An Inconvenient Woman

She witnessed the resurrection, then vanished, leaving popes and painters and now 'The Da Vinci Code' to tell her story. In search of the real Mary Magdalene.

(picture: 'The Life of the Virgin,' a 15th century painting, depicts Mary Magdalene, right, weeping below Jesus' bound body)

She was with him to the end, and beyond. As Jesus hangs in agony on the cross, his life ebbing, Mary Magdalene is there, beside his mother, Mary, watching. The Passion has been tumultuous and frightening, and crucifixion is slow, but still she stays. Finally the hour comes. "It is finished," Jesus says, and bows his head. His body is bound in linen, carried to a garden, buried in a tomb. .........

.........."Do not touch me," Jesus says, distancing himself from her, "for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Her words to the disciples are simple and few, yet transform the world: "I have seen the Lord." ........

Jonathan Darman (of Newsweek) writes in detail. Read it on msnbc website.

If you are intersted more on this story/history(PS: i donno what exactly is truth, no offence to anybody), you can read "The Faces of Mary Magdalene"


(Excerpts drawn from msnbc.msn.com)