from the revolutionary yoke.

_Feast of St. Mary Magdalen_. Commentators on Sacred Scripture are not
agreed whether Mary of Magdala was the sister of Lazarus or whether
there were two or three Marys connected with our Lord--Mary the sister
of Lazarus, Mary of Magdala, and Mary the sinner named in St. Luke's
Gospel vii. 27. The Roman liturgy seems to favour the opinion that Mary
of Magdala was the sister of Lazarus, and that she was a sinner and was
possessed by seven devils. The history of Mary Magdalen after our Lord's
death has been written, with large and varied additions of adventure, by
pious mediaevalists. In the Western Church, traces of the saint's cultus
are met with in Bede and his contemporaries. But devotion far and wide
begins with mediaeval times. The many legends which have grown up
around her name and history have so obscured historic truth that the
Breviary gives no historic lessons on her feast day, but gives as a
lesson part of a homily from St. Gregory. Some of the legends may be
found in the Office of St. Martha (July, 29th).

_August. The Assumption._ "In all probability this is the earliest of
our Lady's festivals" (Kellner, _op. cit._, p. 235). Early writers
mention the Garden of Gethsemani as the place of Mary's burial and the
third year--some say the twelfth year--after our Lord's death as the
year of her death. St. John Damascene relying on the writings of
Euthymius tells us what we know of the Assumption. He tells that the
wife of the Emperor Marcian (450-457) wished to transfer our Lady's
relics from Jerusalem to Constantinople and was informed by Juvenal,
Bishop of Jerusalem, that such relics were not in Jerusalem. The Blessed
Mother had been buried there, in the Garden of Gethsemani, in the
presence of the Apostles, Thomas alone being absent. On his arrival he
wished to venerate the Mother of God; the tomb was opened for him, but
nothing was found save the linen grave-clothes, which gave forth a sweet
perfume. The Apostles concluded that Christ had taken to Heaven the body
which had borne Him. The Emperor Maurice ordered the date, the 15th
August, long and widely recognised, to be the date of this annual
festival. However, some churches celebrated it on other dates. In the
Gothico-Gallic missal of the eighth century, the feast is fixed for the
18th January. The festival was called sometimes _dormitio Mariae,
pausatio Mariae_. It was celebrated in Rome at the end of the seventh
century, b