France in their texts. The intense devotion of the Domini cans and Franciscans to Mary
led to greater standardization of texts and music for her celebration from the 13th century
onward. Votive Masses for the Virgin, the singing of the Magnificat at Vespers, and the
Marian antiphons at Compline served to provide both opportunity and inspiration for later
polyphonic music dedicated to her honor.
Margot Fassler
[See also: DIVINE OFFICE; MARIAN ANTIPHONS]
Auniord, Jean-Baptiste, and Robert Thomas. “Cîteaux et Notre Dame.” In Maria: études sur la
sainte vierge, ed. Hubert Du Manoir de Juaye. 7 vols. Paris: Beauchesne, 1949–64, Vol. 2, pp.
579–624.
Duval, André. “La dévotion mariale dans l’ordre des Frères Prêcheurs.” Ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 737–82.
Dom Frénaud. “Le culte de Notre Dame dans l’ancienne liturgie latine.” Ibid., Vol. 6, pp. 157–211.
Gourdel, Yves. “Le culte de la Très Sainte Vierge dans l’ordre des Chartreux.” Ibid., Vol 2, pp.
625–78.
Leclercq, Jean. “Dévotion et théologie mariales dans le monachisme bénédictin.” Ibid., Vol. 2, pp.
547–78.
O’Carroll, Michael. Theotokos: A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Wilmington: Glazier, 1982.
Wright, Craig. Music and Liturgy in Notre Dame de Paris (500–1500). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1989.
MARY MAGDALENE
. Mary of Magdala (Mary Magdalene), a female follower of Jesus in the Gospels,
received a medieval vita that offered a major expansion upon her appearance in the
Gospel narratives. She was venerated especially at two popular French pilgrimage
shrines: the Benedictine abbeys of Vézelay and of Saint-Maximin at Aix-en-Provence.
In the Gospels, Mary of Magdala is among the women who travel with Jesus in his
ministry (Luke 8:1–2; cf. Matthew 27:55–56), and Jesus is said to have cast seven devils
out of her (Luke 8:2 and Mark 16:9). She is present at the Crucifixion (at the foot of the
Cross with the Virgin Mary [John 19:25] or looking on from afar with other women
[Matthew 27:55–56 and Mark 15:40–41]). She is named among the women who go, after
the sabbath, to the sepulcher where Jesus was buried (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke
24:1–10). She is the first to encounter Jesus after the Resurrection (John 20:1–19). These
incidents provided the basic narrative of a woman cured of demonic possession who
followed Jesus, was present at his death, and was the first to see him resurrected. Indeed,
on the basis of the passage in John 20, she is called “the apostle to the Apostles.”
In the patristic and early-medieval periods, other Gospel narratives involving Jesus
and women were associated with Mary Magdalene. The unnamed woman identified as a
sinner (and thus important for the later persona of the Magdalene) who bathes Jesus’s feet
with her tears and anoints them (Luke 7:30) and the unnamed woman who anoints his
head (Matthew 26:6–13) were both identified with Mary Magdalene. She was also
identified with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and Martha. Not only the name
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