Apostola Apostolorum: Observations on the Proper of St. Mary Magdalene in the Breviarium Praemonstratense

The mysteries of the passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus are the foundation of the Christian faith and hence of Christian worship. For this reason, St. Mary Magdalene has been venerated in a special way in the communion of the Church as the first witness to the Resurrection (see Mt 28:1–10; Mk 16:1–10; Lk 24:1–12; Jn 20:1–18).² For a long time she was—along with the Blessed Virgin Mary—the only holy woman whose Mass formulary included the Creed.³ This rubric would still appear justified.

In ancient Christian tradition we find the proper title apostola apostolorum assigned to St. Mary Magdalene ⁴ and, following the narratives of the Synoptic gospels, to the other women at the empty tomb. The earliest witness is St. Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170–235), who writes in his commentary on the Song of Songs:

And after this with a cry the synagogue expresses a good testimony for us through the women, those who were made apostles to the apostles, having been sent by Christ: those to whom first the angels said, “Go and announce to the disciples. He has gone before you into Galilee. There you shall see him’” (Mk 16:7). But in order that the apostles might not doubt [that they were sent] from the angels, Christ himself met with the apostles, in order that the women might become apostles of Christ and might complete through obedience the failure of old Eve. For this reason [she] listens obediently that she may be revealed as perfect.⁵

In the late fourth century, St. Jerome writes in the preface to his commentary on the Book of Zephaniah:

Both Greek and Latin history is filled with the virtues of females, and these would demand entire books. Since another work is pressing, let it merely suffice for me to have said this at the end of this preface, that the risen Lord appeared first to women, and those women were apostles to the apostles [apostolorum... apostolas], so that the men were put to shame for not having sought out the Lord, whom the weaker sex had already found.⁶

In the same vein is the second double stanza of the Easter Sequence Victimae paschali laudes, now exclusively associated with St. Mary Magdalene:

Dic nobis, Maria, quid vidisti in via?	Tell us, Mary, what did you see on the road?
Sepulchrum Christi viventis et gloriam vidi resurgentis,	Tomb of the living Christ and the glory of his rising,
angelicos testes, sudarium et vestes.	the angelic witnesses, the clothes and the shroud.
Surrexit Christus spes mea; praecedet suos in Galilaeam.	Christ my hope is arisen; he will go before his own into Galilee.

Nevertheless, this reference never made it into the official liturgical books—neither the Breviarium Romanum, nor the Liturgia Horarum (and its vernacular translations). Witness to the Resurrection and, as in earlier texts, especially St. Gregory the Great’s doubtful indication of Lk 7:36–50,⁷ the penitent (paenitens) or sinner (peccatrix) are the general leitmotifs in the texts of 22 July.

The rite proper to the Order of Prémontré stands out in this regard. The Benedictus antiphon for the feast of St. Mary Magdalene praises the saint as the apostola apostolorum:

O mundi lampas, et margarita praefulgida, quae resurrectionem Christi nuntiando, apostolorum apostola fieri meruisti, Maria Magdalene, semper pia exoratrix pro nobis adsis ad Deum, qui te elegit.

O lamp of the world and radiantly glowing pearl, who was found worthy to proclaim the Resurrection of Christ and so become a herald to the apostles: Mary Magdalene be always for us a loving intercessor to God, who chose you.8

The rite of Prémontré has its roots in the early Middle Ages and shows some particular features that are independent from the Roman tradition. It is to some extent shaped by Old Gallican practices and has a constant paschal emphasis.⁹ The decisive link between the local character of...