in this episode, we start an intermittently recurring series where we explore the lives and times of two famous Medieval women. and while these will usually be about women who lived and rose to prominence during the Middle Ages, we kinda had to start with two women from an earlier era who were nonetheless extremely important: Mary, the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. we talk about who they were, what made them famous, how Medieval people understood them, and the confusion associated with being a female role model in a patriarchal society. Because while they may have died 500 years before the Middle Ages began, the two Mary's were easily the most influential women to Medieval Christians.


here's a link to the Golden Legend or Mary Magdalene that Eleanor mentioned: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/goldenlegend/goldenlegend-volume4.asp