This article demonstrates that the fifteenth-century female mystic Margery Kempe modelled herself on Mary Magdalene in order to gain in authority, using the repentant saint to provide a precedent for the most controversial aspects of her life, notably her public preaching, her constant crying, and her freedom of movement. She also structured her book to parallel the life of the Magdalene, in a bid to be acknowledged by posterity as a saint.
and structured her life on that of the repentant saint in order to gain in authority.