by prof. Trident Cosmo.
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Mary of Magdala, also known as Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene or simply, was, according to the New Testament, a woman disciple of Jesus named Mary Magdalene comes from "Magdalene" (in Aramaic מגדלא Magdalene, Hebrew מגדל Migdal, which means tower) , a village located on the west coast of Lake Tiberias, then commercial fishing center, so much so that it was called in greek "Tarichea" that is "salted fish".
Over the centuries the figure of Mary Magdalene has fascinated scholars, theologians and artists such as Donatello, Antonio Canova, the Horse, Fra Angelico and others, but has undergone a process of looting and demystification history that is unprecedented, even to the present day, where, in the wake of the global success of the book "The Da Vinci Code," published in 2003, has been rediscovered and again slandered especially by the author, Dan Brown.
Who was Mary Magdalene?
Over the centuries the figure of Mary Magdalene has fascinated scholars, theologians and artists such as Donatello, Antonio Canova, the Horse, Fra Angelico and others, but has undergone a process of looting and demystification history that is unprecedented, even to the present day, where, in the wake of the global success of the book "The Da Vinci Code," published in 2003, has been rediscovered and again slandered especially by the author, Dan Brown.
Who was Mary Magdalene?
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The old statues in the Church of Death (2005) .
Mary of Magdala on the scene in the Gospels for the first time as one of the women who helped Jesus and his disciples with their goods. On that occasion he had added a clarification rather strong, "she had come seven demons" (Luke 8:1-3). According to the popular religion of that time, the devil could enter a person to possess and cause severe mental disorders: To use the language of today, took place a destruction of the personality that makes the individual unable to establish relationships with others and with God This, according to Luke, the situation in which it was Mary Magdalene. That's it. The fact that this Mary had "seven demons out" is not permission to read sexual orientation, identification with a prostitute also mothers of integrity and virtuous virgins might have need of exorcism, given that the devil does not look at anybody. The 'seven', it is the number symbolic of perfection: it means that the woman had been badly hit by a "serious" physical or moral. For Ambrose it is an indefinite number, and no one will question the words of a Doctor of the Church. The encounter with Jesus meant for her re-establishment of communication and start a new life soon began to follow Jesus disciple.
All the Gospels agree that it was the women disciples to have the courage and the strength to say the unsayable, to believe the unbelievable, to cry out against everyone, including the eleven apostles, that Jesus was not prey death but was living. And among these, Mary Magdalene is mentioned just in all the Gospels with a primary role in that event will be the foundation of the Church throughout the ages until today. For as Paul says, "If Christ is not risen, vain is our faith, we Christians would be the most miserable of all men" (1Cor.15, 14.19).
The Gospel of John (20:1-18) lingers in recounting how Mary Magdalene came to reveal that Jesus had risen. Mary sees the empty tomb and, frightened, runs to Peter and the beloved disciple to report that someone stole the body of Jesus to the other words that seemed to hallucinations, words do not believe, and yet so full of love to cause another stroke, that of Peter and the beloved disciple to the tomb. They, however, come home with your mouth closed, do not know what to say in them, unlike women, there is no joy (cf. Mt 28.8), or fear (cf. Mk 16.7-8 ) or shock (cf. Lk 24:12). But she, Mary, stay there and cries, cries because he has lost Jesus and now his body is not even accessible to his emotions. The one thing is missing: they steal? And here's a word that echoes and indicates a response. It matters little whether to pronounce it are two angels in white. The meaning is unique and unmistakable: "You seek Jesus who was crucified? He is not here, He is risen! ". Mary Magdalene, weeping and perseveres in his search for the dead body of Jesus, he hears a voice calling her name "Mary." That voice that had given their lives ... It is he: Mary fell at his feet, embraces, kisses them and exclaimed: "Master, my Master." The love that seemed defeated and victorious is denied: it is the only force that not even death can defeat. This is Mary Magdalene "apostle," a witness, evangelizing and runs screaming to all disciples: "Jesus is risen and alive, is truly risen."
All the Gospels agree that it was the women disciples to have the courage and the strength to say the unsayable, to believe the unbelievable, to cry out against everyone, including the eleven apostles, that Jesus was not prey death but was living. And among these, Mary Magdalene is mentioned just in all the Gospels with a primary role in that event will be the foundation of the Church throughout the ages until today. For as Paul says, "If Christ is not risen, vain is our faith, we Christians would be the most miserable of all men" (1Cor.15, 14.19).
The Gospel of John (20:1-18) lingers in recounting how Mary Magdalene came to reveal that Jesus had risen. Mary sees the empty tomb and, frightened, runs to Peter and the beloved disciple to report that someone stole the body of Jesus to the other words that seemed to hallucinations, words do not believe, and yet so full of love to cause another stroke, that of Peter and the beloved disciple to the tomb. They, however, come home with your mouth closed, do not know what to say in them, unlike women, there is no joy (cf. Mt 28.8), or fear (cf. Mk 16.7-8 ) or shock (cf. Lk 24:12). But she, Mary, stay there and cries, cries because he has lost Jesus and now his body is not even accessible to his emotions. The one thing is missing: they steal? And here's a word that echoes and indicates a response. It matters little whether to pronounce it are two angels in white. The meaning is unique and unmistakable: "You seek Jesus who was crucified? He is not here, He is risen! ". Mary Magdalene, weeping and perseveres in his search for the dead body of Jesus, he hears a voice calling her name "Mary." That voice that had given their lives ... It is he: Mary fell at his feet, embraces, kisses them and exclaimed: "Master, my Master." The love that seemed defeated and victorious is denied: it is the only force that not even death can defeat. This is Mary Magdalene "apostle," a witness, evangelizing and runs screaming to all disciples: "Jesus is risen and alive, is truly risen."
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The Magdalenes G. Cozzoli (2008) .
The first Maddalena (700) 
The second Maddalena (1928) 
The third Maddalena (1929) 
La Maddalena "scandalous" 
Events in the Church of the Purgatory (January 2008)
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La Maddalena "final" (1956) after the restoration of 2008
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The figure of the Magdalene has long been confused with other female figures in the gospel. Unfortunately a good deal of confusion about her and her real role seems to have been introduced but not the early Church but later, when, around 590 AD, Pope Gregory the Great declared: "We believe that this woman who called sinful and Luca John calls Mary, Mary is the one from whom - says Marco - were driven out seven demons. " The evangelist Luke tells the story of a sinner - which did not name - who at a banquet in the house of Simon the Pharisee achieved remission for their sins after moistening with tears and anointed Jesus' feet with perfumed oil, drying them with her hair (7, 36-50). The identification with the sinner is not reflected in the canonical Gospels and was rejected by the Catholic Church in 1969. In fact, the Second Vatican Council in the revised Roman Missal correcting the image of the sinner by saying that the day dedicated to her, July 22: "Celebrate only one to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection and in no way the Sisters of St. Martha nor the sinner to whom the Lord forgave sins "(Calendarium Romanum, Roma, pp. 97-98 and p. 131).
However, the combination of the image of Mary Magdalene prostitute is still alive in the folk tradition. Just look at the 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson or the 1988 movie "The Last Temptation of Christ" by Martin Scorsese to realize that such prejudice still exists. But why? Because, as written by the biblical scholar, Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, the verses in which Mary Magdalene is named as a woman healed by Jesus, "from whom seven demons had gone," found in Luke's text immediately after the episode of the unnamed woman. She was then given the whole story told previously by the Evangelist, Chapter 7. This distortion leads exegetical Mary of Magdala, the first woman appointed later in Jesus, to be considered a prostitute and as such to be remembered for centuries in the worship, literature and art.
The last years of the life of Mary Magdalene are shrouded in mystery. According to medieval legend, fourteen years after the death of Jesus, Mary Magdalene with Mary of Cleophas, Massimino, Lazarus, Martha, Marcella and her servant, the apostle Philip and other Christians, arrived in Provence (France), after a long journey by boat to escape the anti-Christian persecution in Judea. It is said that Mary Magdalene preached throughout the region, converting the heathen, before becoming a hermit in a cave, the Sainte Baume. You would have died around 63 AD at the age of 60 years. Now for the discussion of the other side of this discussion: the statue of Mary Magdalene in the history of the arch Death. Specifically, I will serve the valuable information provided by the writer Molfetta, dr. Horace Panunzio ("Journal for the Brotherhood of Death", 1987), which goes all my personal gratitude for his Foreword to my book, "Festivals, celebrations and memories in Molfetta, Publisher Mezzina, Molfetta, 1998.
The first statue of Mary Magdalene in the procession on Holy Saturday was a wooden image, clear assignment of the eighteenth century, which is one of the characters in the passion for over a century, until the year 1927.
However, the combination of the image of Mary Magdalene prostitute is still alive in the folk tradition. Just look at the 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson or the 1988 movie "The Last Temptation of Christ" by Martin Scorsese to realize that such prejudice still exists. But why? Because, as written by the biblical scholar, Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, the verses in which Mary Magdalene is named as a woman healed by Jesus, "from whom seven demons had gone," found in Luke's text immediately after the episode of the unnamed woman. She was then given the whole story told previously by the Evangelist, Chapter 7. This distortion leads exegetical Mary of Magdala, the first woman appointed later in Jesus, to be considered a prostitute and as such to be remembered for centuries in the worship, literature and art.
The last years of the life of Mary Magdalene are shrouded in mystery. According to medieval legend, fourteen years after the death of Jesus, Mary Magdalene with Mary of Cleophas, Massimino, Lazarus, Martha, Marcella and her servant, the apostle Philip and other Christians, arrived in Provence (France), after a long journey by boat to escape the anti-Christian persecution in Judea. It is said that Mary Magdalene preached throughout the region, converting the heathen, before becoming a hermit in a cave, the Sainte Baume. You would have died around 63 AD at the age of 60 years. Now for the discussion of the other side of this discussion: the statue of Mary Magdalene in the history of the arch Death. Specifically, I will serve the valuable information provided by the writer Molfetta, dr. Horace Panunzio ("Journal for the Brotherhood of Death", 1987), which goes all my personal gratitude for his Foreword to my book, "Festivals, celebrations and memories in Molfetta, Publisher Mezzina, Molfetta, 1998.
The first statue of Mary Magdalene in the procession on Holy Saturday was a wooden image, clear assignment of the eighteenth century, which is one of the characters in the passion for over a century, until the year 1927.
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The first Maddalena (700) .
The statue in question was donated by a devotee of Death Archconfraternity, Maria Maddalena de Beatis, which had its own house in this picture at full size. It was therefore not performed on purpose for the procession, which does not appear likely. In fact, it was the Santa during the passion of Jesus, but depicted in the later period, when he was penitent in the desert. The unknown author had portrayed as a young and handsome woman, standing, laying in his left hand raised in Above a crude cross and the right, adhering to the side, a skull, a symbol of the transience of earthly life. At the end of the nineteenth century, at the request of the Church, the statue was rebuilt by a local craftsman because he had a bare breast. It was particularly venerated by the Brothers of Death: not only because it was the primary patron of the society, but especially for a relic, housed in a small silver casket, which hung around the neck of the statue. If it was a fragment of bone or a lock of hair belonging to Mary Magdalene, was not known.
As the inexorable passage of time brings everything and everyone at sunset, also came to the primitive Magdalene the "stop" to a long and prestigious career. In the early years of the twentieth century, the sculptor Giulio Cozzoli began the rebuilding of the statues of Easter Saturday, according to a particular design aesthetic. For these images, because he could not hand-carved wood, was forced to use a matter "not noble" and other more perishable papier mache. Hence the origin of a disagreement between Cozzoli, the Brotherhood and the Bishop's Curia. Since 1922 the diocese Molfettese was led by Msgr. Pasquale Gioia, a religious order of Somaschi, a very energetic man, leaning towards the reforms of the future. The Bishop pro tempore, in interpreting a provision to the letter the Holy See on the sacred arts, claimed it could not give his blessing to religious images that were made of perishable materials such as clay, plaster, papier-mâché, and so on. It could only bless the statues of wood, stone and metal. However, the four statues Cozzoli already shaped by the Congregation of Death - Veronica, the dead Christ, Mary of Cleophas, St. John - were in papier mache. Joy Bishop pushed his penalty not to ask them to be destroyed or rebuilt in wood. In due course, all four had been blessed and the blessing once given could not be more off! But the Brotherhood peremptorily asked that any other images were be wood. In fact, expressly advised the association to add another character in the procession of Holy Saturday: that of Mary Salome and that to complete the triad of the Marys to the tomb.
For Easter of 1928 the directors of the Congregation of the Dead gave mandate to the sculptor Ferdinand Demetz to sculpt two statues of Ortisei, Santa Maria Salome at the expense of the Brotherhood and Mary Magdalene at the expense of the prior Giuseppe Peruzzi. The sculptor of Val Gardena in 1872 had founded a school that still need to educate and guide the young talents so as to preserve the tradition and art among the young and Val Gardena. The same
Mgr. Joy suggested that Mary Magdalene was represented, rather than opens in figure upright kneeling position with hands clasped, as if his knees at the foot of the cross.
As the inexorable passage of time brings everything and everyone at sunset, also came to the primitive Magdalene the "stop" to a long and prestigious career. In the early years of the twentieth century, the sculptor Giulio Cozzoli began the rebuilding of the statues of Easter Saturday, according to a particular design aesthetic. For these images, because he could not hand-carved wood, was forced to use a matter "not noble" and other more perishable papier mache. Hence the origin of a disagreement between Cozzoli, the Brotherhood and the Bishop's Curia. Since 1922 the diocese Molfettese was led by Msgr. Pasquale Gioia, a religious order of Somaschi, a very energetic man, leaning towards the reforms of the future. The Bishop pro tempore, in interpreting a provision to the letter the Holy See on the sacred arts, claimed it could not give his blessing to religious images that were made of perishable materials such as clay, plaster, papier-mâché, and so on. It could only bless the statues of wood, stone and metal. However, the four statues Cozzoli already shaped by the Congregation of Death - Veronica, the dead Christ, Mary of Cleophas, St. John - were in papier mache. Joy Bishop pushed his penalty not to ask them to be destroyed or rebuilt in wood. In due course, all four had been blessed and the blessing once given could not be more off! But the Brotherhood peremptorily asked that any other images were be wood. In fact, expressly advised the association to add another character in the procession of Holy Saturday: that of Mary Salome and that to complete the triad of the Marys to the tomb.
For Easter of 1928 the directors of the Congregation of the Dead gave mandate to the sculptor Ferdinand Demetz to sculpt two statues of Ortisei, Santa Maria Salome at the expense of the Brotherhood and Mary Magdalene at the expense of the prior Giuseppe Peruzzi. The sculptor of Val Gardena in 1872 had founded a school that still need to educate and guide the young talents so as to preserve the tradition and art among the young and Val Gardena. The same
Mgr. Joy suggested that Mary Magdalene was represented, rather than opens in figure upright kneeling position with hands clasped, as if his knees at the foot of the cross.
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The second Maddalena (1928) .
As just in theory, in practice the suggestion of the Bishop proved a disaster. In fact, in the succession of images traveled to shoulder, all standing, kneeling figure that one perspective disconnect harmony with extreme nastiness. The result was so reprehensible that the statue was carried in procession in that year alone (1928). For
Following Easter, in 1929, the prior Giuseppe Peruzzi, even at his own expense, he sent the sculptor to Ortisei to run another wooden statue of Mary Magdalene.
Following Easter, in 1929, the prior Giuseppe Peruzzi, even at his own expense, he sent the sculptor to Ortisei to run another wooden statue of Mary Magdalene.
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The third Maddalena (1929) .
In time for Easter in 1929, suitably packaged in rail freight car, arrived in Ortisei Molfetta by the new statue of Mary Magdalene. Open the chest in the church of the Purgatorio, in the presence of the Administration and the privileged few, is outside the statue and post it on a pedestal so that it can look better, the disappointment was great. The saint, this time, was depicted in an upright position. Imitating the old image of the eighteenth century, remembers the attitude of the hand, raised up to hold a small cross, the other hand, instead of joining the side clutching the skull was given to the breast, the skull is found on the ground. The statue was a bad bill: the coat, green pea, was without bending movement, coarse hands and feet, the face of a buxom apathetic. Leaving the Church of Purgatory, was asked by one of the privileged who were present as was the new statue just arrived from Ortisei. He replied tersely: "There was an exchange in the package; instead of Maddalena, sent us the Sacred Heart of Mary. " What to do? Lock her up in the box and send it back by rail in Ortisei? Submit a procession without Madeleine? Neither hypothesis was feasible. Administrators of Death had to bow their heads and say a bitter fiat. Removed the relic from the statue of Mary Magdalene on her knees and it is passed to the neck of the latest version, this exchange of deliveries to be repaired badly. Although distasteful to most Molfetta, they had to keep this Maddalena of Ortisei, in a procession to see more than a quarter of a century. In fact, the severe economic crisis of 1929 in Europe rebounded from America (with a repeat in our day!) led the Brotherhood to suspend the program for the renewal of the statues.
The program was resumed only after the Second World War. Meanwhile Cozzoli, without having received the mandate expressed by the Brotherhood, it gave its own initiative to devise models for the statues that were not even in his own hand, because with the new bishop, Mgr. Achille Salvucci, had been removed the prohibition of religious images in paper mache mold. Great care went into the sculptor create a statue of Mary Magdalene, who carried out with fervent dedication, marking a peak unsurpassed in his artistic production.
visible to the public in the summer of 1950, the statue received widespread acclaim. However, if you picked accessions for artistic merit, raised critical concerns for moral reasons.
The program was resumed only after the Second World War. Meanwhile Cozzoli, without having received the mandate expressed by the Brotherhood, it gave its own initiative to devise models for the statues that were not even in his own hand, because with the new bishop, Mgr. Achille Salvucci, had been removed the prohibition of religious images in paper mache mold. Great care went into the sculptor create a statue of Mary Magdalene, who carried out with fervent dedication, marking a peak unsurpassed in his artistic production.
visible to the public in the summer of 1950, the statue received widespread acclaim. However, if you picked accessions for artistic merit, raised critical concerns for moral reasons.
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La Maddalena "scandalous" .
The different assessments divided the Molfetta. They formed two parties: "pro" and "against". But what happened? What had happened was that the author had portrayed Mary Magdalene in an attitude of passionate femininity. The young woman of striking beauty, her arms fully extended in the narrow face of frenzied hands, his head turned back praising the nakedness of neck, her hair falling in thick waves floating on the mantle, the dazzling face, blinded by tears of rage. Who was the young woman who had inspired our artists? Seems to have been a Russian girl named Tatiana Sokolov, who at that time lived in Molfetta. His father, a former officer of the Tsar, had emigrated to Italy after the revolution, and to live, was given to the teaching of English. In fact, he was one of my teachers in high school. Tatiana was a beautiful blonde girl, whose face is delicate and intense, which can confirm the emerging Slavic cheekbones.
The Bishop, Mgr. Salvucci, checked the work in question, the judge is not suitable for a procession and vetoed the Brotherhood for purchase. Opponents accused the stubborn image of being scandalous. They said: "It feels like a Dido abandoned!" ... "And rejected lover pleading" The most ardent supporters replied: "But if we brought around Mary Magdalene with a topless, we now question the shoulders bare?"
L 'bitterness of Cozzoli was great. No one will ever know what you are told the sculptor and the bishop. Wrapped in a sheet like a shroud, the lush slopes in the shadow image of a dusty and dreary basement, doomed to never see the light of the street.
After 50 years, at the initiative of Dr. commendable. Franco Stanzione, prior of the arch of death, Mary Magdalene "scandalous" was offered to the sight and opinion of Molfetta from 13 January to 3 February 2008, the church of the Purgatory, courtesy of Mr. Maurangelo Cozzoli, nephew and pupil of the sculptor Giulio Cozzoli.
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The Bishop, Mgr. Salvucci, checked the work in question, the judge is not suitable for a procession and vetoed the Brotherhood for purchase. Opponents accused the stubborn image of being scandalous. They said: "It feels like a Dido abandoned!" ... "And rejected lover pleading" The most ardent supporters replied: "But if we brought around Mary Magdalene with a topless, we now question the shoulders bare?"
L 'bitterness of Cozzoli was great. No one will ever know what you are told the sculptor and the bishop. Wrapped in a sheet like a shroud, the lush slopes in the shadow image of a dusty and dreary basement, doomed to never see the light of the street.
After 50 years, at the initiative of Dr. commendable. Franco Stanzione, prior of the arch of death, Mary Magdalene "scandalous" was offered to the sight and opinion of Molfetta from 13 January to 3 February 2008, the church of the Purgatory, courtesy of Mr. Maurangelo Cozzoli, nephew and pupil of the sculptor Giulio Cozzoli.
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Events in the Church of the Purgatory (January 2008) .
Today those bare shoulders, those red lips, her face streaked with tears, those long red brown hair covering her naked back, the posture of surrender, the stunning beauty of a woman, no longer crying foul. Then
administrators of Death, also wishing that the statues of Holy Saturday were all of the same hand, asked Julius Cozzoli to shape a new image of Mary Magdalene: the fifth series. Cozzoli agreed, but without enthusiasm. His creativity had been exhausted: the forces were less el'affievolimento vision caused him difficulty.
administrators of Death, also wishing that the statues of Holy Saturday were all of the same hand, asked Julius Cozzoli to shape a new image of Mary Magdalene: the fifth series. Cozzoli agreed, but without enthusiasm. His creativity had been exhausted: the forces were less el'affievolimento vision caused him difficulty.
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La Maddalena "final" (1956) after the restoration of 2008 .
The opera repeats the essential elements in the figure of the previous image, in the role and punished as such was willingly accepted by ecclesiastical authority. It was acquired by the spouses and Leonardo de Nichilo Recommend Carabellese, molfettesi residents in New York, and was first brought in procession (fifth in the order of exit from the church of the Purgatory) on Easter Saturday in 1956 by the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. The brothers of that association are wearing: white shirt and cap, and mozzetta track with blue ribbon on mozzetta metal plate depicting the Virgin Mary Immaculate Conception.
Just this year, with the "Novus Ordo" issued by Pope Pius XII, they changed the schedule of the processions Holy Week, so the statue faced its debut not in the darkness of the night fair, but in the harsh light of day.
molfettesi reviews were positive, but few of them noticed a major innovation: the statue no longer wore around his neck a relic. Was it resulted from an audit, not to be authentic? Or, because of the silver casket, was stolen? Mystery ... The fact is the new Madeleine it was unprepared.
Thus ends a chapter, a very troubled history of the arch of Death.
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* Text by the prof. Trident Cosmo.
Just this year, with the "Novus Ordo" issued by Pope Pius XII, they changed the schedule of the processions Holy Week, so the statue faced its debut not in the darkness of the night fair, but in the harsh light of day.
molfettesi reviews were positive, but few of them noticed a major innovation: the statue no longer wore around his neck a relic. Was it resulted from an audit, not to be authentic? Or, because of the silver casket, was stolen? Mystery ... The fact is the new Madeleine it was unprepared.
Thus ends a chapter, a very troubled history of the arch of Death.
.
* Text by the prof. Trident Cosmo.
* Photos coming from 'private archive of Dr.. Francesco Stanzione.
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