St. Mary of Egypt

St. Mary of Egypt lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, and according to her ancient life died around 421 in the desert beyond the Jordan. As a young woman she left home for Alexandria, where for some seventeen years she gave herself over to a life of lust and dissipation. Joining a crowd of pilgrims bound for Jerusalem, she continued in her ways until, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, she found herself mysteriously unable to enter to venerate the True Cross — and, struck to the heart, she wept, repented, and begged the Virgin Mary's help.

Hearing an inner call to cross the Jordan, she withdrew into the wilderness and lived there in solitary penance for some forty-seven years, struggling against her memories and passions until she attained great holiness. Her story was preserved by the monk Zosimas, who met her near the end of her life and brought her Holy Communion. Revered throughout the Church, especially in the East, where she is remembered during Lent, she stands as one of Christianity's great icons of repentance and the boundless mercy of God.