Maria Paula Suarez Caicedo

Student number: S3990605

Summary- From Christian religion to feminist spirituality: Mary Magdalene pilgrimages

to La Sainte-Baume, France 

In this text, the author wants to show how the people pilgrimaging to the mountain of La Sainte-
Baume to connect to Mary Magdalene separated from their Christian and Catholic background
and moved towards what they call a ‘spiritual’ position. These pilgrims consider Mary
Magdalene as a female counterpart of Jesus, and they go to this mountain to be charged with the
energy of this saint. The author wants to show how these people reconceptualize Mary
Magdalene and make their interpretation of her value, distancing themselves from what they feel
has been a misappropriation by the ‘Church’. 

This figure of Maria Magdalena has always been controversial. In the history of Christianity and
Catholicism, she has had several interpretations. On the one hand, it was considered for a long
time as the prototype of the repentant sinner. But then it was considered the most faithful disciple
of Jesus. Later, because of several bestsellers, she was considered the companion and even the
legitimate wife of Jesus, and with that, she was considered his equal. 

It is from this tradition that pilgrims understand the figure of Mary Magdalene. many of them
share notions with various pagan spiritual groups such as Neopagans, feminist spiritualists,
Ivakhiv’s pilgrims, female ‘Goddess pilgrims’ and American ‘Religious Creatives’. Most of
them have in common the criticism of Catholicism and Christianity (what they call the Church)
because they are centered on the male figure of Jesus and because they are partially responsible
for male domination. For this reason, several of them want to revendicate the figure of Mary
Magdalene as the feminine divinity and the representation of the sacred feminine. These reasons
are also related, for several of these groups, to Mother Earth as a source of primarily feminine
energy and to her protection and care.

It should be noted that Mary Magdalene pilgrims did not adopt these beliefs suddenly. By the
time of the journey, most of them were already trained in interpreting the world in terms of
‘energy’. Although they came from very different backgrounds, they have done workshops and
readings regarding these matters. Through these tools, they reinterpreted a Christian saint. It was
not a complete denial of their Christian background but a new interpretation of it. Within this
framework, it was very important for the pilgrims to connect with the energy of this sacred place,
as well, as with the energy of Mary Magdalene, and the ‘original’ meaning of this symbol. They
were trying to subvert the Christian and Catholic system, in terms of gender, by claiming the
importance of a female deity and its relationship with the forces of ‘Mother Earth’. With this
reinterpretation of their Christian background, they were allowed to move towards a different
kind of spirituality with which they feel more identified and fulfill.