Mary had a serious illness, caused by ‘seven demons’ who entered her.

From the earliest times, people believed that spirits and demons caused many illnesses. This was one way of explaining the presence of sickness or evil in the world. According to the thinking of the time, specific demons caused specific illnesses, for example schizophrenia, blindness, heart disease and epilepsy. The spirits could be

• people no longer living, hostile to those who were still alive

• the surviving spirits of feared animals, for example wolves, bears and snakes

• malevolent beings that entered a person and caused physical or psychological illness. 

This third type of demon was thought to have entered Mary Magdalene. Mary had seven demons tormenting her, the number ‘seven’ indicating the severity of the illness.

Magdala was quite close to Nazareth and Cana, and Jesus probably visited the region a number of times. At some point in her life, Mary met Jesus, and he cured her of a severe illness. We do not know what the illness was, or whether the cure happened in one moment or over a period of time. Perhaps it occurred gradually, as her knowledge of Jesus developed.
In any event, she became the leader of a group of women who traveled with Jesus, and who supported him financially.

Two groups traveled with Jesus: a group of men, led by Peter, and a group of women, led by Mary Magdalene. It was the common practice for men and women to accompany each other when traveling, but they moved in separate groups. 

Mary and Peter seem to have been the leaders of these two groups. Unfortunately, the words and actions of the men were recorded, and the women's were not. Nevertheless, Peter and Mary should probably be seen as equal in their support for Jesus’ work, each contributing different things.

Other named women in the group led by Mary were Joanna and Susanna. Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward (Luke 8:3) was of high social standing, with connections at the royal court. She probably lived in Jerusalem in one of the grander houses in the Upper City. A woman like this would not travel without a retinue of servants, including a recognized chaperone. 

This was an important point, as far as Luke was concerned. One of the purposes he had in writing his gospel was to make Jesus acceptable to a wide audience, including the Gentile population of the Roman empire.

At the time Luke recorded the stories, everyone knew that Jesus had been executed as a criminal by the Romans. Many people in the 1st century Roman world found it difficult to reconcile this fact with the belief that he was the Son of God. So Luke took pains to show that Jesus was supported by well-connected, law-abiding people during his life.

Mary at the Crucifixion

All four accounts of the crucifixion and death of Jesus say that women were at the scene, and Mary Magdalene was prominent among these women. She had been close to Jesus during his life. She stayed close to him as he faced death.

‘There were also women looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee. And there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.’
(Read Mark 15:40-41)

See Bible Archaeology: Crucifixion  for information on the horrific process of crucifixion, and on archaeological evidence for this form of execution.

There are three groups of women mentioned in these verses from Mark:

• the inner core of women who were close friends or relatives of Jesus

• the women who provided for him from their financial resources

• the women who came up with Jesus to Jerusalem, just prior to his execution.

Matthew 26:56 makes the point that all the male disciples deserted Jesus and fled for their lives. But the women remained, standing as near as they dared to the spot where the soldiers were carrying out the brutal execution.
This does not mean that the men were more cowardly than the women. It was simply more dangerous for them to be near the execution site. The Romans saw Jesus as a dangerous rebel leader, and so they viewed Jesus’ male friends with suspicion. The male disciples might easily have been arrested as co-conspirators, so they kept their distance. Women were seen as less threatening and so their presence was tolerated.

AND A GOOD FRIDAY WAS HAD BY ALL, by Bruce Dawe

You men there, keep those women back
and God Almighty he laid down
on the crossed timber and old Silenus
my off-sider looked at me as if to say
nice work for soldiers, your mind's not your own
once you sign that dotted line Ave Caesar
and all that malarkey Imperator Rex

well this Nazarene
didn't make it any easier
really - not like the ones
who kick up a fuss so you can
do your block and take it out on them

Silenus held the spikes steady and I let fly
with the sledge-hammer, not looking
on the downswing trying hard not to hear
over the women's wailing the bones give way
the iron shocking the dumb wood.

Orders is orders, I said after it was over
nothing personal you understand - we had a 
drill-sergeant once thought he was God but he wasn't
a patch on you

then we hauled on the ropes
and he rose in the hot air
like a diver just leaving the springboard, arms spread
 so it seemed
over the whole damned creation
over the big men who must have had it in for him
and the curious ones who'll watch anything if it's free
with only the usual women caring anywhere
and a blind man in tears. 

Mary witnesses the Resurrection

According to Jewish law, ointments and spices could not be bought or sold on the Sabbath.Jesus’ death had been sudden, unexpected. The women did not have the necessary burial spices. So they waited until the Sabbath was over, bought the spices, and went to the tomb.

The women intended to wash and anoint the body of Jesus. This was a traditional task of Jewish women, as they prepared the bodies of family members for burial. It was a last, gentle service given to the body of the person they loved.

 But when they got to the tomb, they found it empty of Jesus’ body. At this moment Mary had a profound revelation where she 'saw' and 'heard' Jesus. She understood in a way that is not easily explained that Jesus was no longer dead, but alive. She experienced what the gospels call an ‘angel’, a message from God that gave her an unshakeable conviction that Jesus lived.

Greek icon of Mary Magdalene

At the tomb, Mary was given instructions. She was told by Jesus or by the angel to “Go to my brothers and say to them….” Mary then ‘went and announced’. With these words Mary was commissioned as an apostle of Jesus (‘go and tell’ is apostellein in Greek). She was an apostle in the same way as the men (the Twelve and the other disciples) who were commissioned to spread the story of Jesus.

Until the third century, teachers in the Christian church referred to Mary as an ‘apostle’, and she is still called ‘apostle to the apostles’ by the Eastern Catholic churches. She has been one of the most revered figures in  Christian history.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul does not include the women at the tomb among the witnesses to the Resurrection. According to his narrative, Jesus appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve male disciples, then to 500 people, then to James, then to all the apostles. Mary of Magdala is not mentioned. Paul was writing to Greeks in Corinth, and sadly his letter reflects the culture of the Greeks, who viewed the testimony of women as unreliable.

Summary

Mary was present at all the major events in Jesus' life. 

She was there during his ministry, heard him teach, and may have been the major financial backer sustaining him and the group of disciples who followed him - pious writers have overlooked the practicalities of sustaining a group of men for several years, but Mary did not.

 She was there during the crucifixion and death of Jesus - all four gospels mention her presence, faithful to the end. 

Most importantly, she was there at the resurrection, the first witness of this world-changing event, and commissioned by the angel to 'go and tell', as an apostle to the apostles.

SOME EXTRA SNIPPETS

'There is a good deal of evidence that in the Greco-Roman world in general women were thought be educated men to be gullible in religious matters and especilly prone to superstititus fantasy and excessive in religious practices. Strabo, for example, points out that "in dealing with a crowd of women.... a philosopher cannot influence them by reason or exhort them to reverence, piety and faith; nay, there is need to religious fear also, and this cannot be arounsed without myths and marvels" (Geog.1.2.8).
We are fortunate to have an example of this prejudice directed specifically against Mary Magdalene as an alleged witness to the resurrection by the second-century pagan intellectual despiser of Christianity, Celsus: "after death he rose again and showed the marks of his punishment and how his hands, had been pierced. But who saw this? A hysterical female, as you say, and perhaps some other one of those who were deluded by the same sorcery" (apud Origen.C.Cels.2.55). Even allowing for Celsus's polemical intent in focusing on a female witness of the resurrection, it is notable that the appearance to Mary Magdalene was sufficiently prominent  what Celsus knew of the Christian claim about the resurrection of Jesus for him to be able to take it up in this way. There can hardly be any doubt that the gender of the "hysterical" or "crazed" woman is important to Celsus's sneering polemic.'
(Quoted from 'Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels', Richard Bauckham, p270-271)

     Read about other significant women of the Bible