The Frankish archbishop of Mainz, Rabanus Maurus (d. 856), wrote a biography of St. Mary Magdalene which provides a great number of extra-biblical details of her life as well as of the lives of her sister St. Martha and her brother St. Lazarus.  We learn, for instance:

"Mary, when she attained marriageable years, radiant in the beauty of her body, was exceedingly lovely.  She was brilliant in appearance, becoming in her limbs, charming of face, her dark hair shone, she was most gracious in manner, very sweet in her thoughts, her mouth was well-formed, her lips were adorable, and her skin was a mixture of rose and lily-white.  Her form and the grace of her beauty were so resplendent as to be unique, and as to be called a beautiful work of God.  But because splendor of form is rarely joined to chastity, and the abundance of possessions is usually the enemy of continence, she entered her youth overflowing with pleasures.  At that age, it is usual for a person to rejoice in the nobility of their soul, and also to be drawn into pleasures of the flesh.  Alas!  Oh, sorrow!  'The gold was tarnished' (Lamentations 5, 1)."

After describing her fall into sins of the flesh, Rabanus Maurus tells how Mary Magdalene learned of the preaching and miracles of The Lord Jesus, reconsidered the life she had been leading, repented, and then went to see him at a dinner given for him by Simon the Pharisee:

"Mary entered the feast and looked around, and behold, at a distance she saw the Son of the Virgin Mary.  Thereupon, she prostrated herself and adored him.  Rising up, she reverently went up to the couch on which the Savior was reclining.  She stood trustingly behind the One from whose path she had deviated, and she lowered those eyes of her with which she had longed for worldly goods.  She then began 'to moisten his feet with her tears', wiping them 'with her hair', which she used to arrange to show off the beauty of her face.  She washed his feet with the tears from her eyes and dried them with her hair.  With the mouth she had misused in pride and lust, she 'kissed his feet'; with the perfume she had brought, which she lamented to have used on her body for its sweet smell, she anointed him.  The Pharisee who had invited The Lord to the feast was indignant and looked upon her with spite.  He forgot his own weakness and declared the guilt of her who was about to be saved because she came to be saved, and came in to the Savior.  He said to himself, murmuring, Is he a Jew, or not?  The fact is that, 'If he were a prophet', understanding matters of the past and present without having been present himself, and wisely foreseeing matters of the future, certainly 'he would know' what kind of woman this is, whose service he gladly accepts, and whose touch he does not disdain.  Then God, the Discerner of thoughts and the Prober of intentions, responded to the Pharisee's thoughts: 'Simon,' he said, 'I have something to say to you.'  The haughty Pharisee who had spoken in his heart and with his heart, responded aloud, as though he had not murmured anything at all: 'Master, speak.'  The Lord said: 'Two men were debtors to a certain money-lender.  One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other owed him fifty.  Since neither had that with which to repay him, he forgave them both.  Who do you think loved him more?'  Simon, like a madman who blames the rope for his entanglement in it, considering that no word of his could be expressed so briefly and clearly, and said only: 'The one, I suppose, to whom he forgave more.'  The Lord said to him: 'You have judged rightly.'  He then turned away from the table and towards Mary, on whose love he feasted with more pleasure than on anything at the dinner table.  She offered her own desirable face for him to see, and he looked upon her with his own most serene and kindly eyes.  But before he spoke to her, he mounted a defense of her against the Pharisee, and looking at her while speaking to him, he said: 'Do you see this woman?'  Then, from memory, and going point by point, he mentioned the services of washing, embracing, anointing, and kissing, signifying all the very pleasing services he should have received, plainly reproaching Simon for having failed to provide these, and comparing each to what he received from the woman.  He said: 'I entered your house' -- for I was invited by you -- 'and you gave me no water for my feet' -- either from the well or the river.  It was the usual custom to offer this service.  'But this woman washed my feet with her own tears' -- a completely unheard of service -- 'and she wiped them with her hair', which is more precious than a linen towel.  'You gave me no kiss' -- either of love or as a formality -- 'but she has kissed me' not once, but often: 'for, from the time she entered she has not ceased to kiss my feet.'  Then he continued: 'You did not anoint my head with oil' -- which is a sign of devotion -- 'but she has anointed my feet' -- with a mixture of rose oil.  'Because of this, I say to you, her many sins are forgiven her' -- due to her merit -- 'for she has loved much.'  He explained: 'To the one who loves less, less is forgiven.'  He who is not held for insufficiently loving The Lord, is held onto by God, lest he fall into sin.  

"When he said these words, she understood that the Savior had given joy and great gladness to her hearing [cf. Psalm 50, 9].  Indeed, she heard that the services she had rendered to Christ were numbered and approved.  It was good that she knew that the gift of her services had been preferred to Simon's feast, but it was greater that the shining splendor of her love had been seen by God, and that she had learned of the forgiveness of her sins.  With wonderful eagerness and ineffable sweetness, The Lord consoled the weeping woman who was ceaselessly kissing his feet, and he said to her: 'Your sins are forgiven you.'  The heat of her love had burned away the rust of her sin."