| Show MAIn MAGDALENES GRAVE I Said to Have Ended Her Days in the Sonili of France Fifteen thousand pilgrims annually visit St Baume in Provence not far from Marseilles in France where Mary Magdalene is said to have spent the last thirty years of her life The legend according to the Nouvelle 1 Revue runs that Mary Magdalene came from Judea in a small boat with Lazarus Laz-arus Martha the two Marys and Salome Sa-lome bringing with them the body of St Anne the head of St James the Less and a few wee bones of the innocents inno-cents massacred by King Herod But from early ages this story has been disputed and the Abbe Duchene one I of the most erudite writers on the I early Christian saints and martyrs considers that the relics of Mary Mag dalene were probably sent from Constantinople Con-stantinople about the seventh century Ii A Greek breviary however speaks of the saint as having died at Ephesus I The pilgrimages are to a kind of grotto which is supposed by local traditions I tra-ditions to have been the place where Mary Magdalene spent her old age Be that as it may it seems that there is no older or more picturesque place of pilgrimage in Europe In addition there can be seen at St Baume a forest for-est which as practically been kept intact in-tact since the days of old Gaul The Dominicans convent is practically the I only inn in those parts and every visitor vis-itor had to put up with the severely plain accommodation provided by a monastic cell and simple but clean food The convent contains about 100beds the lady visitors are served by nuns the gentlemen by monks The convent con-vent which looks almost as ancient as the grotto is situated on the edge of a vast rocky chain of hills and almost I al-most opposite the monastery half way up the steep incline is the famous grotto cut into the solid rock There a wide platform is hewn out partly occupied at present by a second convent con-vent The grotto is about twentyfive yards square eight yards high and to all intents and purposes a chapeL The principal altar is surmounted by a fine statue representing Mary Magdalene I praying It is strange to stand on the spot apart from the feeling connected I with the great saint to whom it is Dedicated and to think of all those who have stood in the grottoN Y Recorder |
