Mary Magdalene, the Patron Saint of Outcasts

Today’s drawing of Mary Magdalene

I have been reading The New Yorker’s piece on Mary Magdalene, written by Eliza Griswold and published in April 2025. Even though I received the link at the time, I had not been able to sit down to read it with full attention until now.

The essay is an excellent starting point for anyone looking to learn about Mary Magdalene and it contains a series of facts, stories and information about this important Christian character.

I was not expecting to read about it, but was really glad to learn about the work of the scholar Elizabeth Schrader Polczer, whom I met at the point when she was just about to start her journey in biblical school, having just published a CD of music dedicated to Mary Magdalene. She attended the Mary Magdalene Celebration that year, and we met briefly, but I never had the opportunity to read about her important work until now.

What she is researching and proposing is that there were corrections made by a scholar to Papyrus 66 of John’s Gospel, that split the character of Mary Magdalene into 2 sisters, Martha and Mary.

The author of the essay calls Mary Magdalene “the Patron Saint of Outcasts” and adds that Mary Magdalene “seemed to draw them in, welcoming skeptics like me to make room in our minds for more complex possibilities.”

The phrase, similar to our calling the Magdalene the patron saint of those who don’t believe in anything but believe in the power of Imagination, reminded me of why I chose to work with Mary Magdalene. She is the saint that is still to be discovered, that offers new avenues of thought and becomes meaningful even for those who are far away but remain aware that the heart is awake to the call of the spirit.