Mary of Egypt was a fifth-century Christian hermit, but most of what is known about her is based on a seventh-century text by Sophronius of Jerusalem. According to this account, Mary was an Alexandrian prostitute who traveled to Jerusalem at the age of 29 with the aim of seducing pilgrims.

After attempting to visit the Holy Sepulchre, Mary found herself physically unable to cross the threshold of the church, even as others entered unobstructed. This invisible blockade proved to be strong medicine for Mary, who repented of her sins and became a solitary contemplative and ascetic in the desert beyond the Jordan River, where she remained for the next forty-seven years.

Two years before her death, she provided spiritual direction to a monk named Zosimus, who gave her his cloak and returned the following year to bring her communion. When Zosimus came back the next year, he found Mary lying dead with her face turned to the East. Several traditions hold that her grave was dug by a lion, an ancient symbol of Christ.

As early as the sixth century Mary’s life was being commemorated in the Orthodox churches during Lent, an example of repentance categorized by continual self-emptying, as opposed to a realized state of sanctity.

This process is captured by Goethe, who casts Mary as one of the three penitent saints who pray to the Virgin Mary for the forgiveness of Faust:

By the consecrated place
Where the Lord’s body lay:
By the warning arm, against my face,
That thrust me far from the doorway:
By my forty years’ repentance,
Faithful, in that desert land:
By the blissful final sentence
That I wrote there on the sand.

Excerpted directly from “Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2022,” p. 172-173.

Lessons and Psalm

Hebrews 11:32-40
Psalm 91:9-16
John 8:1-11

Preface of a Saint (2)