Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost 

    Four holy women went to tomb the morning of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. One was Mary Magdalene; 

she alone of the four is mentioned by John's Gospel. Her story at the tomb is also recounted by Matthew, 

Mark, and Luke. 

    Joanna is mentioned only by Luke's Gospel.  Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the 

mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the apostles .  (Lk 24:10). Luke tells us 

that Joanna was among those women who reported the Resurrection to the Apostles. This group of women 

included Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, whom Mark tells us were at the tomb after the 

Resurrection (Mk 16:1 2). However, Luke's Gospel does not name the women who were at the tomb, nor the 

women who were at the cross; these women are described simply as  the women who had followed him from 

Galilee  (Lk 23:49; cf. 23:55). 

    The Gospel of Luke describes Joanna as someone who had been healed by Jesus.  And the twelve were 

with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, 

from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and 

many others, who provided for them out of their means.  (Lk 8:1 3). Joanna's husband, Chuza, had a fairly 

important position, so that Joanna and her husband must have had some wealth. Joanna and other women 

were able to provide for Jesus and his disciples. 

    Blessed Anne Catherine tells us that Joanna was at the tomb with the other women, but the Gospels neither 

confirm or deny this. Some of the  other women with them,  who went to tell the apostles, might have not 

been at the tomb, but might have only joined the holy women after they left the garden of the sepulchre. On 

the other hand, there is no reason, based on Sacred Scripture, to disbelieve Blessed Anne Catherine's statement 

that Joanna was at the tomb with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. 

    Blessed Anne Catherine describes Mary Cleophas as accompanying Mary Magdalene to the tomb at the 

time of the Resurrection. None of the Gospels uses the exact name `Mary Cleophas.' However, the synoptic 

Gospels each mention another Mary, besides Mary Magdalene. 

    Matthew's Gospel tells us that several women were present at the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, including 

 Mary the mother of James and Joseph  (Mt 27:56). Matthew's Gospel then says that Mary Magdalene and 

 the other Mary  went to the tomb before and after the Resurrection (Mt 27:61; 28:1). This  other Mary  must 

be Mary the mother of James and Joseph, for she is mentioned just a few verses earlier along with Mary 

Magdalene. 

    Mark's Gospel calls this same Mary,  Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses  (Mk 15:40). 

Joses is another way of saying the name Joseph. Later, Mark's Gospel calls her simply  Mary the mother of 

Joses  (Mk 15:47), and also,  Mary the mother of James  (Mk 16:1). Luke's Gospel also refers to  Mary the 

mother of James.  By saying  James the younger,  Mark's Gospel is clearly referring to one of the Twelve 

Apostles, who is often called `James the Less.' Earlier in the Gospel, Mark refers to this same Apostle as 

 James the son of Alphaeus  (Mk 3:18). 

    But who is this Mary, the mother of James the Apostle and the wife of Alphaeus? According to Blessed 

Anne Catherine, she was the daughter of Mary of Heli and a man named Cleophas, which is why she was 

called Mary Cleophas.

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 Mary of Heli was the eldest daughter of Saint Joachim (also called Heli, as in Lk 3:23) 

and Saint Ann. Mary of Heli was the Virgin Mary's older sister, and so Mary Cleophas was the Virgin Mary's 

niece.

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    The Gospel of John bears witness to the truth that the Virgin Mary had a sister.  But standing by the cross 

of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  (Jn 19:25). 

In this passage from John's Gospel,  Mary the wife of Clopas  is not a fourth woman, but a description of  his 

mother's sister.  Clopas is a different spelling of the name Cleophas. Mary Cleophas was the daughter of 

Clopas (Cleophas) and of Mary of Heli, the Virgin Mary's sister. 

    Blessed Anne Catherine tells us that Salome was among the four holy women who went to the tomb after 

the Resurrection. She also says that this Salome was not the same Salome who was the mother of the Apostles 

John and James, the sons of Zebedee, but another Salome.

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 She says that this other Salome was a rich lady of 

Jerusalem who helped to pay for the spices that the women brought to the tomb. However, Sacred Scripture 

leads us to a different conclusion. 

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