Mary Magdalene

- Mary Magdalen announcing the resurrection to the apostles (St. Albans Psalter, St Godehard's Church, Hildesheim)

"[W]e must give great weight to the fact that all four evangelists, but especially John, place the testimony of the women, and especially Mary Magdalene, in prime position in their accounts of Easter. It is to these women, and particularly to Mary, that the risen Lord entrusts the good news, not to the male apostles themselves. It cannot be overemphasized that this was hugely counterintuitive in the ancient world. Had the narratives been invented later, this would never have commended the account; had the evangelists had any doubt that women were to be regarded as primary witnesses of the resurrection, they would never have allowed such a story to remain in their texts. Yet there it is, in each gospel. If, with Paul, we regard 'apostleship' as primarily constituted by witness to the resurrection, Mary Magdalene is the 'apostle to the apostles', as indeed some Roman theologians have styled her."

- Women Bishops: A Response to Cardinal Kasper, by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham and David Stancliffe, Bishop of Salisbury