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Les Saintes Maries de la Mer-The history of the three maries

    If you only sail during the summer months, you will miss this event. The gipsy pilgrimage of Saintes Maries de la Mer takes place on 24 and 25 May. You are going to hear the story of the three Maries and Sara in a hope that you will be enticed into taking your boat out next spring.

Mary Jacobe, Mary Magdalene’s sister, was Jesus’ aunt. Mary Salome, a fisherman’s wife, was the mother of the apostles John and James. According to legend, after having been driven out of Jerusalem by the Romans, the three «Maries», Magdalene, Jacobe and Salome, together with some of their close family and friends were captured by infidels and thrown into a boat without sails or oars in Jaffa. After having drifted for a long time in the Mediterranean, they supposedly ran aground in the Camargue. The survivors scattered themselves: Maximin and Lazarus headed for Aix and Marseille where they became the first bishops, Mary Magdalene left for Marseille and then the Sainte Baume and Martha went to Tarascon.

Mary Jacobe and Marie Salome, who were too old, stayed where they had landed with their servant Sara. They built a chapel which would later become the Saintes Maries Church.

Sara, who is the patron saint of the Gypsy people (questions remain as to whether she arrived with the two Maries or joined them in the town), is also known as «Sara the Black». In Gypsy history, she guided them during their migration from eastern countries towards the sea.

The relics, which were found and identified in 1498, are at the origin of this veneration and religious festival.

On the first day, 24 May, the reliquaries of the two saints are lowered from their storage place in the church and together with Sara are taken on a procession through the streets. On the second day, the two Maries’ boat is taken to the sea. The reliquaries are then placed at the top of the church, above the choir using pulleys

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