Originally from Magdala in Galilee, Mary Magdalene was one of the Lord’s most intimate disciples and is often associated with the woman from whom he drove out seven demons. She remained with the Lord during his last agony on the cross and, according to the evangelists Mark and John, was the first to see him after the resurrection. Tradition relates that she spent her last years as a hermit in Provence France. By the twelfth century, devotion to her was widespread in the western Church. – CTS New Daily Roman Missal 2012, p 2841; Christian Prayer 1990, p 1173
