Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene What on earth, you may rightly ask, has the 1966 Western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to do with Mary Magdalene? Nothing much really. However, while I was cogitating about her new status among saints, Ennio Morricone's haunting theme song sprang to mind. Instantly, I knew there must be some connection. The lasting legacy of this movie's well known theme song, regarded as one of the best of all times, speaks to me of the legacy of Mary Magdalene - of the good, the bad and the ugly written about her. Did I mention that Morricone’s composition was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009? No, I did not; neither did I mention Mary Magdalene finally being given her rightful place by dear Pope Francis - her induction into a different sort of 'Hall of Fame.' Half a century ago, this year, we first heard the instantly recognizable theme music of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The good, the bad and the ugly about Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, has been widely proclaimed for nearly 2000 years. At times it is helpful to turn things upside down. So let me start with some of the prolific ugly written about Mary of Magdala, (also referred to as the red head, the courtesan, the prostitute or even the vamp) and then work my way through some of the bad. I'll keep the good for last. We all know her story from Sacred Scripture. In more recent years, however, a glut of books about Mary Magdalene, spawned in part by Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, has flooded the book market.
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