MAGDALENE, MAGDALEYNE, MAUDELEYNE (saint). Mary of Magdala in Galilee, fl. first century A.D., was one of the women whom Jesus healed of evil spirits (Luke 8:2). On the third day after the crucifixion she came to the garden where Jesus was buried, and an angel told her that Jesus had arisen. Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:1-11). Mary Magdalene is identified with Martha's sister in the South-English Legendary and the Legenda aurea.

In his homily on envy the Parson says that Judas was envious when Mary Magdalene poured her precious ointment on Jesus's head, ParsT 500-503. The account in John 12:1-6 tells that Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, anointed Jesus. Other accounts in the Gospels do not mention the woman's name (Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9). The Parson says that resentment comes because of pride as when Simon the Pharisee resented the Magdalene for weeping at Jesus's feet, ParsT 503-504. Luke's account of the incident says that "a woman who was a sinner" anointed Jesus's feet with precious ointment (Luke 7:37-39). Mary Magdalene is identified with the peccatrix (sinner) in Gregory's XL Homiliae in evangelica XXX and XXXIII (PL 16: 1189, 1238-1246). Mary's ointment is the sweet odor of Holy Church, ParsT 947-1000. Alceste reminds the God of Love that Chaucer has translated "Orygenes upon the Maudeleyne," LGW F 428, LGW G 418. She refers to De Maria Magdalena, a popular medieval Latin homily attributed to Origen, the earliest manuscripts of which date from the thirteenth century. J.P. McCall points out that Homelia Origenis de Maria Magdalena follows the medieval Latin tradition and not the Greek tradition, to which Origen belonged. It enjoyed wide circulation between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. McCall lists some 162 manuscripts in Latin, French, Italian, Portuguese, Provençal, Castilian, Dutch, Czech, and English. R. Woolf suggests that Chaucer may have been asked to translate the work for a noble lady. McCall points out that there is some resemblance between the sorrowing Magdalene and Alcyone in The Book of the Duchess and between the Magdalene and the women of The Legend of Good Women. [Origenes]

Maudeleyne is the ME development of OE and Latin Magdalene. OE /ag/ becomes ME /au/, as in OE lagu > ME lawe. Magdalene appears in the Parson's Tale; Maudeleyne occurs in final rhyming position, Gen Prol 410, as the name of the Shipman's barge, and in LGW F 428, LGW G 418.