04/28/2026
Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women
After Pascha, a Sunday is set aside to honor the Myrrhbearing Women who came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body but found it empty. We also honor Saint Joseph of Arimathea and Saint Nicodemos on that Sunday.
The scriptures are vague when it comes to naming the Myrrhbearers or how many there were. However, the saints who studied the subject say there were eight, as shown in the icon above, and that they came to the tomb in different groups, from different places, at different times.
The scriptures are also unclear – at least to us – when it comes to identifying the Theotokos as one of the Myrrhbearers, or talking about the importance of her role and her understanding of Christ’s resurrection.
For instance, Matthew wrote that “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.”
With the earthquake and the blinding light of the angel, the guards posted at the tomb “shook with fear” and “became like dead men.” When they regained consciousness, they ran away. Scripture tells us that they later went to the chief priests, who paid them to say that Jesus’s disciples had stolen his body.
The saints say “the other Mary” that Matthew mentions was indeed the Theotokos. She and Mary Magdalene had set out from Jerusalem well before dawn. They were there to witness the earthquake and the angel’s arrival, but they did not faint or run away.
The saints say the earthquake was not strong enough to wake the inhabitants of nearby Jerusalem, but was sufficient to break the seal on the tomb. The angel then rolled the stone away from the entrance on the groove made when it was put in place.
He did this easily, even though the stone would have weighed about a ton. The saints note that this was not to allow Christ to exit the tomb, which He already had, but to show that the tomb was empty.
Several saints say the angel was the Archangel Gabriel who had tutored the Theotokos when she was growing up in the temple and who had announced that she would be the Mother of God. As he did in the Annunciation, Gabriel told her not to be afraid and explained everything in terms she could understand. His words to her are quoted in the hymn that we sing: “The Angel cried to the Lady, full of grace: Rejoice, O pure Virgin! Again, I say: Rejoice, your Son has risen from His three days in the tomb!”
St. Gregory Palamas said the Theotokos was the first to go into the tomb, followed by Mary Magdalene. But she was alone during her talk with Gabriel, and when her Son appeared and greeted her with the word “Rejoice!”
That’s because when Mary Magdalene heard and saw these things, she seemed to panic and immediately ran out to tell Peter and John that “They have taken away the Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.” The apostles then ran to the tomb to see for themselves.
Some time after sunrise, the other Myrrhbearers – minus Mary Magdalene – arrived at the tomb. They included Joanna, the wife of Herod’s chief steward; Salome, daughter of Joseph the Betrothed and mother of Apostles James and John, and Mary, Joseph’s daughter and the wife of Cleopas. He was Joseph’s brother and one of the 70 apostles sent out by Jesus. When Joseph returned from Egypt, he gave his young daughter to be married to his younger brother.
There was also Susanna who, like Joanna and Mary Magdalene, was one of the wealthy women who followed Jesus and supported him throughout his three-year ministry. Mary and Martha, the last two Myrrhbearers, also fell into this category. They were also dear friends of Jesus, as was their brother Lazarus.
When they came to the tomb, the other women saw not one but two angels who asked, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” and reminded them that Jesus had said he would be crucified and would rise on the third day.
Matthew says the women went from the tomb “with fear and great joy, and ran to give the apostles word.” St. Gregory said it was probably the Theotokos who had the joy and the others who had the fear. After being reassured by Gabriel and seeing her Son, she was the only one who really comprehended the meaning of the angels’ words, or the significance of what she saw, he said.
John wrote that Mary Magdalene had her own encounter with the risen Lord, whom she did not recognize until He said her name. She had probably rejoined the other women by the time they went to tell the other disciples.
As the women walked, Jesus appeared to them saying, “Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.” Matthew writes that the women “came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him,” but the saints say it was likely the Theotokos who embraced His feet.
In addition to Matthew’s reference to “the other Mary,” he also called the Theotokos “the mother of James and Joses.” In Mark and Luke she’s called “Mary the mother of James,” while John just mentions Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb.
So why did the Gospel writers seem to downplay or disguise the Mother of God’s presence among the Myrrhbearing Women? There are a number of reasons.
First, they didn’t want her to be the source of the news that Jesus had risen from the dead in case people – especially unbelievers – would dismiss it as the “hysterical longing of a bereaved mother,” the saints say.
Second, readers at the time would have recognized her as the stepmother of Joseph’s sons with his deceased wife Salome, including apostles James, Joses and Jude. She is referred to as their “mother” in various scriptures.
Saints say the Gospel writers also did not want to reveal her virginity lest the Jewish leaders try to have her killed as well. Finally, in her humility, the Theotokos did not want the writers to document the prominent role she played at the time of Christ’s resurrection.
It should be noted that there are huge misconceptions about Mary Magdalene, who is called Apostle to the Apostles or Equal to the Apostles and is also commemorated on July 22. Luke says she was among a number of women who followed Jesus who had been “healed of evil spirits and infirmities.”
Both Mark and Luke say that Jesus cast seven demons out of her. Given those accounts, many people assume she was an evil woman before she was healed.
On top of that, people in the Middle Ages decided she was the sinful woman who washed Jesus’s feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. They also decided she was the Mary who was the sister of Martha and Lazarus.
This led to Medieval bards making up tales of Mary Magdalene and “her sister” Martha having adventures and working miracles in Europe. Of course, one of them had to slay a dragon, which in this case was Martha. The myths about the two women and Mary Magdalene’s merged identity remain in many Western churches but are rejected by the Orthodox Church.
In fact, Mary Magdalene lived a very ascetic life and remained a virgin until her death. The saints say that Satan was afraid she was THE Virgin, so he sent seven demons – those of pride, fornication, judging others, lying, stealing, murder and unbelief – to try to destroy her purity. She suffered for years but never gave in to their temptations.
While she didn’t slay a dragon, she was perhaps even more brave when she decided to ask for a hearing before the Roman emperor Tiberius. For a long time after the Resurrection, she stayed with the Theotokos and the Apostle John in Ephesus. But she felt strongly that she must go to Rome and report Pontius Pilate for putting Jesus to death. The Theotokos and St. John gave her their blessing.
Because she was wealthy and well respected in Israel, Mary Magdalene was invited to dinner with the emperor. When she talked to Tiberius about Christ’s resurrection, he scoffed and said a man could no more rise from the dead than the egg in her hand could turn red.
Of course, the egg immediately turned red. That is why she is often pictured in icons with a red egg in her hand, and why we have red eggs at Pascha.
By the way, Pilate was summoned to Rome. And though Tiberius died before he arrived, the next emperor banished him to Gaul. There, some historians say, he committed su***de.
Meanwhile Pilate’s wife, Procula Claudia, who had warned him to “have nothing to do with that just Man,” became a Christian and a saint who is commemorated on Oct. 27.
“Bravery and boldness” could characterize the eight Myrrhbearing Women, who also stood by Jesus as he was crucified. But those traits also apply to the two men honored on that Sunday.
Joseph of Arimathea, a Pharisee and secret disciple of Christ, was brave enough to ask Pilate for Jesus’s body. He and Nicodemus, also a Pharisee who had visited Jesus by night, took Jesus’s body down from the cross and carried it to a new tomb, a limestone cave in a hillside that Joseph had ordered in preparation for his own death. Joseph brought the best linen burial cloths and Nicodemus brought about 100 pounds of expensive oils and myrrh to the tomb to prepare Jesus’s body.
Because of what he did, the Jewish leaders stripped Nicodemus of his high rank as a Pharisee and banished him from Jerusalem. Joseph of Arimathea was thrown into prison where the resurrected Christ appeared to him.
Years later he was released and also exiled. He then traveled to many countries preaching the Good News, including England where he is believed to have died. He is also remembered on July 31.
*Information for this article came from “The Life of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos,” Orthodox Wiki and OCA.org
