ST. MARY OF EGYPT: THE PENITENT OF THE JORDAN (APRIL 1ST, THE 5TH SUNDAY IN LENT)

A Contemporary Icon of St. Mary of Egypt Taking Holy Communion, Once in Forty Years

Edited by Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

In the annals of Christ’s holy Church, few lives bear so radiant a testimony to the power of repentance as that of Saint Mary of Egypt. Born in the great city of Alexandria in the mid-fifth century, she wandered far from the paths of righteousness in her youth, indulging in the fleeting pleasures of sin. By her own account, she lived not for gain but for the love of vice itself, seducing men without price, seeking nothing but the indulgence of her passions. 

At the age of seventeen, she set sail with a company of pilgrims bound for Jerusalem, her heart fixed not upon the sacred relics of the Lord’s Passion, but upon new occasions for sin. Yet when she arrived in the Holy City, the grace of God pursued her. Coming to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, she sought to enter with the faithful, but an invisible force barred her from crossing the threshold. Again and again, she tried, but she remained as one cast out. In that moment, she beheld her wretchedness, and lifting her eyes to an icon of the Theotokos above the entrance, she wept and pleaded for mercy. She vowed that if the Virgin interceded for her to behold the Cross of Christ, she would renounce the world and go wherever God led her. 

The doors of the church opened to her, and she fell before the sacred wood, washing her sins with her tears. Rising, she heard a voice bidding her cross the Jordan into the desert, where she would find peace. That very day, she received absolution and Holy Communion, then departed into the wilderness, taking only three loaves of bread with her. 

For forty-seven years, she lived in utter solitude, waging war against the passions that had once enslaved her. The bread perished, and she survived by eating wild herbs, drinking from the Jordan, and lifting her soul in ceaseless prayer. The struggles of the flesh tormented her at first, but the grace of God burned away all earthly desires. In time, she attained such holiness that she was granted the gifts of clairvoyance and even levitation in prayer. 

Ancient Russian Icon of St. Mary of Egypt

A Contemporary Re-Print of the Russian Icon of St. May of Egypt 

A 17th Century Icon of the Life of St. Mary of Egypt

A Contemporary Antiochian English Icon

A Contemporary Icon Done by St. Elizabeth’s Orthodox Convent, in Minsk, Belarus

Her story became known only when the hieromonk Zosimas, himself a man of great virtue, encountered her while keeping the Lenten fast in the desert. She recounted her life to him and asked that he bring her Holy Communion on Holy Thursday the following year. When he returned as promised, he saw her walk upon the waters of the Jordan to receive the precious Body and Blood of Christ. She asked him to return one year later to find her again. 

When Zosimas returned the next year, he found her lifeless body lying in the wilderness. Beside her, in the sand, was an inscription revealing that she had died immediately after receiving Communion, and that God had miraculously transported her body to that place. Zosimas buried her with the aid of a lion, which meekly dug her grave with its claws. 

Her story spread throughout the Christian world, inspiring generations to repentance. Though she left no writings of her own, her life itself became a testament to the transforming grace of God. Her memory is kept on April 1, and she is especially commemorated on the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, as an example of true repentance. 

Her holy relics, though never recovered, continue to inspire the faithful. Churches and monasteries throughout Christendom bear her name, and she remains a beacon of hope for sinners who seek to turn from darkness to light. 

COLLECT

O God, who didst call thy handmaid Mary from the bondage of sin to the glorious liberty of the children of God; grant that, being penitent after her example, we may obtain the mercy which she found, and with her ever rejoice in the vision of thy face; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. 

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