"Where the first witness of resurrection rests, her skull in gold, in the Gothic heart of Provence"
Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, Basilica of Mary Magdalene
Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
In Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, the skull of Mary Magdalene rests in a golden reliquary. Christianity's third most important tomb, tradition claims, after Christ's own and Peter's. She was the first to see the risen Lord, sent to tell the apostles. Whether one believes the relics genuine or medieval piety, the devotion they have inspired for seven centuries is real. Pilgrims still come. The procession still winds through the streets each July.
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Quick Facts
Location
Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Coordinates
43.4524, 5.8636
Last Updated
Jan 11, 2026
Learn More
In 1279, Charles II of Provence claimed to discover Mary Magdalene's relics in Saint-Maximin. He built the basilica and established the Dominicans as guardians. The tradition connects to the Provencal legend of Mary Magdalene's arrival in Gaul after the resurrection and her thirty years as a hermit at La Sainte-Baume.
Origin Story
The Provencal legend tells that after Jesus's ascension, persecution drove his followers from Palestine. Mary Magdalene, with her sister Martha, brother Lazarus, and other disciples, was placed in a boat without sails or oars and set adrift. The boat landed miraculously at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on the Provencal coast, around 47 AD.
The companions dispersed to evangelize. Mary Magdalene withdrew to a mountain cave called La Sainte-Baume—'the holy cave' in Provencal. For thirty years, she lived as a hermit, contemplating the mysteries she had witnessed: Jesus's ministry, his death, and above all his resurrection, which she alone saw first.
At the end of her life, tradition says she was carried by angels to Saint-Maximin, where Bishop Maximin—one of Jesus's seventy disciples—gave her last rites and buried her. Her tomb was hidden during the Saracen invasions and forgotten.
In 1279, Charles II, Count of Provence, ordered excavations. On December 10, workers struck marble. Inside the sarcophagus: bones, a scroll identifying them as Mary Magdalene's, and a sprig of fennel grown through the tomb and found in the saint's mouth—fulfilling, it was claimed, an ancient prophecy. Pope Boniface VIII authenticated the relics and established the Dominicans as their guardians.
Key Figures
Mary Magdalene
The saint whose relics are venerated
Charles II of Provence
Discoverer of relics and basilica founder
Pope Boniface VIII
Authenticator of relics
Spiritual Lineage
The Dominican Order has maintained the basilica and the tradition since 1295. Dominican sisters maintain the grotto at La Sainte-Baume. The tradition connects to the broader Catholic veneration of relics and the particular significance of Mary Magdalene in Western Christianity—a figure who has been variously identified, conflated, and reimagined through twenty centuries.
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