22
July. 1662
Book of Common Prayer. St. Mary Magdalene.
St. Mary Magdalene. This was a red-letter Saint's Day, with Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, in 1549. In the Collect she was cited as an example of penitence and forgiveness, and in the Gospel (Luke vii. 36-50) she was identified with "the woman who was a sinner," as also, in the common Western tradition, with Mary the sister of Lazarus. With this the Eastern tradition disagrees, and Holy Scripture gives no authority for it. All we really know is that "out of her went seven devils," that she ministered to the Lord in His life, at the cross, and the grave; and that she was blessed with the first sight of Him after the Resurrection (Luke viii. 2, 3; Mark xv. 40; xvi. 1; John xx. 1-18). Why a Commemoration, so reasonable and spiritually instructive, was dropped in 1552, does not appear. -- July 22nd.
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