[...] Now when one day Mary Magdalene was preaching, the aforesaid prince said to her: 'Do you think you can defend the faith which you preach?' She replied: 'Indeed I am ready to defend it, inasmuch as it is confirmed by the daily miracles and preaching of my master Peter, who presides at Rome.' The prince with his wife said to her: 'Behold, we are ready to obey your words in everything, if you obtain for us a son from the God whom you preach.' 'On account of this,' said Magdalene, 'it shall not be lacking.' Then blessed Mary entreated the Lord on their behalf, that He would deign to grant them a son. The Lord heard her prayers, and that matron conceived.
Then her husband began to wish to set out to Peter, to prove whether, as Magdalene had preached concerning Christ, the truth was so. His wife said to him: 'What is this, my lord? Do you think to set out without me? God forbid. For when you depart, I will depart; when you come, I will come; when you rest, I will rest.' Her husband said to her: 'It shall not be so, my lady, for since you are pregnant and there are countless dangers at sea, you could easily be imperiled. You shall therefore rest at home and bestow care upon our possessions.' But she insisted to the contrary, a woman not changing the womanly way, and with tears, clinging to his feet, at last she obtained what she sought. Mary therefore set the sign of the cross upon their shoulders, lest the ancient enemy hinder them on any part of the journey.
Having therefore abundantly loaded a ship with all necessaries, and leaving the rest of what they had in the keeping of Mary Magdalene, they began to set out. And now, the course of one day and night being completed, the sea began to swell exceedingly and the wind to blow, so that all, and especially the pregnant and feeble matron, battered by so savage a flooding of the waves, were pressed by the gravest distresses, to such a degree that upon her the pangs of childbirth suddenly came, and amid the distresses of her womb and the pressures of the time, giving birth to a son, she breathed her last. The little boy, then, born, was quivering, and seeking the comfort of his mother's breasts, gave forth pitiful wailings. O grief! And an infant was born alive and became a mother-slayer.
It is fitting that he should die, since there is no one to provide nourishment for his life. What shall the pilgrim do, when he sees both his wife dead and the boy wailing with plaintive cries, longing for the breast of his mother! He lamented greatly and said: 'Alas, wretched one, what will you do? You desired to have a son, and you have lost both mother and son.' The sailors cried out, saying: 'Let this body be cast into the sea, before we all perish together. For as long as it is with us, this tossing will not cease.' And when they had laid hold of the body, that they might cast it into the sea: 'Spare it,' said the pilgrim, 'spare it; and if you are unwilling to spare either me or the mother, have mercy at least on the wailing little one.
'Wait a little and bear with it, in case the woman, sunk in a swoon from grief, may yet be able to breathe again.' And behold, not far from the ship a certain hill appeared. Seeing it, he thought it more fitting to carry the body and the little boy there than to give them to the sea-beasts to be devoured; and only with difficulty, by prayers and a bribe, did he wring it from the sailors that they should put in there. And since, because of the hardness of the ground, he could not dig out a grave there, he laid the body in a more hidden part of the hill, spreading his cloak beneath it; and placing the little boy at its breasts, he said with tears: 'O Mary Magdalene, you have brought my ruin to its full measure by my landing at Marseilles! Why, wretched man, did I undertake this journey at your urging! Did you ask God that my wife should conceive for this cause and perish!'
'For behold, she conceived, and in giving birth she met with death. The child was born only to perish, since there is no one to nurse him. Behold what I obtained by your prayer; to you I have entrusted all that is mine, and I commend it to your God. If you have power, be mindful of the mother's soul, and by your prayer may He have mercy, that the child may not perish.' Then he covered the body together with the child all around with his cloak, and afterward boarded the ship. And when he had come to Peter, Peter met him, who, seeing the sign of the cross upon his shoulder, asked who he was and whence he came. The man related everything to him in order, and Peter said to him: 'Peace be to you; you have come well, and you trusted in good counsel. Do not take it ill if your wife sleeps, and if the little one rests with her.'
'For the Lord is mighty to give gifts to whom He wills, to take away what He has given, to restore what He has taken away, and to turn your sorrow into joy.' Then Peter led him to Jerusalem and showed him all the places in which Christ had preached and worked miracles, the place too in which He suffered and that in which He ascended into the heavens. And when he had been carefully instructed in the faith by Peter, and a span of two years had now passed, he boarded a ship, taking care to return to his homeland. So as they were sailing, by the Lord's arrangement they arrived alongside the hill on which the body of his wife had been laid with the child. By prayers and a bribe he persuaded them to put in there.
Now the little boy, kept unharmed there by Mary Magdalene, would often go down to the seashore and there, as is the custom of children, was wont to play with little stones and pebbles. And when he had landed, he saw the little boy in his usual manner playing with the stones on the seashore; and not ceasing to wonder what this might be, he leaped out of the boat. When the little one saw him—since he had never seen any such thing—he was terrified and, running back to his mother's familiar breasts, hid secretly under the cloak. But the pilgrim, to see more clearly, went up to that place and found the most beautiful little boy sucking his mother's breasts; and taking up the child he said:
'O blessed Mary Magdalene, how happy I would be, how all things prosperous would have come to me, if my wife could breathe and be able to return home with me! Indeed I know, I know and beyond all doubt I believe, that you, who gave me this boy and fed him on this rock for two years, will be able by your prayer to restore his mother to her former health.' At these words the woman breathed and, as if awaking from sleep, said: 'You are of great merit, blessed Mary Magdalene, and glorious, you who in the pangs of my childbirth fulfilled the office of midwife and in all my needs performed the service of a handmaid.' Hearing this, the pilgrim said in amazement: 'Are you alive, my beloved wife?' She answered him: 'Indeed I am alive, and only now do I come from the pilgrimage from which you too have come.'
'And just as blessed Peter led you to Jerusalem and showed you all the places in which Christ suffered, died and was buried, and many other places besides, so I too, together with blessed Mary Magdalene as my guide and companion, was with you and committed to memory all I beheld.' And beginning with all the places in which Christ suffered, and the miracles she had seen, she set them forth so fully that she did not deviate in anything. Then the pilgrim, having recovered his wife and his boy, joyfully boarded the ship, and a little later they put in at the harbors of Marseilles; and entering, they found blessed Mary Magdalene preaching with her disciples. And falling at her feet with tears, they recounted all that had happened to them, and from blessed Maximinus they received holy baptism.
Then in the city of Marseilles, destroying the temples of all the idols, they built churches of Christ, and with one accord chose blessed Lazarus as bishop of that same city. At length, by divine prompting, they came to the city of Aix and led that people to the faith of Christ through many miracles. [...]