The Magdalen imagery further draw on the idea of Christ as the word , represented by a book , with the Magdalen as the reader learning of her own life story in a moment of reflection and repentance . Her devotion to reading reflect her traditional status as the piously repentant harlot , as well as a prophetess or seer . According to legend , the Magdalen lived the last 30 years of her life as a hermit in Sainte @-@ Baume and is often shown with a book , reading or writing , symbolizing her later years of contemplation and repentance . By the 13th century she acquired the imagery of a once @-@ shamed woman who , clothed in long hair , now hid her nakedness in exile and " borne by angels , float between heaven and earth " .