Katherine Jansen Discussion on Magdalen to Wyant Lecture Series
October 06, 2007
Katherine L. Jansen, the author of the award-winning book, The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Late Middle Ages, was the guest speaker at the September 20th installment of the Wyant Lecture Series. Jansen enlightened an audience of students, alumni, faculty and staff in the Janet M. Daley Library Lecture Hall with her vast research on Saint Mary Magdalen, using artwork to highlight the biblical figure's rise in popularity in the late medieval period.
An associate professor of history at The Catholic University of America, Jansen's research has focused on the fields of medieval history, Italian history, women and gender, and religious culture. Her work on the Magdalen, as described in the introduction of her book, comes into play within those realms because devotion to Mary Magdalen was at its peak in the late Middle Ages in the Mediterranean regions of Provence and Italy.
Throughout the lecture, Jansen explained how the various - and sometimes contradicting - depictions of Magdalen have led to her allegorical status within religion. As Louise Doherty Wyant Professor Dr. Patricia Herlihy described in her introduction during the event, "Professor Jansen strips Mary down to the bare bones of fact, skillfully describing the myths woven around her."
Although referenced in three of the four Gospels as the first to see Jesus Christ rise from the dead, for many centuries the significance of Magdalen remained in question due to conflicting stories within each work. According to Jansen, it was not until 591 A.D. that the figure of Mary Magdalen began taking solitary form, after Pope Gregory I proclaimed the different versions of Mary to be one and the same, ultimately establishing "a new Mary for western Christendom." "Gregory the Great's Mary was an amalgamation of the three Marys," said Jansen. "He reconfigured the saint. His authority was so great in the Middle Ages that his version was accepted…he established the basis for which all others assumptions would be made."
Prying deeper into the efforts of Gregory I, Jansen explained how the concept of framing Mary Magdalen as a figure of salvation proved to be a strategic move by the pope, as the theme of hope not only spread throughout the minds of the faithful, but was visualized in artwork during the period as well.
"The notion of sinners becoming saints was attractive [to people]," she said. "It was appropriate for the Church to use such an example. The fundamental meaning of Magdalen in the Middle Ages was one of hope, and you could argue that she became the primary example of [this]."
In her discussion of myths surrounding Magdalen, Jansen referenced the theory that has been made popular in recent years through the fictional novel (and major motion picture), The DaVinci Code. In the book, author Dan Brown inflates the theory that Mary Magdalen was the wife of Christ, was pregnant during the time of his cruxification, and later fled to France with his child.
"It is our contemporary society that has left us with the view of Magdalen as a holy uterus," said Jansen. "But even if we accepted the notion, there is no compelling evidence that Jesus and Magdalen were married and had children… Brown was able to [prey on] the popular imagination with this idea."
The Louise Doherty Wyant professorship was established by the late Louise Doherty Wyant '63 and her husband, Dr. James Wyant, to be held in the Humanities, History and the Arts, and in honor of Sister Anne Cyril Delaney, SND.
The next Wyant Series Lecture is scheduled for November 1st. Alvo O. Way University Professor and Professor of History at Brown University Gordon Wood will speak on the topic of "What Made the Founders Different?" and discuss his most recent book, Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, which was published in 2006. The lecture will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Janet M. Daley Library Lecture Hall.