Vita Marthae auct. Pseudo-Marcilia
Standard abbreviation: Life Martha
Other titles: none
Clavis numbers: ECCA 563
Category: Apocryphal Acts
Related literature: Life of Mary Magdalene; Golden Legend 105; Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale 92–107
Compiled by: Tony Burke, York University
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Life of Martha of Bethany.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/life-of-martha-of-bethany/
Created April 2024.
1. SUMMARY
The story of Martha is said to have been written in Hebrew by Marcilia (identified as the woman in Luke 11:27 who cries out to Jesus “Blessed is the womb that bore you”), Martha’s maid, and translated into Latin by Syntiche (from Phil 4:2). The author weaves together details about Martha’s life with typological discussion of her role as hostess to Jesus and the apostles (Luke 10:38–42). Martha, along with her siblings Mary Magdalene and Lazarus, is the daughter of Syrus, a wealthy governor of Syria and preacher in Athens, and Eucharia. From her youth, Martha was skilled in Hebrew and followed the law; she is also physically beautiful, educated in works appropriate to women, known for works of charity, and avoids contact with men.
Upon the death of Syrus, the children inherit three towns: Magdala, Bethany, and part of Jerusalem. Martha is a woman of great hospitality and regularly hosts Jesus and the apostles in her home. After Jesus’ ascension, Martha gives her possessions to the apostles and crosses the sea with Mary and Maximus to Marseilles. There they preach and perform healings. Nearby, in the forest between Arles and Avignon, there lives a creature that is half land animal and half fish; it terrorizes passersby, kills livestock, and submerges ships. It is described as having the head of a lion, claws like a bear, and a tail like a snake. According to legend, it is a descendant of the Leviathan and Bonasus and came from Galatia. No-one has been able to slay the beast, so the people come to Martha for help. She finds it in the forest devouring a man; she throws holy water on it and holds up a wooden cross, freezing the creature in its tracks. This allows Martha to bind it with her holy belt and then the people kill it with spears and stones. The creature is called Tirascurus and after its death, the place where it lives is renamed from Nerluc (Black Forest) to Tirasconus (Tarascon). Martha remains there and over time a basilica is built in honour of the Virgin Mary.
Then follows another tale set in Avignon in which a young man jumps into a river so that he can get closer to Martha as she preaches. He is submerged in the fast-moving water. When his body is found the following day, Martha revives him and thereby brings many people to belief.
One day Martha is visited by Maximus, Trophium of Arles, and Eutropius of Orange. They consecrate a church to her on 17 December; during the celebratory banquet, water is turned into wine. Soon after, Martha intercedes for the bishops Fronto of Perigueux and Georgius of Velay who are expelled from their own cities for preaching.
Martha grows older and one day she is visited by Jesus, who announces that she will die in a year’s time. On the eighth day before her death, Martha hears choirs of angels bearing the soul of Mary Magdalene into heaven. Mary returns on the night before Martha’s death, relighting the lamps arrayed around her that are extinguished by demons. Jesus comes too and promises Martha that he will hear the entreaties of the needy who will visit Martha’s tomb. The next day, Michael appears and takes her soul to heaven. She was 65.
Two stories finish the text. In one, Jesus spirits Fronto to Martha’s funeral. And in the second, Clovis, the king of the Franks and Teutons is healed of a serious kidney problem at the site of Martha’s tomb. It is said that anyone who comes to the tomb who is sinful will be punished by God in this life or the next.
An alternate ending (cataloged as BLM 5546b) expands the episode of the consecration of Martha’s church. One of the expansions is a visit by Jesus. He comes to consecrate the cemetery adjacent to the church and grants that no Christian would be forbidden burial there and their bodies would be protected from harassment by demons. In memory of this vision of the Lord, the attendant bishops build an altar in the cemetary, inscribe it with Greek letters, and set in order divine ceremonies to be celebrated there.
Named historical figures and characters: Abraham (patriarch), Bonasus, Clovis, Dionysius the Aeropagite, Epaphras, Eucharia, Euchodius, Eutropius (of Aquitaine), Eutropius (of Orange), Ferrucius, Fronto, Georgius (of Velay), Germanus, Gracianus, Irenaeus of Lyon, John (son of Zebedee), Julianus, Lazarus (of Bethany), Leviathan, Luke (evangelist), Marcilia, Martha (of Bethany), Martialus, Mary (Virgin), Mary Magdalene, Mary (of Bethany), Maximus (bishop), Parmenas, Peter (apostle), Remy (bishop), Saturninus, Sergius Paulus, Simon the leper, Sosthenes, Syntiche, Syrus (father of Martha), Tirascurus, Trophimus (of Arles), Urcissinus.
Geographical locations: Aix, Aquitaine, Arles, Athens, Avignon, Ayliscampis, Bethany, Bourges, Brittany, Egypt, Galatia, Gaul, Israel, Jerusalem, Jordan River, Le Mans, Lyon, Marseille, Narbonne, Nerluc, Orange, Périgueux, Poitiers, Rheims, Rhône River, Saintonge, Syria, Tarascon, Toulouse, Tours, Vaucogne, Velay.
2. RESOURCES
2.1 Web Sites and Other Online Resources
“Martha.” Wikipedia.
“Tarasque.” Wikipedia.
“Pseudo-Rabanus Maurus’ Life of Mary Magdalene and her Sister Martha.” Magdalen College. Posted 22 July 2014.
2.2 Art and Iconography
A fifteenth-century statue in the église Saint-Germain at Saint-Germain-le-Gaillard (Manche). LINK.
Late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century Hours of Henry VIII (New York, Morgan Library and Museum, H.8, fol. 191v. LINK.
A fifteenth-century panel painting in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chambéry. LINK.
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Life of St. Martha by Pseudo-Marcilia (BHL 5545–5547)
Freiburg, Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire/Kantons- und Universitätsbibliothek, Ms. L 5, fols. 134r–140r (13th cent.) ~ e-codices
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 3809a, fols. 242r–245r (15th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 3820, fols. 28v–34v (14th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 5345, fols. 16v–21v (12th cent.)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 5052, fols. 89v–97v (12th cent.) ~ DVL
Mombritius, Boninus, ed. Sanctuarium seu Vitae sanctorum. Novam editionem curaverunt duo monachi Solesmenses. 2 vols. 1480. New edition, Paris: Albertum Fontemoing, 1910; repr. New York: Hildesheim, 1978 (Latin text, vol. 2, pp. 231–39).
3.1.2 Vita Beatae Mariae Magdalenae et sororis eius Sanctae Marthae (BHL 5508)
Oxford, Magdalene College, Lat. 89(1) (15th cent.)
Faillon, E. M. Monuments inédits sur l’apostolat de Sainte Marie-Madeleine en Provence. Paris: Migne, 1848 (vol. 2, cols. 454–556).
Migne, Jacques-Paul. Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Series Latina. 217 vols. Paris, 1844–1864 (reprint of Faillon’s text in vol. 112, cols. 1431–1508).
Saxer, Victor. “La ‘Vie de Sainte Marie Madeleine,’ attribuée au pseudo-Raban Maur, oeuvre claravallienne du XIIe.” Pages 408–21 in Mélanges saint Bernard. XXIVe Congrès de l’Association bourguignonne des Sociétés savantes (8e Centenaire de la mort de saint Bernard), Dijon, 1953. Dijon: Association des amis de saint Bernard, 1954.
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Mycoff, David. The Life of Saint Mary Magdalene and of Her Sister Saint Martha: A Medieval Biography. Cistercian Studies 108. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1989 (translation of the Vita Beatae).
Peters, Diane. “The Early Latin Sources for the Legend of St. Martha: A Study and Translation with Critical Notes.” MA thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University, 1990 (translations of Pseudo-Marcilia, pp. 75–104; Vita Beatae, pp. 109–51; Vincent of Beauvais, pp. 152–71; Golden Legend, pp. 172–78).
3.3 General Works
Bolland, Jean, et al., eds. Acta Sanctorum, Julii. Vol. 7. Antwerp: P. Jacobs, 1680. 3rd ed. Paris: V. Palmé, 1868 (cols. 15–24).
Herrick, Samantha Kahn. “Studying Apostolic Hagiography: The Case of Fronto of Périgueux, Disciple of Christ.” Speculum 85.2 (2010): 235–70.
Peeters, Diane E. “The Life of Martha of Bethany by Pseudo-Marcilia.” TS 58 (1997): 441–60.
Skowronek, Malgorzata. “The First Witnesses. Martha, Longinus and Veronica in the Slavic Manuscript Tradition (Initual Observations).” Studia Cereana 1 (2011): 101–26.
Wyche, Romy. “Written in Stone: The Medieval Lives of Roman Sarcophagi in Saint-Maximim.” Medieval History Journal 26.2 (2023): 273–92 (see p. 278).