Saint Mary of Egypt

Saint Mary of Egypt was born around 344 AD and spent the first seventeen years of her adult life in Alexandria in a life of sin, indulging every kind of immorality. She was not a prostitute by profession but lived recklessly and freely, seducing others for her own pleasure. She traveled with a group of pilgrims to Jerusalem — not out of faith, but out of curiosity and opportunity.

When she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem with the other pilgrims, an invisible force stopped her at the door. She tried again and again and was unable to enter. Suddenly, she understood: her life of sin had made her unworthy to enter the house of God. Overcome with grief and repentance, she turned to an icon of the Virgin Mary in the vestibule and wept bitterly, praying for intercession.

A voice came to her, directing her to cross the Jordan River into the desert. Mary obeyed immediately. She lived alone in the desert for forty-seven years — enduring terrible temptations, extreme deprivation, and complete solitude. Her food was a handful of lentils she carried at the start. She survived on prayer, wild plants, and the grace of God. When the monk Zosimas found her near the end of her life, she floated above the ground in prayer. Her story is one of the most dramatic examples of repentance and transformation in the history of the Church.