Bergisch Gladbach –
As the Führ-Engel she was a classic miscast in the Christmas nativity scene, because she would have been called to higher things just by her two pious first names. But Maria Magdalena, the dazzling female figure from the Bible, does not even appear in the traditional nativity play. And so little Maria Magdalene, who was also blessed with the family name of Christ, had to unjustly make do with the role of an angel.
Maria Magdalene Christ – a name like something out of a passion play. A name could hardly be more Catholic – and yet not a heavy mortgage for the Cologne native, who was managing director of the Zanders Foundation in Bergisch Gladbach until the end of the year.
Probably better than the devil, heretic, or unbelief
“I’ve always found the name very nice,” says the now 64-year-old with a smile. And not just because her childhood and youth were dominated by the three K socializations: “classic – kölsch – catholic. This also included schooling and A-levels with the Ursulines, and finally a first job as archivist in the Diocesan Archives in Cologne.
Madalene Christ emphasizes that her name was not a prerequisite for employment with the Archdiocese – but probably not an obstacle either, as “Christ” is probably as good as the names Engel, Gottlieb or Traugott in pious circles. And far better than the devil, heretic, or unbelief.
Mary Magdalene: The great sinner and penitent
Even the latter does not have to be an exclusion criterion for a theological career, as Johannes Unbelief once proved.
A career that Catholic women cannot pursue even today, not even if their name is Christian. Maria Magdalene Christ is unlikely to have had such ambitions anyway, as she is less fascinated by piety than by sin, “the tension in her personality as a great sinner and penitent.”
A name change never occurred to Magdalene Christ, not even when she got married: “I had been associated with this name for 30 years.” And that remained so, thanks to a partner, for the noun less omen than “sound and smoke “are.
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