Righteous Mary of Bethany

IMPORTANT NOTE: this entry's images originally included a non-iconographic, scholarly reference diagram (a table comparing the Gospel anointing narratives — Luke 7, Mark 14, John 11-12, Luke 10, Luke 16), which is not an image of the saint — it has been excluded from the image list as not matching the expected format.

Righteous Mary was the sister of Martha and Lazarus of the Four Days, residents of Bethany near Jerusalem. In the Gospel she appears sitting at Christ's feet, listening to His word, instead of helping her sister with household service (Luke 10:38-42) — for which the Lord praised her, saying she had chosen "the good part." Shortly before the Passion, she anointed Christ's feet with precious nard myrrh, which the Savior interpreted as preparation for His burial (John 12:1-8). She was also present at the raising of her brother Lazarus (John 11).

After the risen Lazarus was later forced to leave Judea, tradition holds that Martha and Mary accompanied him and assisted in preaching the Gospel in various lands; tradition preserves no reliable record of the time or place of her peaceful death.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Orthodox tradition has always distinguished Mary of Bethany from Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene (already documented in our database as a separate entry, mary_magdalene) — it was Western medieval tradition that mistakenly conflated Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the unnamed "sinful woman" of Luke 7 into one person; the Eastern Church has always clearly distinguished these three women, each with her own veneration and hagiography.

Her feast is kept on June 4/17 (together with her sister Martha), and she is also commemorated in the service of Lazarus Saturday (movable, on the eve of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem).