Mary Magdalene -- probably the Bible's most enigmatic and controversial figure -- has fired imaginations for nearly two thousand years. In the search for the true story, the author takes readers through the gospels of the New Testament, the Gnostic Gospels, and Nag Hammadi texts, as well as through the High Middle Ages when adoration of Mary Magdalene was at its height.Dr. Ralls considers both the Western tradition of Mary Magdalene, which documents her escaping persecution and landing in the south of France with her family and many others; and the Eastern tradition, which describes her ending her days as a hermit in Ephesus. All is considered -- from Mary Magdalene's importance to medieval pilgrims to the more contentious theories of her supposed marriage to Jesus.