Touching the Magdalene: The Cult of Mary Magdalene in Iberia during the Central Middle Ages

Abstract

The cult of Mary Magdalene came relatively late to northwestern Iberia, after having been dispersed through the rest of continental Europe in the early Middle Ages. The earliest evidence for the cult comes from the kingdoms of León, Castile, and Galicia in the second half of the eleventh century, during the reign of Alfonso VI (r. 1065/72–1109). His promotion of the Gregorian reform opened up Iberia to the rest of the Continent. The arrival of a more complex liturgical sensibility led to the restructuring of pre-Romanesque architectural spaces through the use of iconography and powerful visual dialectics unprecedented in local culture. This article considers the staging of the figure of Mary Magdalene in León-Castile-Galicia in some of the most important architectural landmarks that have survived to this day, from Santiago de Compostela to Silos.