Sainte-Baume on the horizon…
Marseille as our meeting place…
The Sainte-Baume Commandery brings together members of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem who have chosen to join it, whether because of geographical proximity, through successive introductions by fellow members, or through their attachment to the Magdalenean tradition.
Meetings for reflection and fellowship are held in Marseille, on rue Fort Notre-Dame, twice each quarter. The September automn-school retreat takes place in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume..
Sainte-Baume, the Provençal mountain overlooking the town of Saint-Maximin, was chosen in reference to the hermitage of Mary of Magdala, Mary Magdalene. She is the “apostle to the apostles” because, according to the four Evangelists—notably John 20:17-18—it is Mary Magdalene who announces Christ’s resurrection to the apostles. According to Provençal hagiographical tradition, Mary Magdalene, Martha, Lazarus of Bethany (raised from the dead…), Mary of Clopas, Mary Salome, Sidonius—the man born blind who was miraculously healed (and who would succeed Maximinus as Bishop of Aix-en-Provence…), and Maximinuswere driven out of Palestine and cast adrift in a boat without sails or oars. They are said to have landed on the Camargue coast at the place now known as Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Lazarus would bring Christianity to Marseille, Martha to Tarascon, and Maximinus to the Aix-en-Provence region. Mary Magdalene would withdraw for thirty years of contemplation and prayer into a cave—a “baumo” in Provençal—and the mountain sheltering it thus became “La Baumo Santo”, today’s Sainte-Baume. On 9 December 1279, the young Prince Charles II of Anjou discovers the relics of Mary Magdalene in the original mausoleum at Saint-Maximin, buried beneath the sand. In 710, the Cassian monks had secretly transferred the saint’s body into the sarcophagus of Saint Sidonius to protect it from the pillaging of the Saracens then ravaging Provence. In 1296, Charles II allocates 2,000 livres (the equivalent, we might say today, of €20 million…) and launches the vast undertaking of building the basilica. Construction will continue for 236 years, until 1532, yet will never be completed……
Saint-Maximin, described by the Reverend Father Henri Lacordaire as the third great tomb of Christendom after the Holy Sepulcre in Jerusalem and Saint Peter’s tomb in Rome, would thereafter become a place of pilgrimage, drawing vast crowds and many crowned heads. Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume is a place of great significance for chivalry, where many crusaders would pray before departing for the Holy Land…
The Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem upholds there the highest values of chivalry: honour, loyalty, courage, justice, generosity, courtesy, charity, service to others and protection of the weak, extending beyond its historic hospitaller mission of caring for people with leprosy.
The Sainte-Baume Commandery is being re-established, and its Officers will be appointed shortly.