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Mary Magdalene and Me
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As a relic of Mary Magdalene tours the U.S. for the first time, former call girl Tracy Quan on how the patron saint of prostitutes has been present throughout her life.
Could the relics of a medieval saint, currently on tour in the U.S., save the Catholic Church from irrelevance and apostasy in these worldly times? It's not as preposterous as you might think.
The relic in question is believed to be a small piece of Mary Magdalene's tibia or shin—the bone she knelt upon when the newly risen Christ appeared before her. Its permanent home, the Sainte-Baume Grotto, is a mountaintop cave in Provence where Mary Magdalene, according to local tradition, lived for 30 years. Until the French Revolution, this relic was part of a larger collection, watched over by the region's Dominican friars. Anti-church violence and local subterfuge reduced the collection considerably, but the relics have always been endangered.
I was shocked to learn that the Bishop of Frejus-Toulon had permitted one of the few remaining relics to leave his diocese, but it might be a sign that the church has staying power and the ability (like this particular saint) to keep evolving.
Click the Image Below to View Our Gallery of Mary Magdalene
At every stage of my life, not only when I worked as a call girl, Mary Magdalene, the patron saint of prostitutes, has been present. Raised without sexual guilt, I was never drawn to the idea of Mary Magdalene as a penitent sinner. It was her evangelizing that brought us closer. When I got involved with sex workers' rights, being a spokesperson for prostitutes was not easy or popular; it was often terrifying.
As a teenager, I envisioned an international movement of prostitutes fighting injustice and resisting police brutality, but I often feared the police, and other prostitutes thought my political idealism was bonkers. Mary Magdalene's second career as a persuasive preacher gave me courage. After sailing to Provence, she converted an entire region of nonbelievers. She also had become a powerful icon, inspiring a medieval cult within Christianity—and not by being a martyr or a virgin, but by being a leader. She was right to keep pushing me. The movement I was crazy enough to believe in is now so active and global that I can't always keep track of it. Then again, I sometimes think our movement has sold out and become too mainstream. Mary Magdalene reminds me that she has days when she feels this way about Christianity, but still she doesn’t regret it.
In 2006, I traveled to France to visit the Sainte-Baume Grotto. Near the foot of the mountain, I stopped at the Maison Marie-Madeleine, a library-cum-gift shop run by Philippe Devoucoux du Buysson, a Dominican priest who was the guardian of her cave for 15 years. “When I lived on the mountain, we spoke every day,” Brother Philippe told me. Had the patron saint of repenting harlots seduced him into some sort of cohabitation? “They chased me away,” he added. “Les Dominicains!” I wanted to tell him that I, too, had been viewed as a crank by my own colleagues, but I held back. “Are you married?” he asked. I exchanged a look with the man who had accompanied me to Provence. “Ah!” Brother Philippe beamed at us. “Concubinage.” I was glad to learn that Mary Magdalene's penitent side was not the main attraction here.
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Tracy Quan's latest novel is Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, set in Provence and praised in The Nation as a "deft account of occupational rigors and anxieties before the crash." Tracy's debut, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and the sequel, Diary of a Married Call Girl, are international bestsellers. A regular columnist for The Guardian, she has written for many publications including Cosmopolitan, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.
Enjoyed the article. At certain times, in certain cultures, prostitution has been a sacred institution. Brothels could be staffed by priestesses who were educated and respected.
On the other hand, some fundamentalist Christians will tell schoolgirls that if she has held hands with a boy before her wedding day, black spots will appear on her dress. Setting the kids up for a lifetime of equating sex, maybe even love itself, with shame.
Sorry Tracy but if you'd done your homework you'd have learned that the church has recanted on its claim that Mary Magdalene was a whore. She was from the Family of David, as was Christ. She was, it seems, the most beloved of all apostils and when the early church wanted only man power it had to do something with the two Marys, the mother of god and Magdalene. Sooo Mary the mother of god was raised from mere woman to queen of heaven; a goddess, and Magdalene a prostitute, lowliest of women in the eyes of most (not mine) at that time.
Pedophilia, necrophilia, can a visit from the Pope be far behind?
I adore Mary Magdalene, but I do argue with your continued assertion that MM was a prostitute. There is no, I mean NO, historical record that indicates that prior to the Bishop you mention. She was likely in a sexual relationship with Jesus and according to her Gospel, likely very influential in the early Christian movement. She certainly was sexual, assertive, creative, loving and atypical for her time. If the tradition of her being a prostitute helps you relate to her better, go ahead, but don't insist its accurate.
Ms. Quan, you are aware that Mary Magdeline was not a prostitute, aren't you? Throughout the centuries, Magdeline has been confused (perhaps purposefully) with the "woman at the well" who had lain with a man who was not her husband. Magdeline was instead a woman who had once been possessed.
While she is the patron saint of prostitutes, this is due to an administrative error, not due to any acts the Magdeline ever performed.
The worship of Saints ... is sin.
Catholicism does not advocate the worship of Saints. The practice is to spiritually ask them to pray along with you to god. It is exactly the same as praying to a deceased loved one or relative. The idea that Catholics worship saints is a fallacy.
This article seems rooted in the myth that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute when there is no evidence or suggestion in the Bible that she was. The notion that she was a prostitute was fabricated by the Catholic church hundreds of years later, which was easy when most of the followers couldn't read the Bible for themselves. The Church liked to constantly remind everyone that women were inherently sinners and inferior, thus justifying their subservient role in society, and back then they also needed to discredit the Gnostic texts they had removed from the final Bible they editorially decided on, some of which referenced Mary as an equal to the other disciples. So they intentionally allowed people to confuse one story in the Bible that discussed a prostitute cleaning Jesus' feet, but never suggests this woman is Mary Magdalene, with other segments that refer to Mary. Ironically to this day many "church goers" don't independently read and analyze the Bible for themselves, so they just accept this manipulation like sheep. And even when they do, comically, they are reading an English language "interpretation" of the Bible that is many-times removed from the source material but they still insist it is the literal word of God even though direct translations of the original texts often show substantially different language and meaning.
Thank for this reply. My reaction was ditto!
citivas--that is my understanding, too. Some biblical scholars believe that Mary Magdalene was actually a well-to-do patroness of Christ's who supported his ministry and was somewhat instrumental in promoting its acceptance. However, in those times it was not seemly for a woman to have money or influence--that was strictly a male purview and so her role was denigrated by the male-dominated church. Can't let those women get too uppity--a philosophy that still dominates many sects, including the Catholic Church.
As to Ms. Quan--Although she is apparently no longer a call girl she seems to see everything through the lens of sex and prostitution--to the point of obsession. While her writing is sometimes interesting it is more often ill-informed and remakably myopic--witness this "I-filled" and inaccurate post.
Some gnostic texts, properly translated and interpreted, may indicate that Mary of Magdala was actually running a Starbucks coffeshop overlooking the Sea of Galilee and that's where Jesus was headed when he was seen walking on water.
history is another of those uncomfortable truths huh rob? read up. start with princeton's elaine pagels' "the gnostic gospels."
basically, modern christianity is a sham because the "orthodox" killed off both the people that were the gnostics and their texts, which make up the original version of christianity, i.e. the version that got perverted.
Mary Magdalene prostitute story is an invention of the post-Nicene council "christians"... the post-Nicene christians conspired to remove all of the original teachings of Jesus and his contemporaries, the Gnostics.
The entire premise of this article is based on a FALSEHOOD.
Look it up. This is historical fact at this point. Read Elaine Pagels books for more, she is a Princeton professor.
Ignorance is bliss. To accept the reality of Mary Magdalene, or Jesus, and all the convolutions of Church doctrine is enough to keep many millions content.
That is the value of a church to a believer.
It is fiction. Don't sell it as anything else.
Christians do NOT worship saints. We worship GOD. We admire saints for the way they have lived their lives and we admire their special gifts and would possibly strive to be like them in their charity, kindness, humility or whatever. They are simply role models,
Mary Magdalene wasn't a prostitute. Why is she the patron saint of prostitutes?
Come on, really? This title is sacrilegious; have some taste.
Very well-written and interesting view of the Magdalene as a source of personal inspiration.
If the Catholic Church would allow priests to marry and women to become priests, most of its problems would disappear. The logic used to create the connection between moral rigor and sexual abstinence is sophistry. The ongoing prohibition against women presuming positions of greater spiritual authority is a chauvinistic anachronism that also has little to do with faith and more to do with an entrenched bad culture that ought to be abandoned.
What BS. This writer continues the Catholic lies that have changed the bible into an anti-woman document.
Agree with civitas, but also, no matter what Mary Magdalene was, she was certainly not a "medieval saint."
Wow. Tracy Quan didn't start the sex worker rights movement as she states here by any means, it became a public movement when she was in grade school led by Margo St James.
That lie alone with the sweeping statement about how she 'just can't follow the growth of the movement she started anymore' gives her a pretty serious credibility problem, among other issues.
Margo St. James founded COYOTE in 1973, with other organization attempts before that.
Veronicaxy misreads Tracy when she accuses her of claiming to have started the sex worker rights movement. The article says "When I got involved with sex worker rights" clearly referring to an ongoing movement. Tracy has frequently paid public homage to her predecessors in the movement, particularly Margo St. James.
Wow, unless TBD changed this after publishing (and they have in the past), I definitely stand corrected.
ST MARY MAGDALENE: The Patron Saint of Penitents, Converts, Repenters, Reformed Prostitutes, also Druggists, Pharmacists and Chemists
Thank you.
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