On the twenty-ninth of July, the Church keeps the memorial of Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus, the brother and sisters of Bethany. Jesus had crowds who followed Him, disciples who learned from Him, and apostles He sent. But in the whole of the Gospels there is one house where He simply went to rest, and it was theirs. St. John says it in the plainest words in Scripture: Jesus loved them.

Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus.John 11:5, Douay-Rheims

The house at Bethany

Bethany sat on the far slope of the Mount of Olives, two miles from Jerusalem, and the Lord seems to have made a habit of it. St. Luke gives us the scene everyone remembers: Martha in the kitchen, busy with much serving, and Mary seated at the feet of Jesus, listening. When Martha asked Him to send her sister to help, He answered with her name spoken twice, gently: Martha, Martha, thou art careful and art troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part.

It is worth saying what that scene is not. It is not a rebuke of the kitchen. The Church did not canonize Mary and scold Martha; she canonized them together, and Martha has been the patroness of cooks and hosts for centuries. The words of Jesus are not a ranking of persons but a reminder for every busy soul, then and now: the serving matters, and still, the one thing necessary is Him. Martha heard it, and kept serving, and kept believing. Both sisters loved the same Lord. One fed Him; one listened to Him; a home needs both, and so does a life.

The tomb at Bethany

The household's great hour came in grief. Lazarus fell sick and died, and when Jesus arrived four days too late by every human measure, it was Martha, the practical one, who went out on the road to meet Him. What she said to Him there is one of the great confessions of faith in all the Gospels. He told her: I am the resurrection and the life. And she answered: Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of the living God, who art come into this world. Peter's confession has a feast; Martha's deserves to be better known.

Then Jesus went to the tomb of His friend, and before He worked the most staggering of His signs, He did the most human thing in Scripture. Jesus wept. The shortest verse in the Bible sits in the middle of this family's story: the Lord of life, crying at the grave of a man He was about to raise, because love grieves even when it knows the ending. And then the stone was rolled away, and the dead man came out alive, and Bethany became for all time the town where death lost an argument.

A memorial that became a household

For centuries the twenty-ninth of July belonged to St. Martha alone. In 2021 Pope Francis expanded the memorial to include her sister and brother, so that the Church now keeps the whole household together, as the Gospels always presented them. One clarification is worth repeating, because the tradition long blurred it: Mary of Bethany is her own person, distinct from St. Mary Magdalene, whom the Church honors separately just one week earlier. Two Marys, two feasts, one week apart, and each now standing clearly in her own light.

Together the three of Bethany are the saints of something the calendar rarely names: the holiness of an ordinary home. Not a monastery, not a mission field. A house with a kitchen and a table and a door that opened to the Lord.

Keeping their day

Their memorial is best kept the way they kept their house: at home. Cook for someone, and offer the work as a prayer, in Martha's company. Sit down afterward and take the better part with Mary: pray a slow decade of the Rosary at your own kitchen table, the Church's great prayer of the household, no chapel required. If you are grieving someone, let Lazarus' family carry it with you; theirs is the house where Jesus wept too. Or simply pause and ask their help:

Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus, friends of the Lord, make our homes like yours: busy and believing, quick to serve, quicker to listen, and always with the door open to Christ. Amen.

A rosary lives well in a house like that, on the kitchen table, by the reading chair, near the door. If your home could use a set of beads of its own, our handmade rosaries are made for exactly that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who were Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus?

A sister, sister and brother who lived at Bethany, near Jerusalem, and were close personal friends of Jesus. The Gospels show Martha serving Him, Mary listening at His feet, and Lazarus raised by Him from the dead after four days in the tomb (John 11).

When is the memorial of Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus?

July 29. For centuries the day honored St. Martha alone; in 2021 Pope Francis expanded the memorial to include Mary and Lazarus, so the Church now celebrates the household of Bethany together.

Is Mary of Bethany the same as Mary Magdalene?

No. An old Western tradition merged them, but the Church distinguishes the two women. Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, is honored on July 29; St. Mary Magdalene, the first witness of the Resurrection, has her own feast on July 22.

What is St. Martha the patron saint of?

Cooks, hosts, homemakers, and those who serve, honoring her hospitality to Jesus at Bethany and her practical, active faith.