Devotion to St. Martha

Devotions

Devotion to the sister of Mary and Lazarus who welcomed Jesus into her home and professed faith in him as the Christ, honored as patron of hospitality and homemakers.

Devotion to St. Martha honors the sister of Mary and Lazarus of Bethany, who appears in the Gospels welcoming Jesus into her home while her sister sat listening at his feet (Luke 10:38-42), and professing her faith that he is the Christ, the Son of God, before he raised her brother Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44). She is honored today especially as patron of cooks, servants, homemakers and those who work in hospitality, with her feast kept on July 29, now shared with Mary and Lazarus.

Quick Facts

  • Category: Saint-Associated Devotions — Named Saint Devotions
  • Origin: A biblical saint of the Gospels; her cultus is ancient and continuous from the early Church
  • Associated saint: St. Martha of Bethany
  • Country: Holy Land / Universal Church
  • Feast: July 29, kept together with Sts. Mary of Bethany and Lazarus since a 2021 decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship
  • Church status: A permitted and firmly established saint devotion; Martha is named directly in Scripture and has been venerated since antiquity
  • Private revelation: Not dependent on private revelation; devotion rests directly on the Gospel accounts rather than a reported apparition

What Is This Devotion?

Devotion to St. Martha means honoring the woman the Gospels present as a close friend of Jesus who opened her home to him in the village of Bethany, and drawing on the two scenes Scripture gives of her — her concern with much serving while her sister Mary sat at the Lord’s feet, and her bold profession of faith at her brother’s tomb — as models of hospitality, active charity and confident trust in Christ. She is invoked especially by cooks, servers, innkeepers, homemakers and anyone whose work involves hospitality or domestic care, and, because of her friendship with Jesus, is also a natural patron for those seeking to deepen ordinary daily life into an occasion of faith.

Origin and History

Martha appears in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus visits the home she shares with her sister Mary and Martha is anxious and troubled about many things while Mary sits listening at his feet, prompting Jesus’s gentle correction that Mary has chosen the good portion (Luke 10:38-42); and in the Gospel of John, where, after her brother Lazarus dies, Martha goes out to meet Jesus and professes, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world,” immediately before Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44). John’s Gospel also describes a supper at Bethany at which Martha serves (John 12:1-2), reinforcing the association with hospitality found in Luke.

Martha’s veneration as a saint is ancient and continuous, reflecting her direct presence in Scripture rather than a later-developed cultus. A separate medieval tradition, strongest in southern France, holds that Martha traveled to Provence after Christ’s Ascension and there subdued a fearsome river-dwelling creature called the Tarasque near the town later named Tarascon in her honor; this account appears only in much later medieval legendary literature, has no basis in the New Testament or in the earliest Christian sources about Martha, and this site presents it as received local legend rather than verified history. In 2021, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, at the direction of Pope Francis, extended Martha’s July 29 feast to include Mary and Lazarus together, recognizing the three siblings as a single household of faith and friendship with Jesus.

Catholic Theology

Devotion to St. Martha rests on ordinary Catholic teaching about the intercession of the saints, given particular weight here because Martha’s own words and actions are recorded directly in the Gospels rather than known only through later hagiography. Her profession of faith in John 11 is treated by the Church as one of the clearest Christological confessions in the New Testament, while the Luke 10 episode is read not as a rejection of active service but as a reminder that such service must remain rooted in attentive love of Christ.

How to Practice It

  • Pray to St. Martha for hospitality, for those who work in food service, care of the home or care of guests, and for a right balance between activity and prayer.
  • Read and reflect on both Gospel scenes involving Martha (Luke 10:38-42 and John 11:1-44) as a pair, rather than treating either alone as the whole of her story.
  • Mark her feast on July 29, now shared with Mary and Lazarus, perhaps by offering hospitality to others in her honor.
  • Approach the Provence and Tarasque legend as received medieval tradition, distinct from the biblical Martha, rather than as documented history.

Associated Prayers

When It’s Observed

St. Martha’s feast falls on July 29 each year; since the 2021 decree extending the observance, the General Roman Calendar keeps this day jointly in honor of Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus of Bethany rather than Martha alone.

Church Status

St. Martha’s standing as a genuine biblical saint, named directly in the Gospels, is firmly established, and her feast remains on the universal General Roman Calendar. The Provence evangelization legend and the Tarasque story belong to a much later and separate medieval tradition that the Church has never proposed as an extension of her biblical identity, and readers should not treat it as part of the New Testament record.

Common Misconceptions

“St. Martha, St. Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany are simply the same person under different names.”

This site follows the now more widely held reading, also reflected in the Church’s 1969 calendar reform and 2021 decree, that treats Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, as a figure distinct from St. Mary Magdalene, even though earlier centuries of Western tradition sometimes conflated the two along with the unnamed sinful woman of Luke 7. Because ancient sources vary and the identification question has a real scholarly history, this site presents Martha’s sister as Mary of Bethany and keeps that question separate from the person and feast of St. Mary Magdalene.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was St. Martha’s feast changed to include Mary and Lazarus?

In 2021, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments extended the July 29 feast, previously kept for Martha alone on the General Roman Calendar, to honor all three Bethany siblings together, in recognition of their shared hospitality toward Jesus and their close friendship with him as described in the Gospels.

What is St. Martha the patron of?

She is honored as patron of cooks, servants, housewives, innkeepers and others whose work involves hospitality or the care of a household, a patronage drawn directly from her role serving Jesus and his companions in the Gospel accounts.

Is the story of St. Martha and the Tarasque part of her official Church veneration?

No. It is a medieval legend particular to Provence, France, with no basis in Scripture or the earliest sources about Martha, and it is not part of the Church’s liturgical veneration of her, which rests on the Gospel accounts themselves.

Sources

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