Saint Mary Salome
Greek fresco of St Salome
Myrrhbearer, Midwife
Died 1st century
Venerated in Roman Catholicism
Eastern Catholicism
Eastern Orthodoxy
Feast 24 April (Roman
Catholic)
22 October (Roman
Catholic)
3 August (Eastern
Orthodox, Eastern
Catholic & Lutheran
Church–Missouri
Synod)
Sunday of the
Myrrhbearers
(Eastern Orthodox &
Eastern Catholic)
Attributes Thurible
Salome (disciple)
Salome was a follower of Jesus who appears briefly in the canonical
gospels and in apocryphal writings. She is named by Mark as present
at the crucifixion and as one of the women who found Jesus's tomb
empty. Interpretation has further identified her with other women who
are mentioned but not named in the canonical gospels. In particular,
she is often identified as the wife of Zebedee, the mother of James and
John, two of the Twelve apostles.
[1]
In medieval tradition Salome (as
Mary Salome) was counted as one of the Three Marys who were
daughters of Saint Anne, so making her the sister or half-sister of
Mary, mother of Jesus.
[2]
Name
In the canonical gospels
In non-canonical works
Sainthood
Legend of Saint Anne's three husbands
Salome the midwife
See also
References
Citations
Sources
External links
"Salome" may be the Hellenized form of a Hebrew name derived
from the root word םֹול ָ ׁש (shalom), meaning "peace".
[3]
The name was a common one; apart from the famous dancing
"daughter of Herodias", both a sister and daughter of Herod the Great
were called Salome, as well as Queen Salome Alexandra (d. 67 BC),
the last independent ruler of Judea.
In Mark 15:40-41, Salome is named as one of the women present at
the crucifixion who also ministered to Jesus: "There were also women
looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses;
Contents
Name
In the canonical gospels
Eastern Orthodox icon of the two
Marys and Salome at the Tomb of
Jesus (Kizhi, 18th century).
Crucifixion, from the Buhl Altarpiece,
1490s. Salome is one of the two
leftmost women with a halo.
Mary Salome is the figure in the
right-hand panel in this altarpiece of
the Holy Kinship by Lucas Cranach
the Elder.
and Salome who also followed Him and ministered to Him when he
was in Galilee. And many other women who followed Him to
Jerusalem."(15:40-41, King James Version) The parallel passage of
Matthew 27:56 reads thus: "Among which was Mary Magdalene, and
Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's
children." The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) concludes that the
Salome of Mark 15:40 is probably identical with the mother of the
sons of Zebedee in Matthew; the latter is also mentioned in Matthew
20:20, in which she petitions Jesus to let her sons sit with him in
Paradise.
[4]
In John, three, or perhaps four, women are mentioned at the
crucifixion; this time they are named as Jesus' "mother, and his
mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene."
(John 19:25 KJV) A common interpretation identifies Salome as the
sister of Jesus' mother, thus making her Jesus' aunt.
[1]
Traditional
interpretations associate Mary the wife of Cleophas (the third woman
in the Gospel of John) with Mary the mother of James son of
Alphaeus (the third woman in the Gospel of Matthew).
In the Gospel of Mark, Salome is among the women who went to
Jesus' tomb to anoint his body with spices. "And when the sabbath
was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and
Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint
him." (Mark 16:1 KJV) They discovered that the stone had been
rolled away, and a young man in white then told them that Jesus had
risen, and told them to tell Jesus' disciples that he would meet them in
Galilee. In Matthew 28:1, two women are mentioned in the parallel
passage: Mary Magdalene and the "other Mary" identified
previously in Matthew 27:56 as Mary the mother of James and Joses.
The canonical gospels never go so far as to label Salome a "disciple"
("pupil" mathētēs), and so mainstream Christian writers usually
describe her as a "follower" of Jesus per references to the women
who "followed" and "ministered" to Jesus (Mark 15:41). However,
feminist critiques have argued that the mainstream tradition
consistently underplays the significance of Jesus's female supporters.
The Gospel of Thomas found at Nag Hammadi mentions among the
"disciples" of Jesus (the Greek expression "apostles" does not appear)
two women, Salome and Mary Magdalene (referred to simply as
"Mary", The name might also denote Salome's mother Mary, the
sister of Elizabeth and Anne who is the mother of Christ's mother
Mary. Thus Salome's mother Mary would be Jesus' great aunt, the
sister of his grandmother Anne and aunt of his mother.)
The Diatessaron, which is part of the Ante-Nicene Fathers collection,
separates Salome and the mother of the sons of Zebedee as two distinct persons, contrary to tradition that
identify them. "And there were in the distance all the acquaintance of Jesus standing, and the women that
came with Him from Galilee, those that followed Him and ministered. One of them was Mary Magdalene; and
In non-canonical works
Salome (right) and the midwife (left), bathing the
infant Jesus, is a common figure in Orthodox icons
of the Nativity (fresco, 12th century, "Dark
Church", Open Air Museum, Goreme, Cappadocia.
Mary the mother of James the little and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, and Salome, and many
others which came up with Him unto Jerusalem." (Diatessaron 52:21-23)
The controversial Secret Gospel of Mark, that was referred to and quoted in the Mar Saba letter ascribed by his
modern editors
[5]
to Clement of Alexandria, contains a further mention of Salome which is not present in the
canonical Mark at 10:46. Clement quotes the passage in his letter: "Then he came into Jericho. And the sister
of the young man whom Jesus loved was there with his mother and Salome, but Jesus would not receive
them." The lines complete a well-known lacuna in Mark as the text currently stands.
In the non-canonical Greek Gospel of the Egyptians (2nd century), Salome appears again as a disciple of
Jesus. She asks him how long death would hold sway, and he says to her, "So long as women bring forth, for I
come to end the works of the female." To this Salome replies, "Then I have done well in not bringing forth." It
would appear from this text that there was an early tradition that Salome the disciple was childless, and
possibly unmarried.
In the Gospel of Thomas there is a reference to Jesus reclining on a couch and eating at a table that belonged to
Salome and being asked by her: "Who are you sir, that you have taken your place on my couch and eaten from
my table?" Jesus answers: "I am he who is from the One, and the things that belong to the Father have been
given to me." Salome replies, "But I am your disciple", and Jesus answers, "When the disciple is united he
will be filled with light, but if he is divided he will be filled with darkness."
A 2nd-century Greek, Celsus, wrote a True Discourse attacking the Christian sects as a threat to the Roman
state. He described the variety of Christian sects at the time he was writing, c. AD 178, as extremely broad.
His treatise is lost, but quotes survive in the attack written somewhat later by Origen, Contra Celsum
("Against Celsus"): "While some of the Christians proclaim [that] they have the same god as do the Jews,
others insist that there is another god higher than the creator-god and opposed to him. And some Christians
teach that the Son came from this higher god. Still others admit of a third god - those, that is to say, who call
themselves gnostics - and still others, though calling themselves Christians, want to live according to the laws
of the Jews. I could also mention those who call themselves Simonians after Simon, and those naming
themselves Helenians after Helen, his consort. There are Christian sects named after Marcellina, Harpocratian
Christians who trace themselves to Salome, and some who follow Mariamne and others who follow Martha,
and still others who call themselves Marcionites after their leader, Marcion."
In the early Christian texts, there are several other
references to "Salome". A Salome appears in the infancy
gospel attached to the name of James the Just, the
Protevangelion of James, ch. XIV:
"14 And the midwife went out from the cave,
and Salome met her. 15 And the midwife said
to her, "Salome, Salome, I will tell you a most
surprising thing, which I saw. 16 A virgin has
brought forth, which is a thing contrary to
nature." 17 To which Salome replied, "As the
Lord my God lives, unless I receive particular
proof of this matter, I will not believe that a
virgin has brought forth."
18 Then Salome went in, and the midwife
said, "Mary, show yourself, for a great
controversy has arisen about you." 19 And
Salome tested her with her finger. 20 But her hand was withered, and she groaned bitterly, 21
and said, "Woe to me, because of my iniquity! For I have tempted the living God, and my
hand is ready to drop off."
That Salome is the first, after the midwife, to bear witness to the Miraculous Birth and to recognize Jesus as the
Christ, are circumstances that tend to connect her with Salome the disciple. By the High Middle Ages this
Salome was often (but not always) identified with Mary Salome in the West, and therefore regarded as the
believing midwife.
[6]
An apocryphal Coptic Book of the Resurrection of Christ, attributed to the apostle Bartholomew, names the
women who went to the tomb. Among them were: Mary Magdalene; Mary the mother of James, whom Jesus
delivered out of the hand of Satan; Mary who ministered to him; Martha her sister; Joanna (perhaps also
Susanna) who renounced the marriage bed; and "Salome who tempted him".
Saint Salome is commemorated in the Eastern Orthodox Church on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, i.e., the
third Sunday of Pascha (Easter), and on August 3.
[7][8]
Her feast day in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church is April 24
[9][10]
or October 22.
[11]
In the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, her feast is on August 3 with Joanna and
Mary.
In art, she is often portrayed with the Holy Family in paintings of the Holy Kinship. She is also portrayed
holding a thurible as a symbol of her sacrifice and faith in Jesus Christ.
According to a legend propounded by Haymo of Auxerre in the mid-9th century,
[12]
but rejected by the
Council of Trent,
[13]
Saint Anne had, by different husbands, three daughters, all of whom bore the name Mary
and who are referred to as the Three Marys:
Mary, the mother of Jesus
Mary of Clopas
Salome, in this tradition called Mary Salome (as in the tradition of the three Marys at the tomb)
Mary Magdalene is not part of this group.
[14]
Mary Salome thus becomes the half-sister of the Virgin Mary.
This account was included in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, written in about 1260.
[15]
It was the
subject of a long poem in rhymed French written in about 1357 by Jean de Venette. The poem is preserved in
a mid-15th-century manuscript on vellum containing 232 pages written in columns. The titles are in red and
illuminated in gold. It is decorated with seven miniatures in monochrome gray.
[16][17]
For some centuries, religious art throughout Germany and the Low Countries frequently presented Saint Anne
with her husbands, daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren as a group known as the Holy Kinship. During
the Reformation the idea of the three husbands was rejected by Protestants, and by the Council of Trent by
Catholic theologians also, but Salome continued to be regarded as probably the sister of the Virgin Mary, and
the wife of Zebedee, and mother of the two apostles.
[2]
The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 said (rather more
cautiously than leading 19th-century Protestant books of biblical reference) that "some writers conjecture more
or less plausibly that she is the sister of the Blessed Virgin mentioned in John 19:25".
[4]
Sainthood
Legend of Saint Anne's three husbands
Salome the midwife
Palermo, c. 1150
Giotto (1267-1337)
Guido da Siena,
13th century
Duccio 1308-1311
Holy Kinship
Mary Salome and Zebedee
Myrrhbearers
Saint Sarah
Salome (Gospel of James)
1. Topical Bible: Salome (http://biblehub.com/topical/s/salome.htm) including Smith's Bible
Dictionary, ATS Bible Dictionary, Easton's Bible Dictionary and International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia
2. "NETBible:Salome" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090901222449/http://net.bible.org/dictionar
y.php?word=salome). Archived from the original (http://net.bible.org/dictionary.php?word=salom
e) on 2009-09-01.
3. Behind the Name: Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Salome (http://www.behindthenam
e.com/name/salome)
4. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Salome" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclope
dia_(1913)/Salome). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
5. In 1980 the Mar Saba letter was included in the revision of the standard edition of works of
Clement of Alexandria: Otto Stählin and Ursula Treu, Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 4.1: Register,
2nd ed. (Berlin:Akademie-Verlag, 1980), XVII–XVIII.
6. G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I,1971 (English translation from German), Lund
Humphries, London, p.62, ISBN 0-85331-270-2
7. https://orthodoxwiki.org/August_3
8. https://web.archive.org/web/20170502211421/http://westserbdio.org/en/prologue/590-august-3
9. Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2001 ISBN 88-209-7210-7
10. http://www.ncregister.com/blog/tdoylenelson/st.-salome-who-went-to-anoint-our-lord
11. https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4962
12. Patrick J. Geary, Women at the Beginning (Princeton University Press 2006
ISBN 9780691124094), p. 72
See also
References
Citations
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew
George (1897). Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons. Missing
or empty |title= (help)
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13. Fernando Lanzi, Gioia Lanzi, Saints and Their Symbols (Liturgical Press 2004
ISBN 9780814629703), p. 37
14. Stefano Zuffi, Gospel Figures in Art (Getty Publication 2003 ISBN 9780892367276), p. 350
15. The Children and Grandchildren of Saint Anne (http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/golde
nLegend/maryNativity.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20121008035040/http://www.
aug.edu/augusta/iconography/goldenLegend/maryNativity.htm) 2012-10-08 at the Wayback
Machine
16. "Le manuscrit médiéval" ~ The Medieval Manuscript, Nov. 2011, p. 1
17. The Chronicle of Jean de Venette, translated by Jean Birdsall. Edited by Richard A. Newhall.
N.Y. Columbia University Press. 1953. Introduction
Sources
External links