Saint Mary of Egypt

Life story

Mary's story is known only from a Greek biography, usually attributed to Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem in the seventh century; some scholars think it may be older and by a different author. No independent source confirms her life, so her years of birth and death are unknown. Tradition usually places her in the fifth century.

According to the biography, Mary was born in Egypt, left home at twelve for Alexandria and lived a sinful life for about seventeen years. She joined a pilgrim ship to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross but found she could not enter the church of the Holy Sepulchre. There, praying before an icon of Mary, she is said to have been converted and crossed the Jordan to live in the desert.

Tradition says she lived alone in the desert for decades, with little food and tattered clothing. About a year before she died she met Zosimas, a monk keeping Lent in the desert, told him her life and asked him to bring her Communion. The next year he found her dead and buried her; legend says a lion helped dig the grave. Details such as walking on water belong to legend. Her memorial is 1 April, and Eastern Churches also remember her on the fifth Sunday of Lent.

Works and witness

• Subject of a Greek biography attributed to Sophronius of Jerusalem
• According to tradition, converted in Jerusalem and lived in the Jordan desert
• Met the monk Zosimas about a year before her death
• Remembered as an image of repentance
• Memorial on 1 April

Patron of

Penitents

Saints from the same country

Saint Anthony of Egypt, Saint Athanasius, Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Saint Catherine of Alexandria

References

• Life of Mary of Egypt, attributed to Sophronius of Jerusalem
• Martyrologium Romanum
• Synaxarion of the Eastern Churches

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.