Mary Magdalene’s Sacred Journey through the Ancient World

Starts on Epiphany, 6th of January 2027, 8 pm £55 

Having explored the traditions of Mary Magdalene’s journey through southern France, I feel drawn to follow her story further—to open the map and discover the other lands where Christians remembered her presence, her preaching, and her fierce devotion to Christ.

We will carry Provence and Occitanie with us: its coastline, its caves, its long remembrance of the woman who came bearing the news of the Resurrection. From this familiar landscape, our journey widens towards Rome and Italy, Egypt, Phoenicia—present-day Lebanon—and Syria, before bringing us to the shores of Pamphylia, present-day Turkey.

Here, we encounter two distinct landscapes in her traditional story. Pamphylia, along the Mediterranean coast around modern Antalya, is remembered in a medieval account as a place where she evangelised. Farther west lies Ephesus, near the Aegean Sea, where Eastern Christian tradition places her later life alongside John the Evangelist. Near its ancient streets, the Cemetery of the Seven Sleepers became associated with her burial—a place where we will explore the meeting of sacred memory, pilgrimage and historical evidence.

Throughout, we will return to Galilee and Jerusalem, where the Gospels first allow us to encounter her.

One of our guides will be the medieval Byzantine writer Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos, whose account gathers these far-reaching journeys into a remarkable life of Magdalene. We will bring his stories into conversation with Scripture, ancient Christian writings and the traditions preserved by different communities, asking what each remembers and how its account came to be.

What draws me is the possibility of encountering more of the Mary remembered as a woman of courage, generosity and spiritual authority: teaching, serving, sustaining others, and carrying her testimony into unfamiliar places. A woman whose love for Christ became something she gave her life to.

Across these gatherings, we will listen to the stories with devotion and examine their sources with care. We will make room for wonder, for questions, and for the humility that truth asks of us.

And perhaps, as her story opens across the ancient world, we will hear more clearly the invitation within our own lives: to let what we have received from Christ become courage, tenderness and service wherever we are called.

7 weeks - 7 destinations

• Southern France — the Provençal and Occitanie traditions 
• Rome and Italy — her traditional appearance before the emperor and her preaching.
• Phoenicia, present-day Lebanon — the coastal lands named in her missionary itinerary.
• Syria — another destination in Nikephoros’s account.
• Egypt — exploring the travel tradition alongside the rich Coptic remembrance of Mary.
• Pamphylia, southern Turkey — the region where Nikephoros specifically describes her evangelising.
• Ephesus, western Turkey — her traditional later life with John, her death and the remembrance of her burial.