Mary of Egypt
Encyclopedia
Mary of Egypt is revered as the patron saint
of penitents, most particularly in the Eastern Orthodox
, Oriental Orthodox
, and Eastern Catholic churches, as well as in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.
written of her by St. Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem
(634 - 638). Most of the information in this section is taken from this source.
Saint Mary, also known as Maria Aegyptica, was born somewhere in Egypt
, and at the age of twelve ran away to the city of Alexandria
where she lived an extremely dissolute life, prostituting
herself. In her Vita she states that she often refused the money offered for her sexual favors as she was driven "by an insatiable and an irrepressible passion," and that she mainly lived by begging, supplemented by spinning
flax
.
After seventeen years of this lifestyle, she travelled to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. She undertook the journey as a sort of "anti-pilgrimage," stating that she hoped to find in the pilgrim crowds at Jerusalem even more partners in her lust. She paid for her passage by offering sexual favors to other pilgrim
s, and she continued her habitual lifestyle for a short time in Jerusalem. Her Vita relates that when she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
for the celebration, she was barred from doing so by an unseen force. Realizing that this was because of her impurity, she was struck with remorse, and on seeing an icon
of the Theotokos
(the Virgin Mary) outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness and promised to give up the world (i.e., become an ascetic). Then she attempted again to enter the church, and this time was permitted in. After venerating the relic
of the true cross
, she returned to the icon to give thanks, and heard a voice telling her, "If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest/ true peace." She immediately went to the monastery
of St. John the Baptist
on the bank of the River Jordan, where she received absolution and afterwards Holy Communion. The next morning, she crossed the Jordan and retired to the desert to live the rest of her life as a hermit
in penitence. She took with her only three loaves of bread, and once they were gone, lived only on what she could find in the wilderness.
Approximately one year before her death, she recounted her life to St. Zosimas of Palestine
who encountered her in the desert. When he unexpectedly met her in the desert, she was completely naked and almost unrecognizable as human. She asked Zosimas to toss her his mantle to cover herself with, and then she narrated her life's story to him, manifesting marvellous clairvoyance
. She asked him to meet her at the banks of the Jordan on Holy Thursday of the following year, and bring her Holy Communion. When he fulfilled her wish, she crossed the river to get to him by walking on the surface of the water and received Holy Communion, telling him to meet her again in the desert the following Lent. The next year, Zosimas travelled to the same spot where he first met her, some twenty day's journey from his monastery, and found her lying there dead. According to an inscription written in the sand next to her head, she had died on the very night he had given her Communion and had been somehow miraculously transported to the place he found her, and her body preserved incorrupt
. He buried her body with the assistance of a passing lion
. On returning to the monastery he related her life story to the brethren, and it was preserved among them as oral tradition
until it was written down by St. Sophronius.
. The Bollandists place her death in 421, others give the date of her death as 522 (see Orthodox Wiki article, below), or 530 (see Prolog from Ohrid, April 1). The only clue given in her Vita is the fact that the day of her repose was April 1, which is stated to be Holy Thursday, meaning that Easter
fell on April 4 that year.
If one consults a perpetual calendar
that is keyed to the Julian Calendar
(the one in use at the time), one finds that there are 24 years in the relevant centuries on which April 1 occurs on a Thursday. Of these, the years on which Easter would fall on April 4 according to the Julian Calendar are: 443, 454, 527, 538, and 549.
It is notable that the Synaxarion states that Zosimas lived during the reign of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger, who reigned from 408 to 450. According to tradition, Zosimas lived almost a hundred years, dying in the sixth century, and the Vita states that he was fifty-three years old when he met St. Mary.
In iconography
St. Mary of Egypt is depicted as a deeply tanned, emaciated old woman with unkempt gray hair, either naked or covered by the mantle she borrowed from Zosimas. She is often shown with the three loaves of bread she bought before undertaking her journey into the desert.
Her feast day is kept by the Orthodox according to the Fixed Cycle on April 1. On the Moveable Cycle
the Orthodox Church also commemorates her on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent
, on which day it is customary for the priest to bless dried fruit
after the Divine Liturgy
. The Life of St. Mary by St. Sophronius is appointed to be read during the Matins
of the Great Canon
of St. Andrew of Crete
on the preceding Thursday.
In the Roman Catholic Church, she is commemorated on April 3 (or April 2, according to the Roman Martyrology
). Although she is venerated by Anglicans, St. Mary of Egypt does not appear on Anglican Church Calendars.
There is a chapel
dedicated to her at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
in Jerusalem, commemorating the moment of her conversion.
Mary of Egypt is one of the three penitent saints who pray to the Virgin Mary for forgiveness for Faust. Her words are set by Mahler
in his 8th Symphony as the final saint's appeal to the Mater Gloriosa.
In Ben Jonson's play Volpone
(1606) one of the characters uses the expression "Marry Gip". Commentators have taken this to mean "Mary of Egypt".
Mary of Egypt is the subject of opera
s by Ottorino Respighi
and Sir John Tavener
, the latter written in 1992 for the Aldeburgh Festival
.
Nalo Hopkinson
's science fiction
novel
, The Salt Roads
, also features Mary of Egypt and takes a historical fiction
approach to telling her story.
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of penitents, most particularly in the Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
, Oriental Orthodox
Oriental Orthodoxy
Oriental Orthodoxy is the faith of those Eastern Christian Churches that recognize only three ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople and the First Council of Ephesus. They rejected the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon...
, and Eastern Catholic churches, as well as in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.
Life
The primary source of information on Saint Mary of Egypt is the VitaBiography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
written of her by St. Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem
Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem is the head bishop of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, ranking fourth of nine Patriarchs in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Since 2005, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem has been Theophilos III...
(634 - 638). Most of the information in this section is taken from this source.
Saint Mary, also known as Maria Aegyptica, was born somewhere in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, and at the age of twelve ran away to the city of Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
where she lived an extremely dissolute life, prostituting
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
herself. In her Vita she states that she often refused the money offered for her sexual favors as she was driven "by an insatiable and an irrepressible passion," and that she mainly lived by begging, supplemented by spinning
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
flax
Flax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
.
Pilgrim
A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...
s, and she continued her habitual lifestyle for a short time in Jerusalem. Her Vita relates that when she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....
for the celebration, she was barred from doing so by an unseen force. Realizing that this was because of her impurity, she was struck with remorse, and on seeing an icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
of the Theotokos
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
(the Virgin Mary) outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness and promised to give up the world (i.e., become an ascetic). Then she attempted again to enter the church, and this time was permitted in. After venerating the relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
of the true cross
True Cross
The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.According to post-Nicene historians, Socrates Scholasticus and others, the Empress Helena The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a...
, she returned to the icon to give thanks, and heard a voice telling her, "If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest/ true peace." She immediately went to the monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
of St. John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
on the bank of the River Jordan, where she received absolution and afterwards Holy Communion. The next morning, she crossed the Jordan and retired to the desert to live the rest of her life as a hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
in penitence. She took with her only three loaves of bread, and once they were gone, lived only on what she could find in the wilderness.
Approximately one year before her death, she recounted her life to St. Zosimas of Palestine
Zosimas of Palestine
Venerable Zosimas of Palestine, also called Zosima, is commemorated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches on April 4....
who encountered her in the desert. When he unexpectedly met her in the desert, she was completely naked and almost unrecognizable as human. She asked Zosimas to toss her his mantle to cover herself with, and then she narrated her life's story to him, manifesting marvellous clairvoyance
Clairvoyance
The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...
. She asked him to meet her at the banks of the Jordan on Holy Thursday of the following year, and bring her Holy Communion. When he fulfilled her wish, she crossed the river to get to him by walking on the surface of the water and received Holy Communion, telling him to meet her again in the desert the following Lent. The next year, Zosimas travelled to the same spot where he first met her, some twenty day's journey from his monastery, and found her lying there dead. According to an inscription written in the sand next to her head, she had died on the very night he had given her Communion and had been somehow miraculously transported to the place he found her, and her body preserved incorrupt
Incorruptibility
Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that supernatural intervention allows some human bodies to avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness...
. He buried her body with the assistance of a passing lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
. On returning to the monastery he related her life story to the brethren, and it was preserved among them as oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
until it was written down by St. Sophronius.
Date of death
There is disagreement among various sources regarding the dates of St. Mary's life. The dates given above correspond to those in the Catholic EncyclopediaCatholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
. The Bollandists place her death in 421, others give the date of her death as 522 (see Orthodox Wiki article, below), or 530 (see Prolog from Ohrid, April 1). The only clue given in her Vita is the fact that the day of her repose was April 1, which is stated to be Holy Thursday, meaning that Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
fell on April 4 that year.
If one consults a perpetual calendar
Perpetual calendar
A perpetual calendar is a calendar which is good for a span of many years, such as the Runic calendar.- General information :...
that is keyed to the Julian Calendar
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...
(the one in use at the time), one finds that there are 24 years in the relevant centuries on which April 1 occurs on a Thursday. Of these, the years on which Easter would fall on April 4 according to the Julian Calendar are: 443, 454, 527, 538, and 549.
It is notable that the Synaxarion states that Zosimas lived during the reign of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger, who reigned from 408 to 450. According to tradition, Zosimas lived almost a hundred years, dying in the sixth century, and the Vita states that he was fifty-three years old when he met St. Mary.
Religious commemoration
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
St. Mary of Egypt is depicted as a deeply tanned, emaciated old woman with unkempt gray hair, either naked or covered by the mantle she borrowed from Zosimas. She is often shown with the three loaves of bread she bought before undertaking her journey into the desert.
Her feast day is kept by the Orthodox according to the Fixed Cycle on April 1. On the Moveable Cycle
Paschal cycle
The Paschal cycle in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Pascha . The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as the period of the Triodion...
the Orthodox Church also commemorates her on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent
Great Lent
Great Lent, or the Great Fast, is the most important fasting season in the church year in Eastern Christianity, which prepares Christians for the greatest feast of the church year, Pascha . In many ways Great Lent is similar to Lent in Western Christianity...
, on which day it is customary for the priest to bless dried fruit
Dried fruit
Dried fruit is fruit where the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia, and is prized...
after the Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. As such, it is used in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Armenian Christians, both of the Armenian Apostolic Church and of the Armenian Catholic Church, use the same term...
. The Life of St. Mary by St. Sophronius is appointed to be read during the Matins
Matins
Matins is the early morning or night prayer service in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. The term is also used in some Protestant denominations to describe morning services.The name "Matins" originally referred to the morning office also...
of the Great Canon
Canon (hymnography)
A canon is a structured hymn used in a number of Eastern Orthodox services. It consists of nine odes, sometimes called canticles or songs depending on the translation, based on the Biblical canticles. Most of these are found in the Old Testament, but the final ode is taken from the Magnificat and...
of St. Andrew of Crete
Andrew of Crete
For the martyr of 766 of the same name, see Andrew of Crete .Saint Andrew of Crete For the martyr of 766 of the same name, see Andrew of Crete (martyr).Saint Andrew (Andreas) of Crete (also known as Andrew of Jerusalem) For the martyr of 766 of the same name, see Andrew of Crete (martyr).Saint...
on the preceding Thursday.
In the Roman Catholic Church, she is commemorated on April 3 (or April 2, according to the Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology
The Roman Martyrology is the official martyrology of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It provides an extensive but not exhaustive list of the saints recognized by the Church.-History:...
). Although she is venerated by Anglicans, St. Mary of Egypt does not appear on Anglican Church Calendars.
There is a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
dedicated to her at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....
in Jerusalem, commemorating the moment of her conversion.
In popular culture
In Goethe's FaustGoethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
Mary of Egypt is one of the three penitent saints who pray to the Virgin Mary for forgiveness for Faust. Her words are set by Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
in his 8th Symphony as the final saint's appeal to the Mater Gloriosa.
In Ben Jonson's play Volpone
Volpone
Volpone is a comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606, drawing on elements of city comedy, black comedy and beast fable...
(1606) one of the characters uses the expression "Marry Gip". Commentators have taken this to mean "Mary of Egypt".
Mary of Egypt is the subject of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s by Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
and Sir John Tavener
John Tavener
Sir John Tavener is a British composer, best known for such religious, minimal works as "The Whale", and "Funeral Ikos"...
, the latter written in 1992 for the Aldeburgh Festival
Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...
.
Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican science fiction and fantasy writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her novels and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.Hopkinson has...
's science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, The Salt Roads
The Salt Roads
The Salt Roads is a folk tale of historical fiction by Nalo Hopkinson.-Plot introduction:Against the restrictions of time, a Ginen Goddess travels through and lives the lives of three women...
, also features Mary of Egypt and takes a historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
approach to telling her story.
External links
- Original Vita of Saint Mary of Egypt by St. Sophronius, as read in Orthodox churches on Thursday of the fifth week of Great Lent
- Saint Mary the Egyptian from the Prologue from Ohrid, April 1
- Mary of Egypt article in Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Golden Legend: The Life of Saint Mary of Egypt (In PersianPersian languagePersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, with English translation) - Fifth Sunday of Great Lent: St. Mary of Egypt icon and synaxarion
- Mary of Egypt Orthodox Wiki
- St. Mary of Egypt: Ascent From Prostitution to Sanctity from Harlots of the Desert, by Sr. Benedicta Ward