St Mark (Mark 15:40) specifies the group as "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less (rather, the little) and of Joses, and Salome."

Mary Magdalene Mentioned here for the first time by St Matthew. She was probably named from Magdala (Mejdel), on the Lake of Gennesaret; see map, p. 49. She had been a victim of demoniacal possession, but was cured by Jesus (Luke 8:2), and then joined the company of faithful women who followed Him with the Twelve. Mary Magdalene is not named by St John among those who at an earlier period "stood by the cross of Jesus," but even then we may believe she was watching far off, and early in the morning she was present at the sepulchre.

The great Italian painters have identified Mary Magdalene either with the "woman that was a sinner" who anointed Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50), or with Mary the sister of Lazarus. But neither identification can be sustained on critical grounds.

Mary the mother of James and Joses Perhaps the same Mary who was the wife of Cleophas, Clopas, or Alphæus (different forms of one name), mentioned John 19:25. If so, according to oneinterpretation of the passage in John, the sister of the Blessed Virgin.

the mother of Zebedee's children Salome. See ch. Matthew 20:20.

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