Venerable · 5th–6th century
Mary of Egypt
Venerable Mary of Egypt
New Calendar April 1 Old Calendar April 14
Why they are a saint
Mary of Egypt is remembered as former harlot of Alexandria who fled to the Jordan desert and lived in repentance for decades. Her life is read in Lent; a model of repentance. The years given for this life are 5th–6th century. The New Calendar feast is April 1.
Life
Saint Mary was born in Egypt. At twelve she left her parents for Alexandria, where for more than seventeen years she lived in unrestrained sensuality, not for money but for its own sake. She sailed with pilgrims to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and there, trying to enter the church, she was held back by an unseen force.
Weeping, she prayed before an icon of the Theotokos, vowing to change her life, and then she entered and venerated the Cross. She received the Holy Mysteries at the church of Saint John the Forerunner by the Jordan, crossed the river, and lived in the desert for forty-seven years.
There the monk Zosimas met her and heard her story. At her request he brought her the Holy Mysteries on Holy Thursday. A year later he found her body, with a note saying she had reposed on the very night she had received them; a lion helped him dig her grave. Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem wrote down her life as he had heard it from the holy Fathers.
Sources: OCA Lives of the Saints. Retold in our own words.
Traditional patronage
The cited source names no specific patronage.
Patronage / why chosen as patron
Patron of monastics, chastity, repentance, because she lived the monastic life of prayer and asceticism.
Prayer
O holy Mary of Egypt, pray to God for us.
A short general prayer to a saint, not a liturgical text. No public-domain troparion for this saint is included.
Do not confuse with the Theotokos; Mary Magdalene; other Marys.