Arcadia Discussion Zone

Major Royal families ....She was their favorite saint too

I'd be more inclined to go that route if any one of them had made her their country's patron saint.

TCP

I know St Louis made a pit stop to her cave right after his Crusade
and Rodger said she had her own chapel in Paris at Sainte Chapelle

Oxford has Magdalen College
Magdalen is also one of the most visited. It stands next to the River Cherwell and has within its grounds a deer park and Addison's Walk. Magdalen College School also lies nearby. The large, square Magdalen Tower is a famous Oxford landmark, and it is a tradition since the days of Henry VII that the college choir sings from the top of it at 6 a.m. on May Morning

and then there is Magdalen College Cambridge
The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene. Magdalene College has some of the grandest benefactors including Britain's premier noble the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Chief Justice Sir Christopher Wray.

then there is
Église de la Madeleine

and then poor Verselay lost out to Sainte Baume because Louis's brother found her body


The Church of Mary Magdalene
s a Russian Orthodox church located on the Mount of Olives, near the Garden of Gethsemane in East Jerusalem.

But we do have a oral legend that she came to France the evidence for that legend is that her body
is found there so say Popes and Kings
we are talking about what people believe here

These Kings and Queens participated in the Crusades

It would seem Magdalene did have her fans in royalty

Perhaps someone should try a DNA test on the two sets of relics.



So now you believe what popes and kings say?



True, very true. But I don't think you're weighing all the beliefs here, just the ones that fit one particular explanation.

For instance, the Abbey of Chelles in Belgium has Magdalene relics with documentary attestations going back to the 8th century. Misplaced for many years, they were found in 1983 - frankly, had they been found before HBHG was published in 1982 it would have made far more sense to highlight these as the genuine set, given the Abbey's Merovingian origin and patronage (alas, poor timing).

Gregory of Tours wrote two centuries earlier that Magdalene had died and was interred at Ephesus; documents attest to these relics being transferred by Emperor Leo VI from Ephesus to Constantinople in 899. By the way, this is the "official" church teaching (check The Catholic Encyclopedia).

The Cluniac monks of Vézelay had two different stories about how they came by the relics. First they said that their abbey's founder had brought Magdalene's bones from the Holy Land; the story was later amended to say that they'd originally been buried in the church of St. Maximin but were removed to Vézelay to preserve them from the Saracen invasion, and there they've been ever since.

Two centuries later, Charles of Salerno, looking to built a major Dominican abbey on his own property down south, "discovered" the grave of Magdalene at the church of St. Maximin. The jawbone was missing, however. Know where they got her jawbone? From the church of St. John Lateran in Rome.

Now, Charles' "discovery" effectively negated the claims of Vézelay - after all, if he discovered her tomb intact then obviously the Cluniacs at Vézelay were lying about her remains being transferred from St. Maximin - he found the evidence to the contrary! Except for the fact that her jawbone was already in Rome when he dug her up, of course, one small detail the Dominicans never tried to explain away. Where did the Lateran get the jawbone? The monastery of St. Lazarus at Constantinople, to where her relics were moved from Ephesus in 899 (now you can see why Ephesus is the "official" narrative).

But here's a detail that calls Charles' "discovery" into question. Vézelay said (in the second rendering of their story) that the remains had been removed from the church of St. Maximin at Aix, a church said to have been founded by St. Maximin himself in the 1st century. Not the same church as the one where Charles said he found the grave, in fact the church of St. Maximin at Sainte-Baume isn't named for St. Maximin of Aix at all, but rather St. Maximin of Trier, born in the 4th century (and thus far to late to have ever walked he hills of Provence with Magdalene). One wonders if Charles of Salerno knew that.

So you see, Lov, while it's true that we're talking about beliefs here, beliefs can be subjective. When you start looking at all the pieces of the puzzle, the picture doesn't always become clearer.



Yeah, they were Christians. Surprised?



Sure - and among commoner, serfs, pilgrims, you name it. Maybe that's why there are so many conflicting claims regarding who has the "real" relics...

TCP

Wonders after a visit from JWs who claimed on the doorstep that god is a chick... who else medieval is thinking alike

Where do you get that from? I have studied Jehovah Witnesses doctrine extensively (as well as many others) and have never heard that they believe God is a chick. Sometimes the door to door ministers don't get it right.

Young 20ish door to door JW girl (stunner used as a honeypot I imagine) accompanied by old JW hag who bought a copy of Watchtower - which incredibly is the largest circulation mag in the world - and an odd gift of a book on food hygiene far more apt for Africa.

Maybe she saw you cooking food!