Mary, of Bethany, Saint

LC control no.	n 86141638
Descriptive conventions	rda
Personal name heading	Mary, of Bethany, Saint *Browse this term in* LC Authorities or the LC Catalog
Variant(s)	Mary, of Bethany Mary, of Bethany, St. Maria, di Betania, santa
Associated place	Bethany
Field of activity	Christianity
Profession or occupation	Christian saints
Special note	In some traditions, considered identical with Mary Magdalene, Saint, n 79032992
Found in	Rourke, A. Martha and Mary--friends of Jesus, 1986: CIP t.p. (Mary) Holweck, F. G. A biographical dictionary of the saints, 1924: pages 676-677 ("Mary of Bethany and Martha, sisters of Lazarus. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus ... and anointed His head and feet") page 678 (under Mary Magdalene: "According to Luke (VIII, 2) she [Mary Magdalene] does not appear to be identical with the nameless sinner (Lk. VII, 36ss). John (XIX, 25, XX, 1) seems to distinguish her from Mary of Bethany. Nothing definite can be drawn from the Evangelists and the older Fathers differ in their opinions. Ss. Augustine and Gregory the Great defend the identity of the three women. The same view is taken by the Latin tradition and the Western liturgy. The public thesis of the "Three Marias," maintained by Jacob Faber Stapulensis (1517-19), was considered an attack on ecclesiastical doctrine and censured by the Sorbonne, 9 Nov., 1521. The controversy remains undecided. The Oriental Churches keep the three Marias apart ... The legend of the coming of Mary Magdalen (Martha, etc.), to Gaul (Provence), her penance at Ste-Baume, and her tomb in Vezelay, is apocryphal") Fallon, J.E. "Mary Magdalene, St.," in New Catholic encyclopedia, 2nd ed., v. 9, 2003, pages 285-288, accessed online via Gale eBooks, February 1, 2021 ("Mary Magdalene, St. A holy woman who ministered to Jesus and His disciples during His public ministry ... She has been identified, without adequate justification, with the repentant woman of Lk 7.36-50 and with Mary of Bethany (Jn ch. 11) ... One can understand why a commentator could have inadvertently identified Luke's sinful woman of ch. 7 with Mary of Bethany, as, in fact, Tertullian did (De pudicitia, 11.2), for each were said to have anointed Jesus' feet and wiped them dry with her hair, while He was reclining at a banquet (Lk 7.38, 46; Jn 12.3). A more careful commentator such as Origen clearly distinguished between the two anointings and the different women involved (In Matthaeum, series 77). It is more difficult to understand how the repentant sinner, and therefore Mary of Bethany, following Tertullian, was identified with Mary Magdalene by Gregory the Great (Hom. 25.1.10), since St. Luke introduces Mary by name immediately after finishing the story of the penitent woman, whose name he either does not know or wishes not to reveal. Following Gregory, the Latin Church, generally but not universally, has continued to identify the three women and honors them and their different virtues under the title of St. Mary Magdalene on July 22. Following Origen, the Greek churches honor them, more appropriately, as separate and distinct saints") Oxford dictionary of saints, 2011, viewed online via Oxford Reference, February 1, 2021: (under Mary Magdalene (1st century): "This follower of Christ, 'out of whom he had cast seven devils,' who stood by his cross, went to anoint his body at the tomb, and to whom the risen Christ appeared on Easter Sunday morning, has often, but not universally in the West, been identified both with Mary the sister of Martha of Bethany and with the woman who was a sinner, who anointed Christ's feet in the house of Simon (Luke 7: 37). This identification, propounded by Gregory the Great, but now implicitly rejected by the Roman Missal, was accepted in the traditional cult of Mary Magdalene and by the artists who depicted her") Gnoli, Umberto. "Maria Maddalena, santa," in Enciclopedia italiana, 1934, accessed online via Treccani.it, February 1, 2020 (name given as "Maria di Betania"; Many Latin fathers identify Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus and Martha, and also with the anonymous sinner mentioned in Luke; the Greek fathers distinguish the three; the question was much debated, especially in the 16th century in France, because of her relics; according to a legend traceable to the 11th century, she had come with her presumed siblings Lazarus and Martha to Provence)