06 — Relics and the Western Legends
The two divergent destinies of Mary Magdalene’s relics: the Eastern account, in which her body, buried at Ephesus, was translated to Constantinople under the Emperor Leo VI the Wise in 886 and laid in the monastery of St. Lazarus; and the rival Western Provençal legend, which holds that she sailed to Gaul, evangelized Provence, and died at La Sainte-Baume, with her relics later venerated at Vézelay and Saint-Maximin. The Eastern translation is reported in the Byzantine sources; the Provençal legend is presented as a medieval Western development.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Equal-to-the-Apostles, Myrrh-bearer)
Relics are where the conflation question becomes geography. The East, which keeps Mary Magdalene distinct from Mary of Bethany, places her tomb at Ephesus and her relics, after 886, at Constantinople. The medieval West, which had merged the Marys, grew a legend that carried the composite Magdalene to southern France — first to Vézelay in Burgundy, then to Saint-Maximin and the grotto of La Sainte-Baume in Provence. This section reports the Eastern translation with its Byzantine sources and presents the Provençal legend, with its own sources, as the medieval growth that it is.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Relics at Constantinople | The Eastern tradition: burial at Ephesus, the translation of the relics to Constantinople under Leo VI (886), and the monastery of St. Lazarus; the later dispersal; the place of relics in Orthodox veneration. |
| The Provençal Legend | The Western legend: the boat to Gaul, the evangelization of Provence, La Sainte-Baume, the abbey of Vézelay and its claimed relics (and the 1058 papal confirmation), and the 1279 “discovery” at Saint-Maximin; the legend dated and sourced as a medieval development resting on the conflated figure. |
See Also
- Ephesus and the Theotokos — the Eastern later life and the Ephesus burial
- The Three Marys — the conflation that underlies the Provençal cult
- Reception and Legacy — the cult and its long afterlife
- Icons and Iconoclasm — relics and images in Orthodox veneration
References
- The Synaxarion of Constantinople (Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae), notice for July 22. Ed. H. Delehaye. Brussels, 1902.
- Jacobus de Voragine. The Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea), “Saint Mary Magdalene.” Trans. William Granger Ryan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
- Haskins, Susan. Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994. (On Vézelay, Saint-Maximin, and the Provençal cult.)