MARY THE EGYPTIAN, SAINT. The legend of Saint Mary the Egyptian
is derived from a Greek Life falsely attributed to Sophronius of
Jerusalem (PG 87, cols. 3697-3726). It is there related that a
monk-priest named Zosimus from a monastery in Palestine went out
during Lent into the desert beyond the Jordan, and there met an
old woman who was living as an ascetic in complete solitude. He
took her at first for a spirit. Since she was without clothing,
she sought to flee. Zosimus threw her his cloak to cover her.
She then told him her life story. A native of Egypt, she left
her parents from the age of twelve to go to Alexandria, where
she lived for seventeen years in prostitution. One day, near the
harbor, she met some men who were going on pilgrimage to
Jerusalem. She resolved to go with them, and to pay for her
passage continued to ply her trade on the ship. In Jerusalem, on
the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, she wished to go
into the church with the others. But a mysterious force held her
back several ti