This interesting lady has not yet given up all her mysteries. Myriam Migdal Eder, the name she was given in the past, was born in the year 3 AD, according to professor Barbara Thiering. Her parents were the Jairuspriest Syrus and a princess from the royal Hosmonean house, Eucharia. When she was 14 years old, she became a priestess and member of an esoteric order. This is when she was given the name Myriam. She is best known for annointing Jesus with Nardus oil. She lived together with her sister Martha and her brother Lazarus or Simon of Cyrene. Both were perhaps not siblings but sister and brother in the esoteric order of Bethany, a place where Jesus would also often be seen. Bethany can be best discribed as a sort of Grandlodge of this mystical order. The order was connected to the Essene order and has Egyptian/Indian roots.

In the first century, there were many religious groups. Several go back to the oldest religions and rituals. Many were connected to Egypt, India and Mesopotamia. All were connected by the belief in a Mother Goddess. This Mother Goddess has had many names depending on the area of worship: Artemis, Astarte, Ishtar, Isis... Her symbols were, among others, the water source or well, the eternal water of life, and the cave, symbol of the womb. The Mother Goddess was the chore of existance. She took care of fertility, of life itself. The cult of Our Lady or Notre Dame is so old and so deeply rooted in the human mind, that it also had to be introduced in Christianity. And so, Mary Magdalene, who was Jesus' wife according to more and more scholars, was the first and most important woman in the early days of Christianity, representing the Mother Goddess. In the early days, Jesus and Mary Magdalene were sometimes seen as the reincarnations of Isis and Osiris, the Egyptian god and goddess of life, life after death and fertility. The female aspect in the Middle-East was pushed aside partly by patriarchal Jewism. Jesus was one of the Holy Men in the Middle East who tried to repair the balance. This wasn't easy. For example, Peter was against women and even thought that they did not have the right to live. Myriam was, however, very intelligent, and Jesus'love and respect for her even caused jealousy among the disciples. One day Jesus said, "shall I then make her a man, so she is equal to us?"

According to professor Barbara Thiering, Mary Magdalene was banished in the year 44, after an arrest which has been connected to a rise against the Roman rulers. She and her family and friends were put on a boat and ended up in France, the Camarque coast to be precise. From there, roads parted and each group set out to spread their teachings. Mary was one of the people who went on to Narbonne and tried to rebuild her life in the Languedoc. Whatever the work that she has done in this part of Europe was, it has had quite an impact on the people here. The Notre Dame cult and Black Madonna cult were getting more and more popular. Hospitals were built where sick people or orphans were taken care of. Pregnant women were aided and the old were cared for, when no one else was there for them. Women were more or less equal to men in the Languedoc, compared to other places in Europe, where this was very different. Some say that it was Mary Magdalene who built the religious gnostic foundation for the Cathars of southern France, who became a threat to the Catholic Church in the 12th and 13th centuries with their different views on Christianity. In this period, the Knights Templars florished. They had sworn an oath on the Lady of Bethany and wanted to create their own state in the Languedoc. They did not lift a finger to harm the Cathars in any way and angered king and pope in doing so. With travelling to and from the Holy Land, the Knights Templar were largely responsible for the trade in relics, which were a rage in Europe as they were bought by churches as proof of the Biblical message and to draw pilgrims (and money) and of course, to spread Catholicism. This created a large number of places of pilgrimage, where huge numbers of people went to, just to get a glimse of the divine. One of the most important places was Santiago de Compostela in northern-Spain.

But who was Saint James? In the year 44, many things happened in Palestine. A schisma happened within the young Christian community. The land also experienced the seperation of two political groups: nationalists and the followers of the roman ruler Agrippa II. According to the story, the apostle James came back to Palestine after he had fulfilled his mission in Spain. However, as soon as he arrived, he was arrested and beheaded. His friends smuggled his body out of Palestine and burried him in his beloved Spain. However, it is not certain which James was executed. It could have been another James, James of Zebedee. In that case, "our" James could have travelled back to Spain, where he died at a later date. There are many stories about James' return to Spain and the miracles he performed there. There is, however, enough proof that a certain James, disciple and according to historicus Robert Eisenman most probably the half brother of Jesus, was buried in Santiago de Compostela. In 813 his body was found where the famous cathedral now stands. From that moment onwards, stories about the miracles spread far and wide and thousands of pilgrims travelled the route de st. Jacques through France to Spain, from all countries in Europe.

And so, many churches and cathedrals arose on this famous route de st. Jacques, which were, in turn, given holy relics. And this is how Santiago de Compostela became the most important place of pilgrimage, after Jerusalem and Rome. It is on this route, that we find the church of Vezelay.



The abbey of Vezelay was founded in 864, and it is known that it was given the name La Madeleine already in this period in time. People kept the relics of no one else but Mary Magdalene in this very church. The cathedral became one of the most important places of pilgrimage in all Christendom. In 1146, Bernardus of Clairvaux, protector of the Knights Templar and head of the Cistercian Order, pronounced the second crusade to the Holy Land, to keep Jerusalem and the Holy Land safe for Christianity.

In Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume we find an even bigger gothic basilica dedicated to Mary Magdalene. She is supposed to have lived in a cave nearby, naked and only clothed by her long hair. Here we see the mix up of two different Mary's. St. Mary of Egypt was naked and had very long hair, with which she covered her body. She is not Mary Magdalene but someone completely different. Because the Bible is not always clear on names and who is who, this mix up between the two Mary's is no surprise. Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene could easily have been one and the same person, but maybe they were also two different Mary's. The tomb of Mary Magdalene is, as they insist, underneath the basilica of Ste. Baum. Again, there is no proof that this is really the case.

In these last few decades, and especially after the bestseller The Da Vinci Code, the little village of Rennes-le-Chateau has become a place of pilgrimage for Mary Magdalene. New investigation proves, that there is a careful possibility, that Mary Magdalene was burried or reburried underneath the church of La Madeleine in Rennes-le-Chateau. Investigators are still working on more research, but until 2015, no one is allowed to look into the crypt. This has been decided by the village council, after a small hick-up with the Vatican during Robert Eisenman's investigations. This strange occurrance makes one wonder....

Les Saintes Maries de la Mer is the capital of the Camarque. This place has been named after the 3 Mary's who, according to legend, were washed ashore or shipwrecked in or around 44 AD and lived on to preach Christianity in southern France. From early Christianity, Stes Maries de la Mer is a holy place, where Biblical figures stept on French soil.
Still, on 22nd October, the shrines of the saints are taken from the church and brought to the sea where they came from, and then the bisshop blesses the water.

Who Mary Magdalene really was, and which special task she was given by Jesus, we may never know. We do know that she was much more than the person we know from the Bible. She symbolises the female aspect, which has been pushed aside ever since Christianity became patriarchal. The female counter part of Jesus, who was very popular in France and still is, and who was not a reformed sinner, but the Lady of the Light, "Notre Dame de Lumière".