1st century
The sisters of Lazarus of Bethany, friends of the Lord who received Him in their home — Martha in her serving and Mary at His feet — and who beheld the raising of their brother from the dead.
The Holy and Righteous Martha and Mary, the Sisters of Lazarus of Bethany
Martha and Mary were sisters of Lazarus and members of a household at Bethany, a village on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. The Gospels present them as friends of Christ who received Him in their home, and the Orthodox Church commemorates them together as righteous women and as myrrh-bearers, with a fixed feast on June 4.
The two sisters are best known from a small group of Gospel scenes that contrast their temperaments — Martha occupied with the duties of hospitality, Mary seated at the Lord's feet to hear His teaching — and from their presence at the death and raising of their brother Lazarus. Orthodox tradition holds that they believed in Christ before that miracle and that, after persecution scattered the Jerusalem community, they accompanied Lazarus and assisted in preaching the Gospel.
The Orthodox Church keeps the feast of the righteous sisters on June 4. They are additionally remembered on the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, the second Sunday after Pascha, which gathers the women associated with the burial and resurrection of Christ.
In Western calendars Martha has long been venerated on July 29, a date now observed together with Mary and Lazarus.
Orthodox tradition relates that the sisters did not remain in the Holy Land but followed Lazarus into exile, an account associated with his settlement on Cyprus, where he is said to have served as the first bishop of Kition. A separate strand of tradition connects Mary with travel to Ephesus alongside the Apostle John.
A distinct Western legend, preserved in the medieval Golden Legend, places Martha in Provence in southern Gaul, where she is said to have settled at Tarascon; relics associated with her are reported to have been found there in 1187. These later accounts are devotional traditions rather than events recorded in the Gospels.
In the medieval West, Mary of Bethany was often conflated with Mary Magdalene and with the unnamed sinful woman of Luke's Gospel. The Eastern Church has consistently treated these as distinct persons, and the Roman Catholic Church likewise came to distinguish them in its more recent liturgical revisions.
Named sisters commemorated together.