Mary Magdalene, first witness to Jesus’s resurrection, has been one of the most misunderstood of all the saints, maligned for centuries as a prostitute, despite there being nothing in the Bible to indicate anything of the sort. The Bible does say that Mary was possessed by demons, and that Jesus healed her. Today, we would call Mary’s problem not possession but a mental health condition. Author Kate Morehead says, “A saint is someone who walks ahead of us, guides us, and keeps us on the path to life . . . . For us, they are role models. Like us, they struggled and journeyed, but they drew closer and each one of them carved out a different path to God. “It is my hope and prayer that by telling the truth of her story, Mary Magdalene might take her rightful place as the guide for those of us who struggle with mental health issues (and if we are truly honest, that means each and every one of us) . . . . It is time for us to let her show us her beautiful, unique, and sometimes frightening path to true health. It is a path that leads directly to heart of God.”
