Saint Joanna

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Joanna was one of the women associated with the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, often considered to be one of the disciples. In the Bible, she is one of the women recorded in the Gospel of Luke as accompanying Jesus and the twelve: "Mary, called Magdalene, ... and Joanna the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources" (Luke 8:2-3).

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Joanna is also among the women who went to prepare Jesus' body in Luke's account of the resurrection, and who later told the apostles and other disciples about the empty tomb and words of the "two men in dazzling clothes". She is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod on August 3 with Mary and Salome on August 3.

Both Richard J. Bauckham and Ben Witherington III conclude that the disciple Joanna is the same woman as the Christian Junia mentioned by Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (Romans 16:7).

Derivatives are : St. Jessica, St. Jennifer.

[edit] Joanna in literature

Joanna is a secondary character in Mary George’s 2002 novel Mary, Called Magdalene. In the novel, Joanna, cast from Herod’s household by Chuza for being possessed, is healed by Jesus in Capernaum. She then joins the other disciples. She is the second woman, after Mary.

[edit] References

Bauckham, Richard J., Gospel Women (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2002), pp. 109-202.
Witherington, Ben, III, "Joanna: Apostle of the Lord—or Jailbait?", Bible Review, Spring 2005, pp. 12-14+