On the other hand, it may not, because in the very next chapter, John tells us the story of Mary wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair (John 12:3), and he does not present her as a sinner. However, John says that Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair (John 11:2), and that could mean that they are the same person. Part of the reason is that the sinful woman that Luke mentions wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair is unnamed (Luke 7:36-50). Why has there been a question about the identification of the three women? So, it would be odd to have a second liturgical day dedicated to the Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, since Mary would be appearing on the calendar twice.Īs a result, Martha alone had a day on the liturgical calendar-July 29-though in the current Roman Martyrology (the Latin Church’s official list of saints and martyrs) also lists Mary and Lazarus on that day. What’s more, it’s a feast, which outranks a memorial. Mary Magdalene is mentioned in all four Gospels as one of the witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection, and her liturgical day is July 22. The reason this would cause a problem for giving the Bethany family a common slot on the calendar is that Mary Magdalene already had one. In the Latin Catholic Church, there has historically been a question of whether these three figures are actually one person, with various authors holding that they were.
The decree announcing the new memorial indicates that the reason the Bethany family didn’t have a common spot on the calendar up to now was due to uncertainty about how three biblical women should be identified: Given the prominence of the Bethany family in the Gospels-they are mentioned as friends of Jesus in both Luke and John-it may come as a bit of a surprise that they didn’t already have a place on the calendar.
The General Roman Calendar is the international liturgical calendar used in the Latin Church, and it is the basis of the particular calendars used in different countries.Ī memorial is a liturgical commemoration ranking below a solemnity and a feast but above an optional memorial. Recently, Pope Francis added a memorial for the Bethany family-Martha, Mary, and Lazarus-to the General Roman Calendar.