July 22nd (VIII - 4)

Icon of Equal to the Apostles Mary Magdalene and Nun Martyr Marcella

The Myrh-Bearer Equal-unto-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene (I). Transfer of the Relics of Priest-Martyr Phokas (403-404). Nun-Martyr Marcella (+ c. 300). Martyr Agapias. Saint Zinon. Monk Kornilii of Pereyaslavl' (1693). Blessed Kiprian of Suzdal', Fool-for-Christ's-Sake (+ 1622).

The Holy Myrh-Bearer Equal-unto-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene. On the banks of Lake Genesareth (Galilee), between the cities of Capharnum and Tiberias, was situated the small city of Magdala, the remains of which have survived to our day. Now at this place stands only the small village of Mejhdel.

In Magdala sometime formerly the woman was born and grew up, whose name has entered forever into the Gospel account. The Gospel tells us nothing about the youthful years of Mary, but tradition informs us, that Mary from Magdala was young and pretty, and led a sinful life. It says in the Gospels, that the Lord expelled seven devils from Mary. From the moment of healing Mary led a new life. She became a true disciple of the Saviour.

The Gospel relates that Mary followed after the Lord, when He went with the Apostles through the cities and villages of Judea and Galilee preaching about the Kingdom of God. Together with the pious women -- Joanna, wife of Khuza (steward of Herod), Susanna and others, she served Him from her own possessions (Lk 8, 1-3) and undoubtedly, shared with the Apostles the evangelic tasks, in common with the other women. The Evangelist Luke, evidently, has her in view together with the other women, stating that at the moment of the Procession of Christ onto Golgotha, when after the Scourging He took on Himself the heavy Cross, collapsing under its weight, the women followed after Him weeping and wailing, but He consoled them. The Gospel relates that Mary Magdalene was present on Golgotha at the moment of the Lord's Crucifixion. While all the disciples of the Saviour ran away, she remained fearlessly at the Cross together with the Mother of God and the Apostle John.

The evangelists enumerate among those standing at the Cross moreover also the mother of the Apostle James the Less, and Salome, and other women followers of the Lord from Galilee itself, but all mention first Mary Magdalene; but the Apostle John aside the Mother of God, names only her and Mary Cleopas. This indicates how much she stood out from amidst all the women gathered round the Lord.

She was faithful to Him not only in the days of His Glory, but also at the moment of His Extreme Humiliation and Insult. As the Evangelist Matthew relates, she was present at the Burial of the Lord. Before her eyes Joseph and Nikodemos went out to the tomb with His lifeless Body; before her eyes they covered over the entrance to the cave with a large stone, behind which went the Sun of Life...

Faithful to the Law in which she was trained, Mary together with the other women stayed all the following day at rest, because it was the great day of the Sabbath, coinciding in that year with the Feast of Passover. But all the rest of the peaceful day the women succeeded in storing up aromatics, to go at dawn Sunday to the Grave of the Lord and Teacher and according to the custom of the Jews to anoint His Body with funereal aromatics.

It is necessary to suggest that, having agreed to go on the first day of the week to the Tomb early in the morning, the holy women, having gone separately on Friday evening to their own homes, did not have the possibility to meet together with one another on Saturday, and how only at the break of dawn the following day did they go to the Sepulchre, not all together, but each from their own house.

The Evangelist Matthew writes, that the women came to the grave at dawn, or as the Evangelist Mark expresses, extremely early before the rising of the sun; the Evangelist John, as it were elaborating upon these, says that Mary came to the grave so early that it was still dark. Obviously, she waited impatiently for the end of night, but it was not daybreak when round about darkness still ruled -- she ran there where lay the Body of the Lord.

Now then, Mary went to the Tomb alone. Seeing the stone pushed away from the cave, she rushed away in fear thither where dwelt the close Apostles of Christ -- Peter and John. Hearing the strange message that the Lord was gone from the tomb, both Apostles ran to the tomb and, seeing the shroud and winding cloths, they were amazed. The Apostles went and told no one nothing, but Mary stood about the entrance to the gloomy tomb and wept. Here in this dark tomb still so recently lay her lifeless Lord. Wanting proof that the tomb really was empty, she went down to it -- and here a strange light suddenly prevailed upon her. She saw two angels in white garments, the one sitting at the head, the other at the foot, where the Body of Jesus had been placed. She heard the question: "Woman, why weepest thou?" -- she answered them with the words which she had said to the Apostles: "They have taken my Lord, and I do not know, where they have put Him". Having said this, she turned around, and at this moment saw the Risen Jesus standing about the grave, but she did not recognise Him.

He asked Mary: "Woman, why weepest thou? Whom dost thou seek?" She answered thinking that she was seeing the gardener: "Sir, if thou hast taken him, tell where thou hast put Him, and I will reclaim Him".

But at this moment she recognised the Lord's voice, a voice which was known from the day He healed her. This was the voice in those days and years, when together with the other pious women she followed the Lord through all the cities and places where His preaching was heard. She gave a joyful shout "Rabbi" that means Teacher.

Respect and love, fondness and deep veneration, a feeling of thankfulness and recognition at His Splendour as great Teacher -- all came together in this single outcry. She was able to say nothing more and she threw herself down at the feet of her Teacher, to wash them with tears of joy. But the Lord said to her: "Touch me not, for I am still not ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and tell them: "I ascend to My Father and your Father and to My God and to your God".

She came to herself and again ran to the Apostles, so as to do the will of Him sending her to preach. Again she ran into the house, where the Apostles stayed still in dismay, and announced to them the joyous message "I have seen the Lord!" This was the first preaching in the world about the Resurrection.

The Apostles were obliged to proclaim the Glad Tidings to the world, but she proclaimed it to the Apostles themselves...

Holy Scripture does not tell us about the life of Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection of Christ, but it is impossible to doubt, that if in the terrifying minutes of Christ's Crucifixion she was the foot of His Cross with His All-Pure Mother and John, undoubtedly, she stayed with them during all the happier time after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. Thus in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles Saint Luke writes: that all the Apostles with one mind stayed in prayer and supplication, with certain women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and His brethren.

Holy Tradition testifies, that when the Apostles departed from Jerusalem for preaching to all the ends of the earth, then together with them also went Mary Magdalene to preach. A daring woman, whose heart was full of reminiscence of the Resurrection, she went beyond her native borders and set off to preach in pagan Rome. And everywhere she proclaimed to people about Christ and His Teaching, and when many did not believe that Christ is risen, she repeated to them what she had said to the Apostles on the radiant morning of the Resurrection: "I have seen the Lord!" With this preaching she made the rounds of all Italy.

Tradition relates, that in Italy Mary Magdalene visited the Emperor Tiberias (14-37 AD) and proclaimed to him about Christ's Resurrection. According to tradition, she took him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a symbol of new life with the words: "Christ is Risen!" Then she told the emperor about this, that in his Province of Judea was the innocently condemned Jesus the Galilean, an holy man, a maker or miracles, powerful before God and all mankind, executed on the instigation of the Jewish High-Priests and the sentence affirmed by the procurator named by Tiberias, Pontius Pilate.

Mary repeated the words of the Apostles, that believing in the Redemption of Christ from the vanity of life is not as with perishable silver or gold, but rather the precious Blood of Christ is like a spotless and pure Lamb.

Thanks to Mary Magdalene the custom to give each other paschal eggs on the day of the Luminous Resurrection of Christ spread among Christians over all the world. On one ancient hand-written Greek ustav, written on parchment, kept in the monastery library of Saint Athanasias near Thessalonika (Solunea), is an established prayer read on the day of Holy Pascha for the blessing of eggs and cheese, in which it is indicated, that the Hegumen (Abbot) in passing out the blessed eggs says to the brethren: "Thus have we received from the holy fathers, who preserved this custom from the very time of the holy apostles, wherefore the holy equal-unto-the-apostles Mary Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering".

Mary Magdalene continued her preaching in Italy and in the city of Rome itself. Evidently, the Apostle Paul has precisely her in view in his Epistle to the Romans (16, 6), where together with other ascetics of evangelic preaching he mentions Mary (Mariam), who as he expresses "has done much for us". Evidently, she extensively served the Church in its means of subsistence and its difficulties, being exposed to dangers, and sharing with the Apostles the labours of preaching.

According to Church tradition, she remained in Rome until the arrival of the Apostle Paul, and for two more years still, following his departure from Rome after the first court judgment upon him. From Rome Saint Mary Magdalene, already bent with age, moved to Ephesus where unceasingly laboured the holy Apostle John, who with her wrote the first 20 Chapters of his Gospel. There the saint finished her earthly life and was buried.

Her holy relics were transferred in the IX Century to the capital of the Byzantine Empire -- Constantinople, and placed in the monastery Church of Saint Lazarus. In the era of the Crusader campaigns they were transferred to Italy and placed at Rome under the altar of the Lateran Cathedral. Part of the relics of Mary Magdalene are located in France near Marseilles, where over them at the foot of a steep mountain is erected in her honour a splendid church.

The Orthodox Church honours the holy memory of Saint Mary Magdalene -- the woman, called by the Lord Himself from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

Formerly immersed in sin and having received healing, she sincerely and irrevocably began a new life and never wavered from the path. Mary loved the Lord Who called her to a new life. She was faithful to Him not only then -- when He having expelled from her the seven demons and surrounded by enthusiastic crowds passed through the cities and villages of Palestine, winning for Himself the glory of a miracle-worker -- but also then when all the disciples in fear deserted Him and He, humiliated and crucified, hung in torment upon the Cross. This is why the Lord, knowing her faithfulness, appeared to her first, and esteemed her worthy to be first proclaiming His Resurrection.

The Transfer of the Relics of the Priest-Martyr Phokas from Sinope to Constantinople occurred on 22 July in either the year 403 or 404. The account about him is located under 22 September.

The Monk Kornilii of Pereyaslavl', in the world Konon, was the son of a Ryazan merchant. In his youthful years he left his parental home and lived for five years as a novice of the Starets/Elder Paul in the Lukyanovsk wilderness near Pereyaslavl'. Afterwards the young ascetic transferred to the Pereyaslavl' monastery of Saints Boris and Gleb on the Peskakh/Sands. Konon eagerly went to church and unquestioningly did everything that they commanded him. In the refectory the holy novice did not sit down with the brethren, but contented himself with what remained, accepting food thrice a week. After five years he took monastic orders with the name Kornilii. From that time no one saw the monk sleeping on a bed. Several of the brethren scoffed at Saint Kornilii as foolish, but the monk quietly endured the insults and intensified his monastic efforts. Having asked permission of the hegumen to live as an hermit, he secluded himself into his own separately constructed cell and constantly practised asceticism in fasting and prayer. One time the brethren found him barely alive: the cell of the monk was locked from within. Three months the Monk Kornilii lay ill: he could take only water and juice. The monk, having recovered and being persuaded by the hegumen, stayed to live with the brethren. Saint Kornilii was sexton in church, he served in the refectory, and toiled in the garden. Blessing the labours of the monk, in the monastery garden there grew excellent apples, which he lovingly distributed to those approaching. From strict fasting the body of the Monk Kornilii was withered up, but he did not cease to toil: with his hands he built a well for the brethren. For thirty years the Monk Kornilii lived in complete silence, being considered by the brethren as deaf and dumb. Before his death on 22 July 1693, the Monk Kornilii made confession to the monastery priest Father Varlaam, communed the Holy Mysteries and took on the schema. The monk was buried in the chapel. After 9 years during the construction of a new church his relics were opened uncorrupt. In the year 1705 Saint Dimitrii, Metropolitan of Rostov, (Comm. 28 October), witnessed to the relics of the Monk Kornilii, and they were situated in the new church in a secluded place. Then the sainted bishop composed a tropar and kondak to the monk.

Blessed Kiprian, fool-for-Christ's-sake, was gatekeeper of the church in Voskresensk, near the city of Kovrov in Vladimir Diocese. Saint Kiprian pursued his calling in silence on an island near the mouth of the rivers Kliazma and Uvod. At his death on 22 July 1622 the body of the saint of God was buried near the church in the village of Voskresensk. In the year 1751 diligent admirers of the saint added a chapel to the church near his grave, in honour of the "Pokrov/Protection" of the Mother of God. On the iconographic original of the saint it says: "22 July the death of the holy righteous Kiprian, fool-for-Christ's-sake in the village Voskresensk and wonderworker of Suzdal'; in appearance dark-featured, hair hung behind the ears, a beard like (Saint John) the Theologian forked, in clothes of green, legs barefooted, hands in prayer".

Copyright 1996 by translator Fr. S. Janos.