St. Mary of Egypt, Seductress

[c. 344–c. 421] FEAST DAY: April 2

In the early years of the fifth century a priest named Zosimas lived in a monastery in the desert region near the Jordan River. The monks were renowned for their austere life, and they had adopted an unusual custom to prepare for Easter. Every year at the beginning of Lent they left their monastery, scattering throughout the desert to live as hermits. The community would not reunite until Palm Sunday, when all the monks came home to observe Holy Week together.

One year, early in Lent, Father Zosimas was walking in the desert when he saw someone near a low hill. He was too far away to tell if it was a man or woman, but he could see that this individual was naked, with skin darkened by the sun and hair that was bleached white. As he approached, the stranger cried out, “Do not look at me! I am a woman, and naked as you see. Throw me your cloak so I can cover myself.”

Father Zosimas turned his head, removed his cloak, and tossed it behind his back in the woman’s direction. Once the woman was covered, she and the priest began a long conversation. Their talk is recorded in a sixth-century text entitled The Life of Our Holy Mother, St. Mary of Egypt. The little book is attributed to St. Sophronius (died c. 639), the patriarch of Jerusalem, but this is almost certainly a false attribution. It was common for scribes and copyists in the early centuries of the Church to attribute a document to a famous saint or bishop—it made the work more impressive, more authoritative. In all probability the life of St. Mary of Egypt was written about the year 500 by the monks of Father Zosimas’s monastery. The book is not a meticulous biography but a record of an oral tradition, with a few unlikely supernatural embellishments thrown in for audience appeal.

To return to the encounter between Zosimas and the strange woman, she said her name was Mary, and she had been born in Egypt. When she was only twelve years old she ran away from home to live in Alexandria. At this time Rome itself could not compare to the magnificence and wealth of Alexandria. All the trade goods of the known world flowed into its harbor and markets. Scholars and students came from Africa, Asia, and Europe to study in Alexandria’s schools and world-famous library. But Mary was interested in something else: sexual adventures. She gave up her virginity soon after she arrived, and began a seventeen-year-long career of unbridled promiscuity.

Contrary to what some capsule biographies of St. Mary of Egypt say, she never became a prostitute. As she told Father Zosimas, “It was not for the sake of gain [that she invited so many men into her bed]. When they wished to pay me, I refused the money.” She was not interested in wealth; she was interested in conquests. Eagerly she did “free of charge what gave me pleasure.” She especially enjoyed seducing young men and instructing them in the arts of love. As she confessed to Father Zosimas, “There is no mentionable or unmentionable depravity of which I was not their teacher.”

Mary came to regard herself as a skilled seductress, capable of getting any man she wanted. One day she saw a crowd of men waiting to board a ship in the harbor. A bystander told her the men were pilgrims about to sail for the Holy Land, where they planned to celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. The notion of seducing an entire passenger list appealed to Mary, so she joined the party. By the time the ship docked in the Holy Land, Mary had slept with every pilgrim.

The ship arrived in Jerusalem a few days ahead of the feast, so Mary occupied herself hunting men. On the feast day Mary joined the crowd heading to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. She had no religious motive for going to church—she was simply curious to see the relic of the True Cross. As the throng entered the church, Mary felt an invisible force keeping her out. It made her angry to be excluded. She tried to approach the door from different directions, but still something kept her from crossing the threshold.

Now it began to occur to Mary that the powers of Heaven themselves were keeping her away from the Holy Sepulcher. Suddenly, the full realization of everything she had done broke upon her. Stranded outside the church, filled with shame and self-loathing, she wept and lamented as if her heart were breaking. Through her tears she saw an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary above the entrance of the church. “Help me,” she prayed to the Mother of God, “for I have no other help.” Then Mary made a vow to give up her sinful life and to do penance.

Her prayer was answered. The force that had barred her way released her. Inside the church she attended Mass and venerated the relic of the Holy Cross. As Mary exited the church she heard a voice say, “If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest.”

On the day she met Father Zosimas, Mary had been a hermit in the desert for forty-seven years. The first seventeen, she said, were the worst. She craved the rich foods she had enjoyed in Alexandria. She had loved the taste of wine, yet in the desert it was often difficult just to find water. Some days she could not get the lascivious songs she had once sung out of her head. And she felt strong sexual desires. In her temptations she called on the Blessed Virgin for help, and help always came. “After the violent storm,” Mary said, “lasting calm descended.”

Over the years her clothes turned to rags until they fell off her body. But since she never met anyone in the desert her nakedness did not trouble her.

When Mary finished her story, Father Zosimas bowed low to her, because he knew he was in the presence of a saint.

Then Mary asked the priest to do something for her. During the forty-seven years she had lived alone in the desert she had been deprived of Holy Communion. Next year on Holy Thursday, would Father Zosimas return and bring her Communion? The old monk promised.

The following year on Holy Thursday Father Zosimas took the Eucharist, and also a little food for Mary, and walked into the desert. On the banks of the Jordan Father Zosimas found Mary waiting for him and there he gave her Communion.

The next year the priest went to the Jordan again on Holy Thursday. He found Mary near the riverbank, but she was dead. The account of her life says that Zosimas tried to use a stick to dig a grave for the saint, but he was old and weak, and the ground was too hard. As the old monk wondered what to do, a lion came out of the desert. With its claws it dug a grave for Mary. After Father Zosimas buried the saint and said the prayers for the dead, the lion went back into the desert, and Father Zosimas returned home to his monastery to tell his abbot and his brother monks the story of Mary of Egypt.