Are Mary Magdalenes bones really in the Louvre?
That would probably come as a surprise to the curators of the Louvre. And depending on how you define “bones,” it could be said that at least one of Mary Magdalene’s bones is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city, where one of her teeth is believed to be encased in a reliquary. Two places are the primary sites believed to claim Mary Magdalene’s relics: the basilicas at Vezelay, France and at St.-Maximin-la-Ste.-Baume, France. These two sites competed for tourism dollars in the Middle Ages by laying claim to Mary Magdalene’s bones, each of them boasting a full skeleton. During the various periods of political unrest, particularly during the French Revolution, many of the bones were lost. Today an arm remains at Vezelay and a skull at St.-Maximin-la-Ste.-Baume. No one knows if they really belonged to Mary Magdalene.
