Born in 344 A.D., Mary was an Egyptian, who went to Alexandria when she was twelve and lived as an actress and courtesan for seventeen years. Once, she happened to join a large group of people who were on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

When she got to the door of the church, she was unable to enter inside. A miraculous force pushed her away from the door each time she approached it. After trying to get in three or four times, Mary moved to a corner of the churchyard and began to cry in remorse. She was brought to the realization of her evil life as she prayed before an icon of the Blessed Virgin.

That night, the Blessed Mother appeared to her in a dream, asked her to cross the Jordan River and find rest in the desert. She set out and, in the evening, she arrived at the Jordan and received the Holy Communion in a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

The next day, Mary crossed the river and went to the desert, east of Palestine, where she lived as a hermitess for fifty years, not seeing a single human being and beset by all kinds of temptations, which were mitigated by her prayers to the Blessed Virgin.

While making his Lenten retreat, a priest named Zosimus happened to meet the hermitess in the desert. She asked him to return to the banks of river Jordan on Holy Thursday of the following year and to bring her the Holy Communion. The priest was true to his word and returned, bearing the Eucharist. Mary asked him to come back again the next year.

When Zosimus returned in a year’s time, he found Mary dead. On the ground beside the body was a written request that she be buried, accompanied by a statement that she had died one year ago, on the very night she had received Holy Communion last time.

It is believed that, when Zosimus was tired digging the grave, a lion approached and helped him to dig the grave to bury Mary’s body.

Other Saints of the Day

1. Saint Waldetrudis
2. Saint Acacius
3. Saint Casilda of Toledo
4. Saint Demetrius
5. Saint Hugh of Rouen

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