There are many ‘origin stories’ behind the popular Easter tradition of the Easter Egg. One of the stories features a wonderful miracle in the life of St. Mary Magdalene. 

(Text taken from CatholicCompany.com)

According to tradition, after Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, Mary Magdalene—a wealthy woman of some importance—boldly presented herself to the Emperor Tiberius Caesar in Rome to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ, with an egg in hand to illustrate her message.

Holding the egg out to him, she exclaimed for the first time what is now the universal Easter proclamation among Christians, ‘Christ is risen!’

The emperor, mocking her, said that Jesus had no more risen–than the egg in her hand was red. Immediately, the egg turned red as a sign from God to illustrate the truth of her message. The Emperor then heeded her complaints about Pilate condemning an innocent man to death, and had Pilate removed from Jerusalem under imperial displeasure.

—

In another tradition, it is said that Mary Magdalene brought a basket of white boiled eggs with her on Easter morning to the tomb of Jesus—perhaps as a meal for herself and the others as they waited for someone to roll the stone away. When she arrived at the site of the Resurrection, finding the stone already rolled away, she also found that the eggs in her basket had turned into bright shades of colour.

While we do not know if these stories are true with absolute certainty, we do know that the tradition of handing out red eggs at Easter time is one that originated among Christians in Apostolic times. And we often find St. Mary Magdalene depicted in ancient icons holding a red egg!