Mary of Egypt
2010
5" x 7"
lasercut Gesso board

Mary of Egypt was born in Egypt in the year 344 CE and died in the Jordanian- Palestinian desert in 421 CE.
Her biography was written by St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem between the years 634 and 638. (200 years later.)

“She was considered a prostitute by many, but the sexual favors that she used to do were only consequence of her nature, since she described herself as ‘driven by an insatiable desire and an irrepressible passion’.” (Today this would be considered an honest self-evaluation.) “One day, when she tried to enter to a church she felt a force that kept her from going in, so she realized that she was impure, she converted, and decided to live as an ascetic, and later went to the desert to live as a hermit, taking with her only three pieces of bread.”

She wandered in the desert for 40 years. Towards the end of her life, Mary of Egypt crossed the Jordan River to meet St. Zosimos of Palestine by walking on the surface of the water---

...but in her imaging, she does not walk on water.

and in the hymns of the church, she is remembered as a reformed prostitute.

In the church of St. Nicolas, Geraki, Peloponnese, Greece, there is an image of Mary of Egypt and St Zosimos on the inside of the Altar . In the Orthodox Church, women are not allowed entrance into the altar area.It is very rare to find an image of a woman other than the Virgin Mary inside this area. And yet in this church, as the priest faces his congregation to offer them communion, is an image that mirrors this activity.