Righteous 1st century

Saint Joanna the Myrrh-bearer

Also known as Joanna, wife of Chuza

The wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod, who ministered to the Lord of her substance, followed Him to the Cross, and came among the women to the tomb; by tradition she recovered and honored the head of the Forerunner.

Feast Day

June 27

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Commemorated as

The Holy and Righteous Myrrh-bearer Joanna, Wife of Chuza

Life

Joanna was a first-century follower of Jesus named in the Gospel of Luke and counted among the myrrh-bearing women of the Orthodox tradition. Luke identifies her as the wife of Chuza, the steward who managed the household of Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee; this office gives her the epithet by which she is most often distinguished. Her name derives from the Hebrew Yohanah, meaning "Yahweh has been gracious."

According to Luke, Joanna was among the women who had been healed of infirmities and who accompanied Jesus and the twelve apostles, providing for them from their own resources. She is named again at the empty tomb, making her one of the early witnesses to the proclamation of the Resurrection. She is venerated as a saint across the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions, and reposed peacefully in the first century.

Contributions & Legacy

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Gospel Witness

Joanna is mentioned twice in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 8:2-3 she appears among women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities and who traveled with Jesus and the apostles, providing for them out of their own substance. Her position as the wife of Herod Antipas's steward Chuza places her within the household of the Galilean ruler, and her support of the itinerant ministry is recorded as material as well as personal.

In Luke 24:10 she is named, alongside Mary Magdalene and others, among the women who went to the tomb and carried news of the empty grave to the apostles. The parallel accounts in the other synoptic gospels do not name her, so this identification is particular to Luke's narrative.

The Myrrh-bearers

In Orthodox tradition Joanna is numbered among the myrrh-bearing women who came to the sepulchre to anoint the body of Christ with spices and myrrh after His death on the Cross, and who there received from the angels the announcement of the Resurrection. For this she is commemorated each year on the Third Sunday of Pascha, the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, in addition to her fixed feast on June 27.

Traditional Accounts

By tradition, Joanna is associated with the head of John the Baptist: it is held that she recovered and honored the head of the Forerunner after Herodias had disposed of it. This account is connected in the liturgical calendar with the separate commemoration of the Finding of the Head of the Forerunner. The tradition is transmitted as pious memory rather than as detail recorded in the Gospels themselves.

A modern scholarly proposal, advanced by Richard Bauckham, has suggested that Joanna may be identical to the Junia greeted in Romans 16:7, with Joanna as her Jewish name and Junia her Roman name. This is a contemporary hypothesis and not part of the received tradition.

Commemorated with Read Hide

Synaxis of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women

Synaxis

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints