Sainte Mary-Magdalene
Since the first centuries kings and popes, Christians, saints and penitents came to accomplish their pilgrimages near Sainte Mary-Magdalene at the cave of the Saint-Baume.
Mary-Magdalene is the very woman from whom Christ cast out 7 demons. Once purified she became, along with the 12 apostles and some other woman, a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ.
She is one of the few disciples present at the cross, weeping her heart out for the one who offers himself on the cross. On Easter morning, Saint Mary-Magdalene first mistook Him for the gardener, but then recognized the resurrected Christ. He charged her to announce his resurrection to the apostles, which made her an apostle to the apostles.
Soon afterwards, according to legend, she went to the sea and boarded a vessel with her brother Lazarus and her sister Martha. They sailed westwards and the boat reached land at the coast of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.
She travelled with her brother Lazarus to Marseille, from where she followed the river Huveaume upstream and settled down at the Sainte-Baume mountain, where she spend the last 30 years of her life in penance, dedicating her whole life to the conversion of the sinners
