Martha

Martha (1st century). The sister of Lazarus and of Mary who is often identified with Mary Magdalene, Martha received Christ in their household at Bethany, which was specially loved by him (Luke 10: 38–42), on which occasion he gently reproved her for her complaint that her sister Mary did not help her sufficiently in the necessary preparations. The words of Christ were frequently represented as indicating the excellence of the contemplative life (represented by Mary) over the cares of the active life, represented by Martha. In the Gospel of John, Martha also appeared on the occasion of the Raising of Lazarus ( John 11: 1–46), when her faith in Christ and his divine power was the occasion for the famous words ‘I am the resurrection and the life’, and for the miracle of Lazarus' return to life. It was also recorded that Christ once again had supper at Bethany, where Martha served him six days before the passover ( John 12: 1–2). This is all that can be known of her from the New Testament; there is no early tradition about her death.

But a medieval legend arose which connected her, Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus with the evangelization of Provence: Martha's supposed relics were discovered and enshrined in 1187 at Tarascon. Her iconography depends both on the authentic data of the Gospel and on the historically worthless Provençal legends. She is invoked as the patron of housewives and lay sisters, and her attributes are a ladle, a broom, or a bunch of keys; but she is also represented with a dragon, which she was supposed to have tamed at Tarascon by aspersing him with holy water and wrapping her sash round his neck, before leading him to Arles, where he was killed. She is also represented in scenes of the Raising of Lazarus, as in the fine Romanesque sculptures at Chichester cathedral.

Feast: 29 July in the West. There is much divergence about her feast in antiquity: an interpolator in the Martyrology of Jerome places her with her brother and sister on 19 January; Ado on 17 October; while the Greeks cult her on 6 June among the holy women who brought spices to anoint Christ's body.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• AA.SS. Iul. VI (1729), 4–13
• E. Vacandard, ‘La Venue de Lazare et Marie‐Madeleine en Provence’, Revue des Questions Historiques, c (1924), 257–305