Mary Magdalene: Apostle, Survivor, and Patron of All Women Who Preach

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Mary Magdalene is one of my favourite people in the Bible. She is named more times than almost any other woman in the New Testament. Mary Magdalene was the apostle to the apostles, a survivor of trauma, and is a patron for all women in ministry. She is also one of the most consistently misrepresented figures in Christian history. Her story has been co-opted to meet people’s agendas and twisted to sell fiction. 

Mary Magdalene has been called a prostitute for fifteen centuries. She has been cast as a fallen woman. Popular fiction has made her the secret wife of Jesus. New Age spirituality has claimed her as a divine feminine archetype.

None of it is real.

The real Mary Magdalene is far more extraordinary. She is a disciple, a leader, a survivor of profound suffering, and the first apostolic witness to the resurrection. We know her as the patron of every woman who has ever been called by God and told by people that she was not allowed to answer. She is a model for the kind of kingdom and kind of ministry that Christ is calling us to follow him. 

This article is her story. And it explains why it still matters today.

KEY POINTS

• Mary Magdalene was a core member of Jesus’ travelling ministry, not a peripheral figure
• She survived severe suffering and was healed and liberated by Jesus
• She was the first person to witness the resurrection and the first to preach it
• Her story was deliberately distorted for over 1,500 years by patriarchal assumptions
• She stands as the apostolic model for every woman called to ministry today

Understanding the Real Mary Magdalene in Scripture

Most of what people think they know about Mary Magdalene is wrong. 

The Gospels tell a very different story from the one the church told for a thousand years. They also tell a very different story from popular fiction and New Age spirituality. 

Luke 8:1–3 identifies Mary as part of Jesus’ travelling ministry. He names her among the women who supported Jesus “out of their own resources.” This places her within the core discipleship circle, not on its margins. She was a significant patron of Jesus’ mission. Without people like Mary, the ministry could not have continued. 

There are so many women like that today. People who quietly give and support the work of the Gospel without taking any credit for it. Without those figures of quiet support, the church couldn’t function. Not just financially. Think about the people who do all the little jobs around the place that go unrewarded but which make a huge difference. How often are they women?

But Mary Magdalene is far more than a financial supporter. She was a person who knew exactly what Jesus could do. She knew it because she had experienced it herself. Her faith was not theoretical. It was grounded in her own story of suffering, liberation, and transformation. 

She knew who Jesus was because without Jesus, she would have been trapped in her suffering. 

How Jesus Healed Mary Magdalene and What That Healing Means for Survivors Today

Luke 8:2 tells us that Jesus healed Mary from “seven demons.”

In the ancient world, being known as a demoniac meant complete social exclusion. Mary would have been separated from the community. Unable to worship. Isolated in her suffering. Trapped by whatever held its grip on her. The label “demoniac” did not just describe her condition; it defined how everyone around her related to her. It cut her off from her community and her faith tradition. 

Some contemporary scholarship understands “seven demons” as describing severe psychological suffering or profound social trauma rather than literal possession. Whether you read this literally or through a psychological lens, the core truth is the same. Mary was suffering, isolated, and oppressed by a power beyond her control. 

But Jesus set her free.

Salvation and Healing Are The Same Thing

This is what salvation looks like in practice. Not only a future promise, but a present liberation. The restoration of a human being to her full dignity. The breaking of isolation. The return of a person to the community. The restoration of her shalom. If we think of salvation only as a transaction that pays a debt for sin, then we are limiting what God wants to do for us. Salvation and sanctification are about the here and now. 

I have written elsewhere that sanctification functions as a kind of exorcism, and we can see that here with Mary. Holiness, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, sets us free from the parts of our lives that seek to keep us trapped in our own darkness.

The Holy Spirit breaks the power of whatever holds us captive. Including our inward-turned self-concern, the wounds inflicted by others, and the patterns of suffering that trap us in ourselves. We see that in Mary’s story. Jesus does not simply remove her suffering and leave her where she was. He freed her for something. Freed for following, for discipleship, and most importantly, to love her neighbour. She was freed to become the person God always intended her to be.

This is the same promise of salvation and sanctification that Christ offers to all of us. 

Linking it to Salvation Army Doctrine

Salvation Army Doctrine 8 teaches that “we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself.” Or in this case, ‘she that believeth’. Mary was a living witness to the power of Christ. 

That inner witness is the Holy Spirit’s testimony to the reality of what God has done. In Mary’s story, the inner witness became an outward proclamation. She knew what Jesus could do because Jesus had done it for her. That knowledge became the foundation of everything that followed.

Her experience of trauma did not stop her from being a disciple. Her trauma became part of her discipleship journey. The worst things that happen to us do not have to define us. In God’s hands, our deepest wounds become the source of our most powerful witness.

Knowing it in Practice

I know this not only from Scripture. I know it from the community in Stroud where I serve.

There are women in my Corps who have survived abuse and trauma. Their faith sustained them through things that would have broken anyone. 

There is one woman whose journey through violence and suffering brought her to a place of such deep trust in Christ that she is now faithfully serving him, and others who have been through the same darkness find in her a living witness to what God’s grace can do. She was told by people that she was not good enough, that she could not lead. But she trusted in Christ. And Christ kept her.

That is Mary’s story as well.

REFLECTION SPACE — Mary in the Garden

Scripture: John 20:15–16 (NRSV)

“Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher).”

A Prayer to Begin: Lord, help me to hear you calling my name in the places where I feel most alone.

Prompt: Jesus knew Mary by name. She recognised him by his voice. Where in your own life have you found that Jesus knew you, even in your suffering?

Why Mary Magdalene Is Rightly Called the Apostle of the Apostles

Mary is present at the crucifixion (Mark 15:40), at the burial (Mark 15:47), and at the empty tomb (Mark 16:1; John 20:1–18).

The women stayed. The men fled.

This is not a criticism designed to score points. It is a theological observation that the Gospel writers make plainly. When the full cost of following Jesus became apparent, when the soldiers came, and the cross loomed and the body needed to be tended, the women were there. Mary was there. She had learned to stay in suffering. Jesus had stayed with her in hers. Now she stayed with him.

Mary is also the first person to encounter the risen Christ. She is the first to carry the message of the resurrection. Before Peter, Paul, or any of the Twelve. Mary Magdalene was the first human being in history to preach the Gospel of the resurrection.

When the disciples did not immediately believe her, Christ did not withdraw her commission. He had sent her. Their scepticism did not change what Jesus had authorised.

This is precisely why writers in the early Christian tradition called her the apostola apostolorum: the apostle of the apostles.

She preached the resurrection before anyone else. She is the apostle who makes all other apostles possible. We must never forget her ministry to us today as a witness to the simple truth that when Christ calls a person, no one else gets to say no. 

From Apostle to Penitent Prostitute: Gregory the Great’s Error and Its Legacy

Note: This section discusses the historical distortion of Mary Magdalene’s story. Gregory the Great was almost certainly acting with pastoral intentions — but the consequences of his error were serious and lasting.

The distortion of Mary Magdalene’s story began on 14 September 591 AD.

On that day, Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540–604 AD) delivered his thirty-third homily at the Basilica of S. Clemente in Rome. In it, he combined three separate women into one composite figure. The unnamed sinful woman of Luke 7, Mary Magdalene of Luke 8, and Mary of Bethany from John 11–12.

Gregory’s intention was almost certainly pastoral. He offered a message of hope: no one is beyond redemption, no matter how deep the sin. But the theological consequences were devastating and long-lasting. 

By merging these three women, Gregory gave Western Christianity a prostitute where there had been an apostle. For fifteen centuries, the image of Mary as a fallen woman dominated. It allowed the church to manage its significance. Because if she had been a prostitute, she was an example of personal repentance, not a model of leadership.

Thankfully, Times Change

It is important to be clear about this. The church has since corrected this. In 1969, the reformed Roman Missal formally and officially separated the three women Gregory had conflated. The correction was made. 

And in 2016, Pope Francis, drawing on this ancient tradition, elevated Mary Magdalene’s feast day to the full rank of a Feast of the Apostles, equal to the feasts of Peter and Paul. His Prefect for Divine Worship explicitly called her apostola apostolorum in the official decree. Even Rome, which does not ordain women, has formally and officially recognised that Mary Magdalene holds apostolic authority.

Modern scholarship has added another layer. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer’s peer-reviewed research demonstrates that early manuscript traditions of John’s Gospel may themselves reflect attempts to minimise Mary’s prominence, suggesting that the marginalisation of Mary Magdalene began not only with Gregory, but earlier in the very transmission history of the New Testament. 

Her significance threatened institutional male authority precisely because it was so great.

What Mary Magdalene’s Journey Teaches Us About Healing, Calling, and Holy Defiance

Mary’s story is, at its heart, a story of survival.

She survived whatever the seven demons represented. Mary survived social exclusion. She survived the crucifixion of the one who had set her free. And she survived the grief of the burial and the shock of the empty tomb.

She endured. And she kept faith.

This makes her a genuine and powerful role model for anyone who has survived trauma. Not because suffering is noble. Suffering is not noble, and it is never ok. Suffering is something to be resisted, mourned, and overcome. But because Mary shows us that the worst things that happen to us do not have the last word about who we are or what we are called to do.

God heals us. God calls us. In that order. The calling follows the healing, and the healing shapes the calling. Our scars do not disqualify us. In God’s hands, they become the source of our most powerful witness.

For women living through abuse and trauma today, women who are being told they are not enough, not worthy, not allowed to lead, Mary Magdalene is a reminder that it is Christ who commissions. The institution may be silent. Other people may dismiss the call. But if the risen Christ has sent you, no human authority can revoke it.

You can explore more of what MyTheologyCorner has written on Trauma Theology

What Salvationist Theology and Catherine Booth’s Legacy Teach Us Through Mary Magdalene

Mary’s story connects deeply with Salvationist holiness theology. Particularly when holiness is understood as liberation.

In Salvationist teaching, sanctification is not simply about personal moral purity. It is the transformation of the entire person. Including their mind, will, and heart. This means that the believer is freed from all that dehumanises them and freed to love the neighbour. The Holy Spirit breaks open the inward-turned heart and sets the person free to live for others. 

This is exactly what we see in Mary’s story. Liberation from suffering leads to the restoration of dignity, which in turn leads to commission for service. The pattern is the same in every transformed life: the healed person becomes the herald.

Salvation Army Doctrine 8 says that the believer “hath the witness in himself.” That inner witness, the Holy Spirit’s testimony to what God has done, naturally becomes outward proclamation. 

We cannot contain what the Spirit has done in us. We go, and we tell. Mary could not have stayed silent. She had been freed by Jesus, sustained by Jesus, and stayed with Jesus through the cross. When she found him risen, she went and told. That is what the Army has always been called to be.

Catherine Booth and Female Ministry

Catherine Booth (1829–1906) stands in the direct line of Mary Magdalene’s tradition. In 1859, she wrote Female Ministry: Women’s Right to Preach the Gospel. It was a rigorous, Scripture-based argument for women’s preaching that became foundational to The Salvation Army’s identity. Even if it has been somewhat forgotten today.

Like Mary, she faced dismissal. People told her it was unnatural and unbiblical for a woman to stand in a pulpit. Like Mary, she appealed directly to Scripture and to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. Her calling was real. Her commission came from Christ. She spoke and she preached and her witness lit a fire in thousands of women around the world.

Catherine began her public preaching ministry in 1860. It was largely due to her influence that the Army’s first Constitution, adopted in 1870, granted women full participation in both the work and governance of the Mission. Without Catherine Booth, there would not have been a Salvation Army.

The parallel between Mary and Catherine is obvious when you think about it. 

Both were told they could not. Yet both appealed to a higher authority than the institution. Both were vindicated. Not by the institution’s permission, but by the fruit of their ministry.

The Modern Army and Modern Women

Today, more than half of the Army’s Officer population is female. And yet, as I have written elsewhere, full gender equality in the Army remains an unrealised promise. It’s something that we need to keep working towards.

The theological commitment is clear. The practice still lags behind. It can be changed. It needs to be changed.

Shaw Clifton said that one of the nine distinctives of Salvationism was being Audible in his book New Love. You can read more about the nine distinctives of Salvationism here.

Clifton wrote that silent Salvationism, like invisible Salvationism, is no Salvationism at all.

To silence the women of the Army is not simply an act of injustice. It is a theological self-contradiction. A movement that defines itself by its voice cannot silence half of its voices without betraying its own identity. 

We have recognised women in ministry throughout our existence. We have flourished and thrived because of women preachers and church leaders. But there is more to do.

You can read more about the Army’s radical commitment to the priesthood of all believers here.

Mary Magdalene, Apostolic Authority, and the Case for Female Ministry in Scripture

It is right to acknowledge that not everyone agrees on this question.

Some traditions read 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34 as restricting women’s authoritative teaching or public leadership. This is the complementarian position. It is sincerely held, and it deserves an honest and respectful response. Even if I think it’s wrong.

The response begins with Mary Magdalene.

Mary’s commission to preach the resurrection did not come from an institution. It did not come from a council, an ordination, or a vote. It came directly from the risen Christ before any institutional church existed, before any of the New Testament letters had been written, and before any of those supposedly restrictive texts had been composed.

Christ himself commissioned a woman to proclaim the most important message in human history.

As I have written elsewhere, it is Christ who ordains. It is Christ who calls. A church can recognise and confirm that calling, but the calling itself comes from God through the Holy Spirit. If God has given the gift, no institution has the authority to withhold permission. 

You can explore Salvation Army doctrine and its implications for ministry here.

The risen Christ has the final word. He spoke it in a garden, to a woman, on the first morning of the new creation. Go and tell.

Mary Magdalene’s Enduring Legacy for Female Ministry, Trauma Survivors, and the Church Today

Mary Magdalene is not a fallen woman redeemed by shame.

She is a disciple, a leader, a survivor of profound suffering, and the first apostolic witness to the resurrection. Her story is not a footnote. It is not a curiosity. It is the foundation of the entire Christian proclamation.

Recovering her true story is an act of justice. Justice to Mary herself, and to every woman whose voice has been diminished, whose calling has been questioned, and whose faithfulness has been dismissed.

She is the patron of all women who preach.

To be someone’s patron means to go before, to mark the path, to stake the ground, and to establish the claim. Mary Magdalene went first. She stood at the cross when others ran. Mary came to the tomb when it was still dark. She heard her name called in the garden. Then she ran to tell the news before any institution existed to give her permission.

Every woman called to proclaim the Gospel stands in her wake. The ground was staked not by a church council, not by an ordination ceremony, but by a woman who had survived suffering and stayed faithful and whom the risen Christ trusted with the first proclamation of the resurrection.

Her authority comes directly from Christ. Not from institutional permission. Not from the approval of men. From the voice of the risen Lord calling her name in the garden, and sending her to preach. The same is true of every minister of the Gospel, from Mary to today. Any church that refuses the gifts of women for ministry refuses the commission of the risen Christ himself.

“Mary Magdalene remains the patron of all women who preach boldly, faithfully, and in the power of the resurrection.”

Free Resources: Trauma Bible Study and A Guide to Lament

I have created two resources you can download for free which complement this artcile. One is a tool to help you write a guided lament. The other is a bible reflection on trauma. You can download them here:

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