Saint of the Day: St. Mary of Egypt

Holy Woman (Fifth Century)

Her story

+ According to legend, Mary was a fifth-century hermit, who lived alone in the Trans-Jordan desert of Palestine.

+ She said that because she had been and to have fled the world to avoid being a temptation to men and to do penance. Alternate accounts of her life assert that she was a prostitute who experienced a profound conversion to a life of penance after being mystically denied entry to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Good Friday.

+ Mary of Egypt died shortly after meeting with the monk Saint Zosimus of Palestine, with whom she shared her story. Zosimus later buried her remains in a cave in the desert.

+ Although there is little evidence of an early liturgical cult, her legend was later embellished by various writers and was included in a number of medieval saints’ lives, in which she was presented as a model of penitence.

For Prayer and Reflection

“The Lord has risen from the dead, as he said;
let us all exult and rejoice,
for he reigns for all eternity, alleluia.”—Entrance Antiphon for Monday in the Octave of Easter

Prayer
O God, who give constant increase
to your Church by new offspring,
grant that your servants may hold fast in their lives
to the Sacrament they have received in faith.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal: Collect for Monday in the Octave of Easter)
Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.