Why do icons of St. Mary Magdelen sometimes portray her as holding a red egg?
First the egg can be associated with Easter, new life and new birth in the egg. Mary is holding the egg, the symbol of New life and ressurection, because it was to Mary that Jesus appears in the gospel of John. Mary Mag, is therefore the one who is witness to the ressurection and the new life – symbolized by the egg. There is also an old (and probably apocryphal story) of Mary Mag. and the Emperor Tiberius, I have copied below from Wikipedia One tradition concerning Mary Magdalene says that following the death and resurrection of Jesus, she used her position to gain an invitation to a banquet given by Emperor Tiberius. When she met him, she held a plain egg in her hand and exclaimed “Christ is risen!” Caesar laughed, and said that Christ rising from the dead was as likely as the egg in her hand turning red whil
