen

Style of Andrea Solario (Italian, ca. 1465-1524). 'Mary Magdalen,' ca. 1524. oil on panel. Walters Art Museum (37.509): Acquired by Henry Walters, 1922.

Traditional Orthodox Christian Byzantine hand-painted icon

The Appearance of Christ to St. Mary Magdalene

Elevation of St Mary Magdalene

From the High altar piece of St Magdalene church, Münnerstadt. St. Mary Magdalene acquired from the Sattler collection in 1901, the angels from the Streit collection in 1896, from the Wilczek collection in 1911 and from the Munich art trade in 1913

St. Mary Magdalene, around 1630/35 | Francesco Furini

Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie

An oil painting featuring Mary Magdalene in front of a pastoral landscape

c. 1598, Oil on copper, 32 x 43 cm, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Auguste Rodin’s Christ and Mary Magdalene: The Creation of a Marble Masterpiece

Cast from a marble version (today in the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid), this spectacular plaster is one of Rodin’s few explicitly religious works. Setting aside traditional depictions of the Crucifixion, he arranged Christ and Mary Magdalene in an erotically charged, quasi-mystical configuration. The two figures were taken from previous works and collaged together here, with the Magdalene embracing the crucified Christ, their entwined bodies substituting for the shape of the absent cross. Many artists in this period saw Christ’s suffering as an analogue for the tortured creative life; an alternate title for the work is The Genius and Pity.

Elisabetta Sirani, Martha Scolding Her Vain Sister Mary Magdalene, 17th century, oil on canvas, 47 1⁄4 x 67 1⁄2 in. (120.0 x 171.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum

The archetypal und archaic Anatolian goddess, Cybele, was revered not only throughout Anatolia but also on the neighboring (modern day) Greek islands.

Evidence of her cult can still be seen today in the cave formations and niches carved into hillsides. Her great gift to humanity is the mystery of rebirth.

Many of these caves symbolize the birth canal and end in womb-like forms. On the island of Samos, for example, one enters the caves as if stepping back into the darkness of the womb—not of a biological mother and father, but of the Great Goddess of eternity.

During our journey through Anatolia, we will visit many such places—caves and rock niches where Cybele was likely venerated long before the appearance and unveiling of the many goddesses who later emerged in human consciousness, in our hearts and in our souls.