Saint Mary Magdalene is considered one of the greatest saints of the Bible. The precise dates of her birth and death are unknown, but we do know she was present with Christ during his public ministry and death and was the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection. She is mentioned  a dozen times in the Gospels.  She is known as the “Apostle to the Apostles”.
 
According to the gospels, Jesus cleansed her of seven demons (Luke 8:2 and Mark 16:9), probably implying that he cured her of a physical disorder rather than the popular notion that he freed her of evil spirits.  She was one of the women who accompanied and aided Jesus in Galilee (Luke 8:1–2), and all four canonical gospels attest that she witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion and burial; John 19:25–26 further notes that she stood by the cross, near the Virgin Mary and the Apostle whom Jesus loved.  Having seen where Jesus was buried (Mark 15:47), she went with two other women on Easter morning to the tomb to anoint the corpse.  Finding the tomb empty, Mary ran to the disciples. She returned with St. Peter, who, astonished, left her. Christ then appeared to Mary and, according to John 20:17, instructed her to tell the Apostles that he was ascending to God.
 
Pope Gregory I, who became pope in 590 A.D., clinched Mary's mistaken reputation as a sinner when he delivered a powerful homily in which he combined Luke's anonymous sinful woman (Luke 7:36-50) with Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene.  But contemporary biblical scholarship, encouraged by Vatican II, and accessing resources never dreamed of in the sixth century A.D., confirms that there were several Marys.  In 1969, the identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany and the "sinful woman" was removed from the General Roman Calendar by Pope Paul VI. 

It took the Catholic Church almost two thousand years to fully acknowledge and rehabilitate the true role of Mary Magdalene. In 2016, Pope Francis elevated her to the rank of apostle, formalizing her title “Apostle to the Apostles,” and upgraded her memorial on July 22 to a special feast day on a par with the liturgical celebrations of the Twelve. His statement called her a “true and authentic evangelizer.” On June 10, 2016, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a decree that elevated Mary's liturgical commemoration from an obligatory memorial to a feast day, like that of most of the Apostles.