Paragon of REPENTANCE

St. Mary of Egypt celebrated during Lent as one changed by contrition

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/DUSTY HIGGINS
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/DUSTY HIGGINS

Deep into the Lenten journey of repentance, on the fifth Sunday of the season, Orthodox Christians find inspiration in an unlikely saint - Mary of Egypt.

Mary, born in Egypt, left home at an early age and traveled to Alexandria. There she became a prostitute, living a life of debauchery for years. The story is that Mary would offer herself to anyone and not necessarily because she needed money or food.

“She was considered the lowest of the low,” said the Rev. Nicholas Verdaris, priest at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Little Rock. “In the ancient world, no one could have believed such a person would ever again find favor with God or man. The fact that she is now held up despite what we know speaks to God’s great mercy.”

At some point Mary left Alexandria and headed with a group to Jerusalem, selling herself to pay for the trip. In Jerusalem she followed a crowd headed into the Church of the Resurrection and found she could not enter.

“It was like an invisible wall kept her from going in,” said the Rev. John Atchison, priest at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Springdale.

When she was repelled from entering the church, Mary realized that her impure lifestyle was to blame.

Spotting an icon of the Virgin Mary, she began crying and praying for help and pledged to give up all worldly pleasures.

“She came face to face with St. Mary. Our picture of extreme purity encounters extreme impurity and the light shines in the darkness and it caused the darkness to disappear,” Atchison said.

With that prayer, Mary was able to enter the church, and she dedicated herself to God. She sought spiritual refuge in the desert and lived the life of an ascetic for decades alone in the wild, spending her time in prayer, fasting and repentance. In the harsh conditions of the desert, Mary’s clothes turned to rags, her skin burned and she survived on what water or meager food she could find, never encountering another soul for years.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America website’s biography of Mary states that an elder known as Zosimas went into the desert to fast and found Mary. She told him her story and asked him to return the next year with Holy Communion. They would meet on the banks of the Jordan River.

The site states, “When the day arrived, Zosimas saw Mary appearing on the farther bank of the river. She made the sign of the cross and crossed the Jordan, walking on the water.”

She took the Communion and again asked Zosimas to return the following year, but when he arrived he discovered that Mary had died. Legend has it that as Zosimas struggled to dig into the hard earth to bury Mary, a lion appeared and came to his aid by digging with his front paws. St. Saphronius is credited with writing down the story that Zosimas shared about Mary’s repentance so that others would know of God’s mercy.

The feast day for St. Mary of Egypt is April 1, but it’s on the fifth Sunday of Lent that her story of repentance is read and remembered.

“She’s a favorite saint of the Orthodox Church,” Atchison said. “She has gained the recognition of being one of the few people who has a whole Sunday dedicated to her. Usually it’s these wonderful saints and people from the Bible and here we have, in the middle of Lent, Mary of Egypt, the famous prostitute who received redemption and became one of our premier saints.”

Atchison said Mary is an encouragement to all who have sinned.

“Everybody has sinned and come short of the glory of God, and it should encourage us that no matter the behavior we have done - even though we have done great sin - we have a great savior,” he said. “Not only were Mary’s sins covered but her life became very, very holy.”

The Rev. Joseph Bittle, priest at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Little Rock, said Mary is a radical example of penitence. In icons she is often depicted as emaciated and wearing rags, her hair bleached white by the sun.

“She went out into the desert with three loaves of bread and then ate an occasional twig or berry but really had no food out there,” Bittle said. “Part of the beauty of the story is understanding that she was in physical terms miraculously supported despite the absence of food, clothes or shelter.”

Bittle said each year when he reads the story of St. Mary of Egypt it has an impact.

“It does not fail, year in and year out, that at some point along the way in reading that I choke up,” he said. “Maybe a little tear comes to my eye.Something in that story catches me. I’m both personally touched and convicted.”

Verdaris said stories of miraculous deeds supposedly done by Mary, like walking on water, are secondary to what truly matters - that in repenting she was not only forgiven by Christ, but that in being forgiven she changed her life.

“Through faith and the love of Christ she was able to change from a life of sin to holiness,” Verdaris said. “She exemplifies the understanding that repentance for the Christian is not only a sense of regret but a change in their way of life and attitude.

“So, Christians, especially in Lent, are not only sorry for the sins we’ve done but are actually looking at changing our way of life so we don’t fall into that sin again. It’s not required to be an ascetic and live in the desert, but commitment is necessary.”

Ultimately, Verdaris said, the lesson of Mary during Lent is that there is no joy in the Resurrection without repentance.

“We need to be repentant in order to recognize Jesus as the risen Lord,” he said. “Otherwise, we are observers, and we are not to be observers but to be followers of Christ.”

Religion, Pages 12 on 04/05/2014

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