Martha and Mary: Disciples, Sisters or Rivals?

Marinella Perroni will be answering this question by opening on March 3 a series of events organized by the Diocese of Naples on The Women of the Gospels. There are two New Testament stories that convey the memory of these two sisters: one by Luke and another by John, connoting the sisters of Bethany not only differently, but discordantly. For Luke, Martha is a woman to whom too much burden of domestic work has made lose the dimension of trust in providence that, instead, shines in Mary. On the hand, John narrated Martha as a disciple “that Jesus loved” together with her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus, and which is able to express the highest confession of faith of the whole fourth gospel. Unfortunately, in the Christian tradition Martha then became, in contrast to Mary, a model that mortified generations and generations of women, instead of imposing herself as a privileged witness of faith in the resurrection. See the poster and be informed on the following events.