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Although in medieval legends, many facts from the life of Mary of Egypt were attributed to Mary Magdalene nevertheless that was a completely different woman, who, however, also became a very revered Christian saint. That particular Mary was born not in the Galilee city of Magdala near Capernaum, like Mary Magdalene, but in Egypt; and not in the 1st century – but in the middle of the fifth…
She was not extremely beautiful, but she was not ugly either… However, for some reason her parents did not really love her much and didn’t care about her enough, and therefore, and at the age of twelve she ran away from them – without remorse, reproaches, regret and grief – once and forever…
The small, but quick-witted, decisive and courageous girl decided to head for not the neighboring provincial town to offer sexual favors to the poor from local shacks, but for the city of Alexandria, which, even during the Byzantine rule, continued to be the first and most important trading city of the empire. How could a woman at that time – the time of inequalities between men and women – without a proper genealogy or impressive financial support, climb the Olympus of success? – You are right! Only by becoming a widely and most demanded harlot! So, she did become exactly like that…!
For more than seventeen years, Maria indulged in this occupation, and not without pleasure… She believed that she loved everyone and everyone loved her… However, she was just taking lust for love! Actually, she really loved only gorgeous gifts, expensive wines and food, jewelry, that is, a luxurious lifestyle and the pleasure of satisfying her most base instincts… That was only a dubious substitute for true love! One can easily get tired and bored of such pleasures… Only satisfaction from performing moral duties towards the family and the loved ones may save from getting bored! Only Love is not boring!
And, of course, the time came when Mary became fed up with the noise and bustle of the big city, with empty dreams of distant countries and unknown wonders… Her soul began to plunge, slowly but surely, into complete, deep, continuous, absolute, hopeless and pitch-black darkness, that is, hell…
Nevertheless, her SPIRIT was still snarling and trying to shake her so that she would start up and again feel the taste for life…
And just so… one day Mary saw a group of pilgrims heading to the ancient and already holy city of Jerusalem for the feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross and decided to join them, but not with pious thoughts, but “so that there was more to indulge in harlotry with”, in order to feel this sweet sense of novelty again and fully taste the joy from the holiday of life…
What followed…? Like everyone else on this day in Jerusalem… Mary tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for the celebration, but could not – some force held her, did not let her in… Repeatedly she tried to overcome the invisible wall, but all her efforts were in vain… This obstacle did not succumb to either her physical strength, or the strength of her SPIRIT, or her persuasions…
What did she feel? – HORROR! For everyone’s MIND realizes that the death of THE BODY is nothing in comparison with the death of THE SOUL!
Somehow instantly realizing the full depth of her fall, Mary began to pray passionately – wildly, zealously and selflessly – in front of the icon of the Mother of God, which was in the narthex of the temple. Enormous tears of genuine grief were flowing in an endless stream… She prayed for a long, long time, not noticing anyone or anything, not even that time was passing by…
Well, the Miracle did happen! She entered the temple and bowed low… to the Life-giving Cross! That was truly REAL GRACE AND A REAL GIFT FROM ABOVE!
Leaving the temple, Mary already so simply and naturally turned with a prayer of thanks to the Virgin Mary and in response HEARD HER VOICE: “If you cross the Jordan, you will find blessed peace” …
And who may disobey the command from above? Well, and Mary could not… Moreover, she not only “crossed the Jordan”, but also remained there, in the desert… in complete solitude, fasting and prayers of repentance… for 47 years!
For the first 17 years, Mary was haunted by prodigal passions and these are the memories of her past life from her Vita:
“When I was eating, I dreamed of meat, which I used to have in Egypt, and I wanted to drink my favorite wine… After all, being in the world, I used to drink a lot of wine, but in the desert, I did not even have water… I was thirsty, and I was terribly suffering.
Sometimes I had a very embarrassing wish to sing dirty songs, to which I was so accustomed…
Tears rolled down my cheeks, I beat myself in the chest with my fists, and I recalled the vows I made when leaving for the desert… “
She quickly ran out of the food taken from Jerusalem, and her clothes decayed from dilapidation… But after these many years of temptations and fervent prayers… the passions left Mary and, as it runs in her memoirs, “from that time… the power of God in everything transformed my sinful SOUL and my humble BODY “… Well, indeed, Mary “found blessed peace”…
How do we know all this? – We know all this from the Palestinian hermit Abba Zosimas (that is, Holy Father Zosimas), the reverend hieromonk, who met her in the desert three times…
When he met her for the first time, two things surprised him…
The first was her absolute nakedness, that is, complete insecurity from the forces of nature…, and he gave her half of his himation…
The second thing that surprised him even more… was the fact that during prayer she rose a full cubit from the ground and began to quote long texts, she had miraculously assimilated from the Scripture…
It is clear that Zosimas, being overwhelmed and puzzled by what he had seen, asked Mary to tell him about her life. Without false modesty and without the need to ask her twice… she told him everything, in truth and without concealment… In return, she asked Zosimas to meet her on the banks of the Jordan the following year, and to bring her Holy Communion… How could he refuse such an honorable job?
However, it so happened that exactly a year later Zosimas could not leave the monastery due to illness and only on Holy Thursday, taking the Holy Gifts, went to the bank of the Jordan… There he immediately saw Mary walking along the other bank towards him and he thought, “How can she cross the river without having a boat…” Nevertheless, Maria did go “on the water like on dry land”…
As Zosimas promised, he, being astonished, still fulfilled her wish and gave her Holy Communion… Well, Mary again asked him to come to the place of their first meeting a year later, and then crossed the Jordan by walking on the surface of the water and withdrew to the desert…
The third time Zosimas travelled to the same spot where he first met her exactly one year later… But what did he see? – He saw her lying there dead! Her body lay on the sand, and next to it, there was the inscription:
“Abba Zosimas, please, bury the body of humble Mary in this very place; give the ashes to the ashes…
Pray to God for me, who died in the month of Farmufiy – in Egyptian, and in April – in Roman, on this first day, on the night of the saving Passion of Christ, after getting the Holy Communion.”
Then Zosimas realized that she had died on the very night he had given her the Holy Communion and had been somehow miraculously transported to the place he found her, and her body was preserved incorrupt…
Zosimas was in despair… How could he dig a grave? How could he bury the Saint? How could he fulfill the last request of the deceased…?
At this moment, he noticed a lion, which for some reason he had not noticed before… This lion obviously guarded the remains of the Saint, and, probably, he used to be her friend… After all, if Mary could walk on water, levitate… then most likely, she communicated with flora and fauna without an interpreter…
In despair, without thinking too much, Zosimas immediately asked the lion, “The great ascetic commanded me to bury her body, but I am old and cannot dig a grave; I don’t even have a digging tool, and the monastery is far away, I can’t bring it from there soon… Help me, please, dig the grave with your claws, and I will bury the body of the Saint”. The Lion easily fulfilled Zosimas’ request, and so the body of Saint Mary of Egypt rested in the sands…
On returning to the monastery, Zosimas related Saint Mary’s life story to the brethren, and it was preserved among them as oral tradition until St. Sophronius of Jerusalem wrote it down in the 7th century.
In the Christian doctrine, there is such a concept “Mariino, or Maryino standing” – this is a very long service (and now it is clear why!), which is especially majestic. By the way, the example of Mary of Egypt is considered as an example of perfect repentance, and she is associated, first of all, with the patronage of fallen women… Moreover, turning to Mary of Egypt with sincere prayer, you can get rid of any passion.
As Osip Mandelstam wisely remarked, “Maria, for the perishing you are of great help”!
When you are kneeling in prayer to the Almighty…, for hours and nights crying for forgiveness and help, know that SAINT MARY OF EGYPT is on her knees next to you!
We celebrate the feast day of Saint Mary of Egypt on April 1–3.
