Who was St. Martha?
Everything certain about Martha is in two Gospels. Luke tells how Jesus "entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received him into her house" (Luke 10:38). Her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet and listened. Martha "was busy about much serving," and asked Jesus to tell her sister to help. He answered: "Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41-42, Douay-Rheims).
John gives the place, Bethany, near Jerusalem, and the brother, Lazarus, and adds the line that explains the family: "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus" (John 11:5). When Lazarus fell ill the sisters sent word, and Jesus arrived four days after the burial. Martha, "as soon as she heard that Jesus had come, went to meet him: but Mary sat at home" (John 11:20). She said it plainly: "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died" (John 11:21). Then came the exchange the Church reads at her Mass. "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live: And every one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever. Believest thou this?" "Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of the living God, who art come into this world" (John 11:25-27). The Catholic Encyclopedia says John here shows "the other and deeper side of her character." Vatican News calls her confession a summary of Christian belief. At a later supper in Bethany, John adds, "Martha served" (John 12:2).
Of her later life the Gospels say nothing, and the traditions do not agree. Vatican News passes on the memory that after the first persecutions Martha, Mary, Lazarus and other disciples went to Provence, arriving at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Franciscan Media records two other stories: that Lazarus followed Peter into Syria, or that he, his sisters and others were put into a leaking boat at Jaffa and landed safely in Cyprus, where he served as bishop for thirty years. The Cyprus story cannot be reconciled with the Provence one, and neither can be checked. The devotion can. Around the year 390 the pilgrim Etheria described a procession at Lazarus's tomb in Bethany on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. In 1262 the Franciscans began keeping Martha's memorial on July 29. The village is called El-Azariyeh today, after Lazarus, and a sanctuary there is believed to stand where Martha's house stood. The Encyclopedia notes that the Aramaic form of her name appears in a Nabataean inscription at Puteoli of A.D. 5 and a Palmyrene inscription of A.D. 179.
Why Catholics pray to St. Martha when everything is too much
One of her patronages is declared. On July 1, 1963, in the apostolic letter Hospes eram, Pope Paul VI named St. Martha heavenly patroness of Italy's hotel keepers and of the people who work in its hotels and restaurants, and he grounded the choice in Luke's account of the woman who welcomed Jesus and was "busy about much serving" (Luke 10:38-40). The next March he spoke to Italian hoteliers of the brief by which he had declared her their protectress. Her wider patronage is traditional, with no document behind it: Franciscan Media lists her as patron of cooks, homemakers and restaurant servers, and the three siblings as patrons of siblings.
People who carry a household pray to her because she carried one, and because the Lord did not tell her to stop serving. He named what was underneath the serving: "careful," "troubled about many things." Vatican News says the active life she stands for and the contemplative life Mary stands for are "complementary, and not opposed to one another." That is what Catholics ask through her: to keep serving without the serving hollowing them out.
In 2021 the Church enlarged her day. By a decree of January 26, 2021, signed by Cardinal Robert Sarah and Archbishop Arthur Roche, Pope Francis made July 29 the Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus on the General Roman Calendar. The decree recalls that in the house of Bethany the Lord "experienced the family spirit and friendship of Martha, Mary and Lazarus." So her day is now a family's day. A daughter nursing a dying brother, a son whose mother needs more care than he has hours, a woman who has not sat down since dawn: these are Bethany's people, and the Lord loved that house.
How to pray to St. Martha
Her memorial is July 29, and the Gospel at Mass is one of her two scenes, John 11:19-27 or Luke 10:38-42. A novena can be prayed July 20 to 28 or on any nine days. If you are ever in the Holy Land, Bethany is a short way from Jerusalem, "about fifteen furlongs off" (John 11:18).
Pray the prayer below, then name what is too much: the shifts, the parent who needs more than you have, the kitchen, the bills. Ask her for two things: the strength to keep serving and the sense to sit down at the Lord's feet before you break. Pair the prayer with Mass and Confession and, when exhaustion has become illness, with a doctor; burnout and depression need treatment, and a prayer to St. Martha is not a substitute for it. If you are caring for a sick or aging parent, ask your parish and your family for help as plainly as Martha asked the Lord. He heard her, said her name twice, and told her what was necessary.