For Deborah Dale--
I can't tell from your question whether you want to know what happened
during *liturgical* celebrations of Mary Magdalene's feast in late-medieval
England, or just the non-liturgical parts.
If you do want the liturgical aspect, I think you can find most of the
special instructions and texts (hymns, antiphons, lessons, prayers, etc.) in
the Sarum Missal and esp. the Sarum Breviary, in the Sanctorale section at
July 21 [beginning at Vespers] and July 22. The Sarum liturgy wasn't used
in the monasteries or friaries, and Hereford and York also had liturgies of
their own (which are also accessible in modern reprints, if you want to get
into that much detail). But the Sarum books give a pretty relible picture
of the services used in the secular cathedrals, colleges, and parish
churches in most of England, and even Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, during
this period.
Sherry Reames (English Dept., Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison)
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