Mary was an Egyptian, who left home at the age of twelve and went to live in
Alexandria, where she became a prostitute for seventeen years.
At the age of twenty-nine through curiosity, she joined a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, paying for her passage by offering herself to the sailors.
Once at Jerusalem, she was held back from entering the church with the other
pilgrims by an invisible and irresistible force. Lifting her eyes to an icon
of the Blessed Virgin, she was told to go over the Jordan where she would
find rest.
She bought three loaves and went to live in the desert, where for the rest
of her long life she lived on dates and berries.
Her clothes wore out, but her hair grew long and took their place.
She could not read but was divinely instructed in the Christian faith.
A devout monk called Zosimus met her by chance in the desert, covered her
with his cloak at her request, and heard her story. He promised to meet her
in the same place next Maundy Thursday to bring her Holy Communion. This was
done and arrangements made for another meeting. But when he came, he found
her dead body, which a lion helped him bury.
She is often confused with Mary Magdalene (also depicted as a hermit) and
occurs in Books of Hours and elsewhere clothed with her long hair and
carrying with her three loaves as her emblem, as on a screen at Kenn in
Devon.
Feast day is usually the 2nd April, as in most English monasteries, but
sometimes on the 9th or 10th April.
Written and contributed by Phillip Lloyd.
