The three Marys

Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany and the unnamed sinner who anoints Jesus in Luke 7 are three people in the Greek fathers and one person in the Latin West, and the fusion is datable: Gregory the Great preached it in 591. The West got a composite penitent, a great deal of art, and a reputation for Magdalene that the gospels do not give her. The East never made the identification and keeps the three apart to this day. The dataset follows the East and keeps them as separate persons, linked rather than merged.

New Advent (Fathers and Catholic Encyclopedia) · Catholic Encyclopedia — St. Mary Magdalen