Mary Magdalene, Sarah, and “He Who Has Risen from the Dead”

Construction dimensions: The base is 36” long x 24” wide. Mary M. and “He Who” are 26” tall; Sarah is 16” tall.

Materials and techniques: Mary Magdalene and “He Who…” are wire-based forms, stuffed with wool batting, covered with “doll skin,” and painted. Their faces are painted Paperclay. Her hair is dyed wool roving; his is dyed mohair. He is wrapped in a single length of white cotton and has an ankh dangling from a chain that hangs around his neck; she wears a wrapped white cotton gown covered by a caftan of silk noile, dyed with natural mineral dyes; she wears an semi-precious stone pendant decorated with a silver snake. They both wear leather sandals. Sarah is made from a stained wooden artist’s manikin; her face is made from painted Model Magic; her hair is dyed mohair. Sarah’s dress is coarse Japanese blue cotton.

THE INSPIRATION AND INTENTION: I recently read a fascinating book about Mary Magdalene by Siobhan Houston (Sounds True Publ.) and starting thinking about the legends that surround her, including the “alternative history” stories that claim she married Jesus and, after he disappeared from his tomb in the cave, they fled to Egypt. Some alternative-history writers (and several novelists) suggest that the Holy Grail (San grael) was actually the Holy Blood (Sang rael): their child, Sarah, brought to France almost 2000 years ago.
Some years ago my husband and I visited Les Saintes Maries de la Mer in southern France, in the Camargue region, near Arles. Legends report that around 40 CE a group of holy women and their companions (including Martha, Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, and the “servant” Sarah the Egyptian) were cast adrift from the Holy Land in a boat without a mast or oars. (The number and names of the voyagers varies with the telling, but Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, and Sarah the Egyptian are always included.) According to legend, the boat was miraculously transported to the shores of the Camargue. Over the years, some of this holy group spread purportedly Christianity throughout the region. For example, it is said that Mary Magdalene went to Sainte-Baume, Martha to Tarascon, and so on…. An oratory was built and later a fortified church. Relics of several of the saints lay hidden within.
Beginning around the mid-1400s, with the re-discovery of the relics of Sarah and the coincidental arrival of gypsy tribes in the Camargue, the veneration of Sarah began to grow. The Great Pilgrimage of the Saints takes place May 24-25 each year, during which various effigies are taken out to the sea under the supervision of horse-back-riding gypsy “guardians.”
When we visited Les Stes Maries, we saw Sarah’s effigy in the crypt of the church. We watched a young gypsy boy being taught to venerate her by his grandfather. He lit a candle and made a prayer…. A large glass-fronted cabinet next to Sarah was brimming with notes and milagros, acclaiming the miracles credited to her intervention. That’s a lot of attention for an Egyptian servant girl to have attracted.
Back home, years later, as I pondered these legends my attention was drawn to the presence of Lazarus—he who was raised from the grave by Jesus. But Jesus was also “raised from the grave.” What if—what if it wasn’t Lazarus at all but Jesus who traveled by boat to southern France? What if this ancient legend, now long since garbled, actually attested to the arrival of Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and their child, Sarah, on the shores of the Camargue? What if that’s the true story hidden beneath the legend?
Of course, there’s no way to prove it, and I for one have no need. I’m just speculating. What if…. What if Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married? What if they had a child? What if?

SOME QUESTIONS: What if Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married and had a child? What if they fled after the crucifixion and somehow sailed to France? What does it mean to be “a child of God”—not “The Son of God”? What does it mean to walk on water? Have you ever had to flee oppression? Where did you go?