This article investigates the different interpretations through time of the noli me tangere episode (John 20:17), when Mary Magdalene seeks to touch the risen Christ on Easter Sunday but is rebuked. From a first imperfect translation from the Greek in the Vulgate, the pericope has historically been used to support the misogynistic conception that women are lower than men spiritually and should not have unmediated access to the divine. A partial translation of the same verse, which focuses on the Magdalene being told to announce the Resurrection to the apostles but fails to mention Christ's refusal to be touched, is also used now by feminist scholars to defend women's right to preach. The article focuses more particularly on mistranslations and even contradictions of the episode in late medieval English religious texts, and suggests that this is the result of the election of Mary Magdalene as a key figure of affective piety, a particular focus on a compassionate meditation upon Christ's humanity that became widespread from the twelfth century onward.