Saint Mary of Egypt

Oct 242010

[Saint Mary of Egypt]
Also known as

Maria Aegyptica

3 April
1 April in the Greek Church

Profile

Beautiful, spoiled, cynical, disenchanted, rich child who was the center of her family’s pride, and who repaid them by running away at age 12. She ran to Alexandria, Egypt where she worked as a dancer, singer, and prostitute for 17 years. Around age 30, Mary took ship on a pilgrimage to Palestine, hoping to ply her trade among the pilgrims, and then in Jerusalem.

On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross she moved with the crowds to the church, looking for customers. At the church door she found herself invisibliy repelled, unable to open the door; she was overcome with remorse for her life and exclusion from the Church. She repented, and asked for Our Lady‘s guidance; a voice told that to find rest, she should cross the Jordan River. The next day Mary crossed the river, wandered into the desert, and took up the life of a hermit for nearly 50 years as penance.

She lived on herbs, berries, and whatever came to hand. She met Saint Zosimus of Palestine. She once told him to come back exactly one year from that day; when he did, he found she had died. With the help of a lion, Zosimus dug her grave; he later wrote a biography of her, and her life was a popular story in the Middle Ages.