THE MYRRAHBEARERS

 

                                                  Viktoryia Kulvanouskaya- Belarus  1997

A Resurrection mystery we really do not celebrate in our Western tradition is that of the MYRRAHBEARERS. In the  Orthodox Christian tradition they are the people mentioned in the New Testament who were directly involved in the burial or who discovered the empty tomb following the resurrection of Jesus. The term traditionally refers to the women with myrrh who came to the tomb of Christ early in the morning to find it empty.

In Western Christianity, the two women at the tomb, the Three Marys (the Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Salome)  or other variants are the terms normally used. The women followed Jesus during his earthly ministry in Galilee, providing for him and his followers out of their own means (Mark 15:41). They remained faithful to him even during the most dangerous time of his arrest and execution, and not only stood by the cross, but accompanied him to his burial, noticing where the tomb was located

Because of the impending Sabbath, it was necessary for the burial preparations to be brief. Jewish custom at the time dictated that mourners return to the tomb every day for three days. Once the Sabbath had passed, the women returned at the earliest possible moment, bringing myrrh to anoint the body. It was at this point that the Resurrection was revealed to them, and they were commissioned to go and tell the Apostles. They were, in effect, the apostles to the Apostles. For this reason, the myrrhbearing women, especially Mary Magdalene, are sometimes referred to as "Equal to the Apostles.

"The myrrh-bearing women forestalled the dawn, seeking, as it were day, the Sun that was before the sun and Who had once set in the tomb, and they cried out one to another: O friends! come, let us anoint with spices the life-bringing and buried Body, the Flesh that raised up fallen Adam, that now lieth in the tomb. Let us go, let us hasten, like the Magi, and let us worship and offer myrrh as a gift to Him Who is wrapped now not in swaddling clothes but in a shroud. And let us weep and cry aloud: O Master, arise, Thou Who dost grant to the fallen, resurrection. " (Ikos: Ancient hymn)

Some of the most striking art for this mystery is given to us by contemporary Eastern European artists.  Here are some of my favorites.  (To the right is "St. Joanna" by Sviatoslav Valadyka of the Ukraine.)         

  

The Divine Element—(God, Christ, the Holy Spirit)

Myrrh-Bearers

Margaret Junkin Preston (1820–1897)

THREE women crept at break of day   A-grope along the shadowy way   Where Joseph’s tomb and garden lay.       With blanch of woe each face was white,   As the gray Orient’s waxing light          Brought back upon their awe-struck sight       The sixth-day scene of anguish. Fast   The starkly standing cross they passed,   And, breathless, neared the gate at last.       Each on her throbbing bosom bore   A burden of such fragrant store   As never there had lain before.       Spices, the purest, richest, best,   That e’er the musky East possessed,   From Ind to Araby-the-Blest,       Had they with sorrow-riven hearts   Searched all Jerusalem’s costliest marts   In quest of,—nards whose pungent arts       Should the dead sepulchre imbue   With vital odors through and through:   ’T was all their love had leave to do!       Christ did not need their gifts; and yet   Did either Mary once regret   Her offering? Did Salome fret       Over the unused aloes? Nay!   They counted not as waste, that day,   What they had brought their Lord. The way       Home seemed the path to heaven. They bare,   Thenceforth, about the robes they ware   The clinging perfume everywhere.       So, ministering as erst did these,   Go women forth by twos and threes   (Unmindful of their morning ease),       Through tragic darkness, murk and dim,   Where’er they see the faintest rim,   Of promise,—all for sake of him       Who rose from Joseph’s tomb. They hold   It just such joy as those of old,   To tell the tale the Marys told.       Myrrh-bearers  still,—at home, abroad,   What paths have holy women trod,   Burdened with votive gifts for God,—       Rare gifts whose chiefest worth was priced   By this one thought, that all sufficed:   Their spices had been bruised for Christ!

 

Julia Stankova- Bulgaria

Nikola Saric- Serbia/ Germany