The Passion of Mary Magdalen: A Novel (Maeve Chronicles) [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Cunningham (Author)

Book Description

Series: Maeve Chronicles | Publication Date: April 1, 2006

For the millions of readers fascinated by Dan Brown’s revelations about Mary Magdalen in The Da Vinci Code, here, at last, is their chance to meet the Gospel’s most provocative woman face to face—on her own terms.

Make way for a new Magdalen. Born on a Celtic isle to eight warrior-witch mothers, Maeve is raised to be as brave as any hero. In her stubborn, enchanting voice, she recounts her perilous quest for the young man, Esus, whose life she once saved from druid sacrifice. Captured and sold to a Roman Madam, Maeve is sustained by a fierce sense of identity, compassion for her sister whores, and her unquenchable love. When she wins her freedom and finds her lost lover, a stormy life begins for both as we follow the Passion story through the eyes of Jesus’s partner—disciple to no man. Not even the One she loves. By turns feisty and funny, outrageous and tender, this Celtic Mary Magdalen challenges all stereotypes, both old and New Age, and brings us to transforming encounter with the divine feminine made flesh.

Elizabeth Cunningham is the author of the novels The Return of the Goddess and The Wild Mother. She comes from nine generations of Episcopal priests. Though she managed to avoid becoming an Episcopal priest, she was ordained as an interfaith minister of spiritual counsel in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She balances writing with a counseling practice.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Anyone not ensconced in a cave lately has heard the rumor that Mary Magdalene was literally the bride of Christ. The Da Vinci Code (2003) popularized the theory sufficiently to make Magdalene pilgrimages big business in France, where she ostensibly established the French royal family. Magdalene fans are in for more surprises in Cunningham's classy, sexy novel, which embraces the Magdalene's reputation for prostitution to the extent of casting her as a sacred whore serving the goddess Isis. For Cunningham, Mary is Maeve, a big, strapping, redheaded Celt sold into slavery in Rome and bought for her ample charms by a renowned domina (i.e., madam). Cunningham's big book is first an absorbing historical novel about down-and-dirty slave life in Rome and then a visionary fantasy about the Magdalene's life as Jesus' gentile wife. Besides Maeve's endearingly slutty second owner, Paulina, few characters participate in both, but in both are characters well known from other texts; for example, in the first the king of the "golden bough," in the second the Virgin Mary, who, holy though she is, is also quite dotty. Cunningham's wild, breakneck style only cements the suspicion that this will be--besides snapped up by Magdalene fans, Celtophiles, feminists, and lovers of a good yarn--controversial. Those unready for lesbianism and sex with the Redeemer between the same covers may blanch as well as flush. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Best know for her pagan novels, The Return of the Goddess and The Wild Mother, (Station Hill), Elizabeth Cunningham is the direct descendant of nine generations of Episcopal priests. She was ordained as an interfaith minister in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She balances writing with a counseling practice.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976684306
• ISBN-13: 978-0976684305
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #368,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth Cunningham is the direct descendant of nine generations of Episcopal priests. She grew up hearing rich (sometimes terrifying) liturgical and biblical language. When she was not in church or school, she read fairytales and fantasy novels or wandered in the enchanted wood of an overgrown, abandoned estate next door to the rectory. Her religious background, the magic of fairytales, and the numinous experience of nature continue to inform her work.

After being altogether too good and studious during her earliest years, Cunningham was expelled from a progressive boarding school for nudity. She subsequently earned a GED and went on to The College of General Studies at Boston University. From there she transferred to Harvard-Radcliffe College where she graduated in 1976 with BA in English and American language and literature. Somehow, she resisted the temptation to go to seminary to study for the Episcopal priesthood. The possibility was especially tempting, because, at that time, ordination of women was not allowed. When the church ruled in favor of women's ordination a few months later, she heaved a sigh of relief and went on writing The Wild Mother, her first novel, hailed by Publishers Weekly as a beguiling tour de force.

The Passion of Mary Magdalen, the centerpiece of The Maeve Chronicles, is Cunningham's fifth novel, and the book she believes she was born to write. Her other novels include The Return of the Goddess, a Divine Comedy; The Wild Mother; and How to Spin Gold, a Woman's Tale (re-released by Epigraph, May 2009). Magdalen Rising, the prequel to The Passion of Mary Magdalen was published in 2007. Bright Dark Madonna, the sequel, was published in April 2009. Red-Robed Priestess, the fourth and final Maeve Chronicle, was published in Novemeber, 2011.

Cunningham is also the author of two collections of poetry Small Bird, and Wild Mercy.

Although Cunningham managed to avoid becoming an Episcopal priest, she graduated from The New Seminary in 1997 and was ordained as an interfaith minister and counselor. Both The Maeve Chronicles and her interfaith ministry express Cunningham's profound desire to reconcile her Christian roots with her call to explore the divine feminine.

Since her ordination, Cunningham has been in private practice as a counselor and maintains that the reading and writing of novels has been as important to this work as her seminary training.

The mother of grown children, Cunningham lives with her husband in the Hudson Valley.

Elizabeth (and Maeve, the Celtic Mary Magdalen) can be followed on twitter, on her blog and on facebook. The links follow:

http://elizabethandmaeve.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61625329756&ref=ts

http://twitter.com/EliznMaeve

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paganism plus Christianity = the Future?, March 23, 2006

By 

David C. Belden "Dave Belden" (El Cerrito, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Passion of Mary Magdalen: A Novel (Maeve Chronicles) (Hardcover)

Full disclosure: I am a friend of the incomparable Elizabeth Cunningham and an enthusiast for this novel which I was privileged to read in draft form. It's a huge relief to adore a novel by a friend - I can tell you it doesn't happen much. I truly believe this one should make it big.

What I think Elizabeth is doing here is to take her knowledge of and reverence for Christianity - she comes from a line of I think eleven Episcopal priests - and her joy in neo-paganism, and see what the two have to say to each other: literally. What would happen if these apparent opposites actually made love to each other?

Personally I think that the world is in one of those major religious transition periods, comparable to the period when Christianity began, when new religions are being created and old ones transformed. This is more than a novel - it's a contribution to creating 21st century religion. I love that Elizabeth is able to be both reverent and irreverent, bawdy and holy at the same time. I don't know of anyone who has done that so well. When not writing novels she loves and sings the blues, and a Bessie Smith kind of raunchiness and deep humanity comes through in this novel.

The book is a curiosity because it is a fantasy (I'm sure Elizabeth doesn't think the historical Mary Magdalen was an immortal Celtic priestess) and yet is full of convincing historical detail. I haven't read too many that do that well - Vonda McIntyre's "The Moon and The Sun" comes to mind. There are many moments of delight in this book and of deep insight about the nature of love.

But if you are attached to your preconceptions, whether it's your Christianity, your neo-paganism, your secular mistrust of all religion, or your purist take on historical novels, be prepared to be shocked. In this case, it will be worth it. We have a new world to create out there and this is sweet and exhilarating food for the journey.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful story, beautifully told....., April 23, 2006

By 

Laurel Johnson (Kansas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Passion of Mary Magdalen: A Novel (Maeve Chronicles) (Hardcover)

Elizabeth Cunningham has created an amazing historic chronicle with this book. Characters are fully, wondrously human. Locations are alive with the sights, scents, sounds of that time millennia ago when Jesus walked this earth.

Maeve Rhuad is a flame haired princess / priestess of the Celtic Isles when she meets Yeshua, called Esus by the Celts. He's traveled to her land to learn Druidic mysteries, but finds a soulmate, a woman he will passionately love for all time. With youthful joy, they call themselves, "eternal twins in the great starry womb" of the universe.

Life's unpredictable difficulties separate the two devoted lovers. Yeshua returns to the Holy Land to continue his quest, serving the One God, and Maeve is dragged to Rome in chains by conquerors who sell her into slavery and prostitution. The Vine and Fig Tree - an omen of her future life with Yeshua -- is a high-class establishment. All clients are welcomed equally because every stranger could be a god or an angel. Life is actually pleasant for a time, but Maeve has two large problems. She's determined to find her beloved Yeshua, and can't keep her sassy mouth shut. Maeve can cuss, bluster, and converse in five languages. Her bold nature ends Maeve's time in Rome and she's sold into slavery. Throughout this dark period, she gains the support and devotion of a Proletarian, Joseph of Arimathea.

Years pass. Maeve is freed from slavery and heads for Jerusalem to search for Yeshua, Esus, her lover, now known as Jesus of Nazareth. From Jerusalem, Maeve travels to the green hills of Galilee to Nazareth, and finally the port city of Magdala. It's in Magdala that she regains her full power as a priestess. With the help of friends and followers, she founds the Temple Magdalen. Here, we're drawn deep into the private lives of biblical icons: Joseph of Arimathea; Mary, mother of Jesus; Lazarus, Mary, and Martha; the Twelve followers of Jesus; John of the burning eyes, the Baptist; and Yeshua, Savior of the Jews, beloved man with the wonderful laugh. Maeve's memories of these people are not reverent or respectful - all have human foibles - but her narrative is often surprising, touching, and tender.

Jesus struggles in his efforts to draw a fine line between being human and divine. The only thing he doesn't question is his love for Maeve, his wife, judged unclean by Jewish law. Fellow Jews, Apostles, family, devoted followers, enemies and friends resent his devotion to a prostitute. Both Yeshua and Maeve know and believe that love is stronger than death, and in their case it is.

Based on historic writings, Cunningham fills in the lost years of Yeshua's life not chronicled in the Bible. But this is a story well and lovingly told, of a man whose fate was to die for all humanity and of the gentile woman who loved him through life and beyond. Lover, husband, healer, miracle worker, teller of parables, and King of Kings, Jesus was first a man. This is a fascinating book, historically and in every other way.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, surprising, unorthodox, February 12, 2006

By 

Julian Smyth - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Passion of Mary Magdalen: A Novel (Maeve Chronicles) (Hardcover)

Though not for the squeamish or for those easily offended by what might be construed as blasphemy, this book brings to life the ancient world like no other tale I have read, and introduces readers to a new facet of Jesus Christ, that of the divine lover of Mary Magdalene and, through her, the world. The story is told through the eyes of Mary (Maeve), a celtic priestess/goddess who is Jesus' spiritual other half. Her voice as narrator is one of the most striking features of this work; she is simultaneously reverent and irreverent, ancient and modern, but above all she is immediate and you often feel that she is right there with you, confiding in you her secrets as if you were intimate friends. Despite not being a christian or caring much for pagan religions, I was deeply moved by this novel, which is indeed a story of passion.