“Note the three privileges given to Mary Magdalene.
First, she had the privilege of being a prophet because she was worthy enough to see the angels, for a prophet is an intermediary between angels and the people.
Second, she had the dignity or rank of an angel insofar as she looked upon Christ, on whom the angels desire to look.
Third, she had the office of an apostle; indeed, she was an apostle to the apostles insofar as it was her task to announce our Lord’s resurrection to the disciples.
Thus, just as it was a woman who was the first to announce the words of death, so it was a woman who would be the first to announce the words of life.” (2519).
—St. Thomas Aquinas, Lectura super Ioannis, caput 20, lectio 3: