Mary of Egypt
Mary of Egypt was an Egyptian grazer saint said to have dwelled in Byzantine-era Palestine in the 5th century AD.
The hagiography The Life of Our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt tells her life story through the framing device of an encounter with the hieromonk Zosimas of Palestine near the Jordan River, describing a debauched life of lust in which she traveled from Alexandria to Jerusalem and seduced pilgrims on their way to the Elevation of the Holy Cross. At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre she encountered the icon of the Theotokos, barring her entrance and instructing her to cross the Jordan River and wander the desert as an ascetic. Mary and Zosimas part ways, resolving to meet by the Jordan one year later so that Zosimas can administer Holy Communion; at this meeting Zosimas witnesses Mary walking on the water.
The story concludes with Zosimas waiting one year hence to reunite only to find Mary's deceased body; after praying he receives divine instruction to provide her Christian burial. The hagiography then states that Zosimas told his fellow monks about Mary, and that these monks related the story to the text's credited author Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the 7th century.
Patron saint of Chastity (warfare against the flesh; deliverance from carnal passions); demons (deliverance from); fever; skin diseases; temptations of the flesh
In the Martyrology
- April 1 Saint Mary of Egypt, penitnent