Maria Madalena:

  "The prostitutes will go before you."

 

Mary Magdalene, St, in the New Testament, woman so named from Magdala, a town near Tiberias (now in Israel). Jesus healed her of evil spirits (see Luke 8:2) and appeared to her after his Resurrection (see Matthew 28:9), following her vigil at the foot of the cross (see Mark 15:40). Mary Magdalene has been identified from the earliest times with a sinning woman described as having anointed the Lord's feet (see Luke 7:37-38) and with Mary the sister of Martha, who also anointed Jesus (see John 12:3), although the Gospels support neither tradition. Her feast day is July 22.[1]

(For more information on this saint see All the Saints Index)   

Mary Magdalene is patron saint of several old parishes and many chapels.  She is depicted with a glass or perfume bottle in her hand and her hair is hanging loose, as we are supposed to imagine a worldly woman.  In the Beira region she is celebrated on Easter Monday (the Jewish festival of the Azimos, of the Green, and of Queen Esther).  She goes by the title of the "saint", which reminds us of the honorary title taken by the sacred prostitutes among the Canaanites and the Hebrews, and the name of a city with a sanctuary specialized in sacred prostitution, which was Quaddesh--the Saint; Quaddesh was also one of the titles of Astarte.

In the processions of Easter or of the Passos, two girls--Veronica and Magdalene--go before the image of Jesus.  Veronica is also called "the Little Baker", because the woman who wiped Jesus' forehead with a towel was a baker.  Despite her beautiful gesture, Veronica has no parishes or images in Portugal.  

Mary Magdalene is supposed to have been a "sinful woman", in the words of the Pharisees of the Gospels and of puritans of all time.  She went into a house where Jesus was staying and put oil on his feet as a sign of tenderness.  Her name would be Mary of Magdala or the Magdalene.  All of this is in the conditional because there are two scenes like this in the Gospels and not always can it be deduced that Mary of Magdala is one of the women who oiled Jesus' feet.  What is certain, though, is that among Christ's companions there was a small group of women who followed him around the country, until his death, which not even all of his apostles did.  On the other hand, puritans accused Jesus of being "followed by prostitutes"; to which one day he answered:  "The prostitutes will enter the kingdom of heaven before you."   

This woman is usually called "the repentant Magdalene", but there is nothing in the texts that says that the prostitutes, disciples of Jesus, showed any repentance for their behavior.  They were singled out as "prostitutes and not as "former prostitutes"; they must have been so still since they accepted the accusation made by the puritans.  Might they have been sacred prostitutes, working in places of popular cult, which was a common custom among the ancient Canaanites and the Syrians?    

It is important to mention that the innumerable holy women who have existed during these last two millenniums don't have the importance that this Mary Magdalene, "who was a prostitute", has taken on for the people of the Beira region.  We can look at this fact in two ways:  on one hand, this cult is doubtlessly connected to vestiges of sacred prostitution, which was a notable particularity of the Semitic religions, and on the other, with the traditional religious attention attributed to certain types of marginal people also highly valued in oriental religions and in Northern Africa.  One of the most interesting aspects of primitive Christianity is its relationship with outcasts, thieves, adulterers, and others excluded by the dominant class.  It is in this ideological context that we consider the popular cults of the prostitute Magdalene and the "good thieves" of the Gospel.  

Feminine and masculine prostitution, and other forms of sexual rites in the temples is one of the strangest aspects of the Semitic religions. (...) The Canaanite shrines, and for a long time those of Javeh, hosted these rituals, and there were even cubicles for the sacred prostitutes.  In the temple of Jerusalem, the sacred prostitutes, in their free time, made blankets for Astarte until the reformer, the "pious King Josias", expelled them.  The custom of a woman offering herself in the temple of Astarte was later substituted by the offer of the braids of the girls.  It is also a custom in the Beira and the Minho for girls, who have become women, to offer braids of their hair to statues of Christ or of different Virgins.

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