Jean Fouquet

Mary Magdalen at the feast of Simon from 'Les Heures d'Etienne Chevalier', c.1450, Tempera on vellum, 21 x 15 cm, Musée Condé, Chantilly; Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY

To Reach for Something Out of Love

Commentary by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona

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Mary Magdalene’s role in reinforcing the liturgical and spiritual significance of anointing derives in part from the character of Mary of Bethany at the Feast in the House of Simon (John 12:1–8). Later tradition conflated these Marys, giving the Magdalene a presence at this feast, as is evident in this fifteenth-century illumination. She also appears twice at the bottom of the page in two ‘framed’ scenes between flanking angels—once at Christ’s empty tomb, and once in a Noli me tangere, adjacent to an elegant assemblage of flowers suggestive of the aromatic nature of her anointing oils.

In the principal scene, as also in her kneeling position in the garden of the resurrection and her humble position on the ground by Christ’s tomb, she models the consecration of the body called for by the Church’s teachings on the sacrament of penance. Her prostration at the feast leaves little doubt that her act of anointing Jesus is to be read as an expression of repentance. It also echoes the anointings of kings and clerics, as well as of ordinary Christians during baptism and illness, and at death. The hair with which she dries Jesus’s feet has the red tint that is traditional in medieval depictions of her. 

As the leader of the Myrrophores, the ‘myrrh-bearing’ women, of the Easter narrative (Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1, 10), Christian tradition affirmed that Mary Magdalene took upon herself the task of anointing the body of Jesus the Messiah—the ‘Anointed One’—a second time in the Gospels: post-, as well as pre-mortem.

It is no surprise that this anointing act comes to define her in multiple later traditions. Modestus of Jerusalem (c.603–c.34), for example, promoted the role of Christian women, and especially of the Magdalene, in his ‘On Women Bearing Perfume’. And the sixth-century Arabic Infancy Gospel records how an old woman salvaged the navel string and prepuce of the infant Jesus, incorporating them into the composition of some aromatic oils of spikenard. She instructs her son, an apothecary, not to sell this special jar and its contents to anyone despite its inestimable value but to save it for Mary Magdalene to retrieve for the burial anointing of the adult Jesus. Thus, in this oil, birth and death are combined in a promise of rebirth, as Jesus’s earthly body finds itself restored to a state of original wholeness through the Magdalene’s ministrations.

See full exhibition for Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; John 12:1–8

Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; John 12:1–8

Revised Standard Version

Matthew 26

6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head, as he sat at table. 8But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9For this ointment might have been sold for a large sum, and given to the poor.” 10But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12In pouring this ointment on my body she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Mark 14

3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment thus wasted? 5For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor.” And they reproached her. 6But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. 9And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

John 12

12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazʹarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazʹarus was one of those at table with him. 3Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, 5“Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. 7Jesus said, “Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. 8The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

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