Saint Mary Jacobe, Saint Mary Salome and Saint Sara



Église Sainte Marie la Mer - Sanctuary of Saint Marys of the Sea -
is the capital of the Camargue - Provence - France
Père Matthias Onzes

Saint Mary Jacobe, Saint Mary Salome - patron saints of Saintes Maries de la Mer

The Breviary of the Aix en Provence Diocese tells us:

"Chased by the persecution of Palestine, many of Christ's disciples were exiled and brought the Christian faith to our region."
With Mary-Magdalene, Lazarus, Maximin and many others, Mary Jacobe and Mary Salome were arrested and set off on a boat, then, near the coast, abandoned on a raft with neither sails nor paddles. Guided by Providence they reached the Provençal shore. And while the other disciples went off evangelizing far away, the Saints Mary Jacobe and Mary Salome, elderly women as they were mothers of Apostles, remained on this shore which henceforth bore their name. They would have converted the local people and the Romans who occupied the region.

It should be made known that:
the Festivals of Saint Mary Jacobe (May 25) and Saint Mary Salome (October 22) - this latter celbrated, in fact, on the Sunday closest to that date - attract many pilgrims.

http://www.avignon-et-provence.com

What do we know of them?
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer means "Three Marys of the Sea". According to some they were Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, sister of Lazarus, and Mary Magdalene. This ancient tradition is something of an an embarrassment to the Roman Catholic Church especially the idea that Mary Magdalene, supposedly the wife or concubine of Jesus, arrived with their infant daughter Sara. (This story keeps resurfacing, most recently in the 1970 in "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" and in the twenty first century in Dan Browne's "The Da Vinci Code". (A Church chronicler named Raynaldus mentions in the thirteenth century that the Cathars of the Languedoc regarded Mary Magdelene as Jesus' concubine)

The three Marys are sometimes represented as Mary Jacobé (the sister of Mary, Jesus' mother - a person invented by the Roman Church to explain biblical mentions of other children born of the "Virgin" Mary); Mary Salomé (the mother of Apostles James the Greater and John); and Mary-Magdalene. Sara is often explained away as a servant. Either way the three Mary were supposedly expelled from Jerusalem around the year AD 40. They were shipped off, along with Lazarus, Martha, Maximin, and Sidon, on a boat without sails, oars or provisions. According to the story Sara was not allowed on board, but one of the Marys threw her coat onto the waters and it miraculously turned a raft, allowing Sara to join the other sea farers. Their boat eventually landed near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. The Marys - and Sara - lived out the rest of their days in the Camargue, where their graves became a places of pilgrimage, especially for gypsies - Sara became the patron saint of the Gypsies.

The Gitan pilgrimage takes place in Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on 24 and 25 May to celebrate Mary Jacobé. A second pilgrimage celebrating Mary Salomé takes place on the Sunday closest to the 22 October. During these pilgrimages, the Gitan traditions mix with Gardian traditions.

The Camargue Cross is the emblem of the church of Saints Maries-de-la-Mer. It is is composed of three emblems, an anchor, a cross, and a heart. The upper cross is alleged to represent the trident-shaped tool used by Gardiens - the arms are three-pronged. The anchor symbolises the fishermen of the region.

The church itself is of interest. Built near to the Petit Rhône it occupied a strategic position dominating the village and visible from 10km away. It was built between the ninth and eleventh centuries - a time when all coastal towns needed to defend themselves from seaward threats, ranging from pirate raids to full-scale invasions.

The church consists of a 15 metre high nave (nef) without side aisles, its roof surrounded by a walkway - more of a castle style chemin de ronde than an ecclesiastical ambulatory. the walls are funished with crenellations (créneax) and machiolations (mâchicoulis). the church clearly served as a look-out tower (guet) as well as a defensible possition. The walls feature loop holes (meurtrières, or more specifically flechières). The Choir (chœur) and apse (abside) are surmounted by an unusual hemispherical keep (donjon) with a gard room (salle du corps) now innocently described as a chapel "La Chapelle Haute". As in all good defensible buildings, there is a well inside the walls.

Inside the church, the most obvious item of interest is a statue of Saint Sara placed in a crypt to the right of the alter. She is a rather improbable looking figure, dressed in a fetching pink outfit. The church claims to possess the relics of Sainte Marie Jacobé and Sainte Mary Salomé, discovered in in the crypt in 1448 and now housed in relicaries, having survived the French Revoltion during which they sustained some damaged. Also of interest is a non-Christian alter in the church dating from the fourth century BC.

[Mary Jacobé and Mary Salomé enjoying their annual outing on 25th May] Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer was once a pilgrimige site. It was popular as a stopping point for pilgrims to St Jacques-de-Compostella, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims imagined (mistakenly) that they were going to visit the remains of St James. They believed that he had been miraculously been carried to the Atlantic coast of Spain in a floating stone boat - also without sails or oars. The popularity of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer is therefore easily explicable. Pilgrims travelling to the supposed burial place of St James would naturally stop off on the way to visit the supposed burial place of his mother, Mary Salomé.

On the 24th & 25th of May each year a number of activities take place at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, celebrating the whole improbable story along with local culture and the arrival of Gitan pilgrims.

The tradition that the saints have their burial in the church, in 1448 ** King René demanded and obtained the Pope's permission to conduct excavations official whose record was written by Nicolas de Brancas, Bishop of Marseilles. They found their bodies gave off a wonderful smell and, alongside them were buried three heads of small children that tradition considers those three Holy Innocents, over an adult head. We also found near the body, a beautiful piece of marble that can be seen today in a pillar of the church and has always been considered the "pillow of saints" and revered as such.

Association of Support for the Tradition of the Saints of Provence
http://www.saintsdeprovence.com

Gypsies and non-Gypsies, Catholic and non Catholic devotees from around the world.

Gypsies' Pilgrimage
Roms (Slovak gypsies), Manouches, Tziganes (Hungarian gypsies) and other gypsies come from all over Europe and even from other continents to worship their Saint, Sara the Black. They settle in the squares, at the seaside. For a week or more, they feel at home. The pilgrimage is also the opportunity to meet up again and most of the children are baptised in the church of the Saints.

Once the shrine is taken down on May 24, Sara's statue is carried by the gypsies to the sea, to symbolise the waiting and the welcoming of the Saintes Maries de la Mer by Sara, patroness of the gypsies. Then the procession goes back to the church with delight expressed by cheers, musical instruments and the peal of church bells.

Sara's statue is situated in the crypt of the church, at the right of the altar. She wears a multicoloured dress and jewels.
http://www.saintesmaries.com

http://www.midi-france.info/030701_sts_maries.htm