Da Vinci Code: Who is Sarah?

Who is Saint Sarah

According to the Roma (gypsy) people, Saint Sarah – also known as Sara-la-Kali (Sara the black) – was the servant of two saints, Mary Salome and Mary Jacobe, both of whom were supposed relatives of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ. According to this Egyptian legend, Sara guided these women, along with Mary Magdalene, through a severe storm several years after the crucifixion.

Some claim that Saint Joseph of Arimathea and the Holy Grail accompanied the women on the trip. Other stories assert that Sara was with the saints Maries and Marthe when they discovered the empty tomb of Jesus and subsequently accompanied them to share with the apostles the news of his resurrection.

Yet another tradition explains Sarah as an early Christian figure; a “black servant” who, along with Mary (Sister of the Virgin) and another Mary (Mother of Saint James and Saint John), found exile in Sainte Maries de la Mar in France after facing persecution in Judea around the year 40 B.C.E. Saint Sarah’s official feast day is the 19th of August, and in France her day of pilgrimage is celebrated on May 24th, during which time a statue of her is carried down to the ocean in commemoration of her arrival.

Sarah in the Code

According to The Da Vinci Code, Mary Magdalene was not the repentant prostitute so often portrayed by the Church, but rather Jesus’ wife. Moreover, Brown’s story asserts that it was with Mary that Jesus had a child who would for centuries carry on the Holy Bloodline, which itself is actually the Holy Grail. This child, the Code says, was named Sarah.

In keeping with the fictional account (which has since been deemed heretical by the Church), Mary fled to Egypt after Jesus’ crucifixion, to give birth to her child. Afterwards, she traveled by ship to France where Sarah later married and became a member of the Merovingian dynasty.