Saint Martha of Bethany

Martha lived in Bethany, near Jerusalem, with her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus, and theirs was one of the few houses Jesus went to the way you go to see friends. She appears three times in the Gospels, and each time she says something. The first is the scene everyone knows: she is busy with the housework, Mary sits and listens, and Martha complains about it. The answer — “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things, but only one thing is needed” — was used for centuries to set the active life against the contemplative one, and, in effect, to put her on the wrong side. The second scene turns everything upside down, and far fewer people quote it. Lazarus has been dead for four days. It is Martha who goes out to meet Jesus while Mary stays in the house, and it is to her that the greatest line in John’s Gospel is spoken: “I am the resurrection and the life.” And the answer she gives — “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God” — is, word for word, the same profession of faith that Peter makes elsewhere. The third time is at the table again, six days before Passover, and once again she is the one serving. She is patron saint of cooks, innkeepers and homemakers. Since 2021 her memorial has been celebrated together with that of Mary and Lazarus. If your name is Martha, today is your name day.