Saint Mary of Cleophas
  April 9th  

    To Mary of Cleophas whose name stands first in the Roman Martyrology on this day no general liturgical recognition is accorded, though her feast is kept by the Passionists, and by the Latins in Palestine. She seems to have been the wife of one Cleophas, who may or may not be identical with the Cleophas who is named as one of the two disciples who went to Emmaus on the day of our Lord's resurrection. Her identity among the various Marys mentioned by the evangelists is a matter of discussion among biblical commentators. The martyrology contents itself with saying that "Blessed John the Evangelist calls [her] sister of the most holy Mary, Mother of God, and relates that she stood with her by the cross of Jesus". But it is possible that the sister of the mother of Jesus mentioned (John xix 25) was in fact a fourth, unnamed, woman.

    Round the name of Mary of Cleophas all sorts of legendary excrescences gathered in later days. She was said to have travelled to Spain with St. James the Greater, to have died at Ciudad Rodrigo, and to have been venerated with great honour at Compostela. On the other hand another extravagant legend connects her with the coming of Saints Lazarus, Mary Magdalen and Martha to Provence, and her body was believed to repose at Saintes-Maries near the mouth of the Rhone.

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See the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. i; Moroni, Dizionario di Erudizione, vol. xciv, pp. 10-60; Vigouroux, Dictionnaire de la Bible, vol. iv, cc. 818-819; Durand, L'Enfance de Jésus Christ (1908).

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Butler's Lives of The Saints, Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. and Donald Attwater Nihil Obstat: PATRICIVS MORRIS, S.T.D., L.S.S., CENSOR DEPVTATVS. Imprimatur: E. MORROGH BERNARD, VICARIVS GENERALIS WESTMONASTERII: DIE XXIII FEBRVARII MCMLIII