Where did Mary Magdalen go after the death of Jesus?

After the death of Christ, a legend states that she remained among the early Christians. After fourteen years, she was allegedly put into a boat by Jews, along with several other saints of the early Church, and set adrift without sails or oars. The boat landed in southern France, where she spent the remaining years of her life living in solitude, in a cave.

According to Eastern tradition, she accompanied St. John the Evangelist to Ephesus (near modern Selçuk, Tur.), where she died and was buried. French tradition spuriously claims that she evangelized Provence (now southeastern France) and spent her last 30 years in an Alpine cavern. Medieval legend relates that she was John’s wife.

WHO WAS SAINT MARY MAGDELENE

Saint Mary Magdalene, also called Mary of Magdala (flourished 1st century ad, Palestine; feast day July 22) one of Jesus’ most celebrated disciples, famous, according to Mark 16:9–10 and John 20:14–17, for being the first person to see the resurrected Christ.The precise dates of her birth and death are unknown, but we do know she was present with Christ during his public ministry, death and resurrection. She is mentioned at least a dozen times in the Gospels.

The unchallenged facts about her life establish that Jesus cleansed her of seven demons (Luke 8:2 and Mark 16:9), probably implying that he cured her of a physical disorder rather than the popular notion that he freed her of sins. She was one of the women who accompanied and aided Jesus in Galilee (Luke 8:1–2), and all four canonical Gospels attest that she witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion and burial; John 19:25–26 further notes that she stood by the cross, near the Virgin Mary and the unidentified Apostle whom Jesus loved. Having seen where Jesus was buried (Mark 15:47), she went with two other women on Easter morning to the tomb to anoint the corpse. Finding the tomb empty, Mary ran to the disciples. She returned with St. Peter, who, astonished, left her. Christ then appeared to Mary and, according to John 20:17, instructed her to tell the Apostles that he was ascending to God.

There is also debate over if Mary Magdalene is the same unnamed women, a sinner, who weeps and washes Jesus' feet with her hair in the Gospel of John. Scholars are skeptical this is the same person.

Despite the scholarly dispute over her background, what she did in her subsequent life, after meeting Jesus, is much more significant. She was certainly a sinner whom Jesus saved, giving us an example of how no person is beyond the saving grace of God.

The Gospels reveal her to be of practical character. Origen and other early textual interpreters usually viewed her as distinct from the mystical Mary of Bethany, who anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair (John 12:3–7), and from the penitent woman whose sins Jesus pardoned for anointing him in a like fashion (Luke 7:37–48).

The Eastern Church also distinguishes between the three, but after they were identified as one and the same by Pope St. Gregory I the Great, Mary Magdalene’s cult flourished in the West. This identification has since been challenged, and modern scholars feel that the three women are distinct.

Mary likely watched the crucifixion from a distance along with the other women who followed Christ during His ministry. Mary was present when Christ rose from the dead, visiting his tomb to anoint his body only to find the stone rolled away and Christ, very much alive, sitting at the place they laid Him. She was the first witness to His resurrection.