Sainte-Baume
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sainte-Baume is a mountain ridge spreading between the départements of Bouches-du-Rhône and Var. Its summit is 1147 metres high.
[edit] History
The French tradition of Saint Lazare of Bethany is that Mary Magdalene, her brother Lazarus, and Maximinus, one of the Seventy Disciples and some companions, expelled by persecutions from the Holy Land, traversed the Mediterranean in a frail boat with neither rudder nor mast and landed at the place called Saintes Maries de La Mer near Arles. Mary Magdalene came to Marseille and converted the whole of Provence. Magdalene is said to have retired to a cave on a hill by Marseille, La Sainte-Baume ("Holy Cave", baumo in Provencal), where she gave herself up to a life of penance for thirty years. The cave is now a Christian pilgrimage site.
