Russian icon of St. Mary of Egypt
Kuopio Orthodox Church Museum
Mary of Egypt (is revered as the patron saint of penitents, most particularly in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Churches, and Oriental Orthodox Churches.Saint Mary, also known as Maria Aegyptiaca, was born somewhere in the Province of Egypt, and at the age of twelve she ran away from her parents to the city of Alexandria. Here she lived an extremely dissolute life. In her Vita it states that she often refused the money offered for her sexual favors, as she was driven "by an insatiable and an irrepressible passion," and that she mainly lived by begging, supplemented by spinning flax.
Flax is a food and fiber crop cultivated in cooler regions of the world. Textiles made from flax are known in the Western countries as linen, and traditionally used for bed sheets, underclothes, and table linen.
Sermon for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
After seventeen years of this lifestyle, she traveled to Jerusalem for the Great Feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. She undertook the journey as a sort of "anti-pilgrimage," stating that she hoped to find in the pilgrim crowds at Jerusalem even more partners in her lust. She paid for her passage by offering sexual favors to other pilgrims, and she continued her habitual lifestyle for a short time in Jerusalem.
Saint Mary of Egypt, c. 1800
Oil on canvas
71 1/2 x 57 1/4 in. (181.6 x 145.4 cm)
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, (French, 1725 -
1805). After training in
Lyon, Jean-Baptiste Greuze arrived in Paris in 1750, where he sporadically
attended the Académie Royale. His 1755 Salon debut was a triumph, but the
acclamation turned his head. He antagonized everyone, including fellow artists,
which later proved disastrous.
While
retaining the clear, bright colors and lighter attitude of eighteenth-century
painting, Greuze introduced a Dutch-influenced realism into French genre
painting and portraiture. Through vivid facial expressions and dramatic
gestures, Greuze's moralizing paintings exemplified the new idea that painting
should relate to life. They captured the details of settings and costumes,
"spoke to the heart," educated viewers, and aimed to make them
"virtuous."
In 1769 Académie members refused Greuze
membership as a history painter, accepting him only in the lower category of
genre, perhaps partly from ill will. Humiliated, he withdrew from public
exhibitions completely. During the 1770s Greuze enjoyed a widespread reputation
and engravings after his paintings were widely distributed, but his wife
embezzled most of the proceeds. By the 1780s, Neoclassicism curtailed his
popularity and his quality declined. After enduring poverty and neglect, he
died unnoticed, having outlived his time and his reputation. More on Jean-Baptiste Greuze
When she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the celebration, she was barred from doing so by an unseen force. Realizing that this was because of her impurity, she was struck with remorse, and upon seeing an icon of the Virgin Mary outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness and promised to become an ascetic.
Above me I saw an icon of the Pure Mother of God
Then she attempted again to enter the church, and this time was permitted in. After venerating the relic of the true cross, she returned to the icon to give thanks, and heard a voice telling her, "If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest." She immediately went to the monastery of Saint John the Baptist on the bank of the River Jordan, where she received absolution and afterwards Holy Communion.
St. Zosima and St. Mary of Egypt
From the iconostasis of the side-church of St. Mary of Egypt
Sretensky Monastery, Moscow
The next morning, she crossed the Jordan and retired to the desert to live the rest of her life as a hermit in penitence. She took with her only three loaves of bread, and once they were gone, lived only on what she could find in the wilderness.
Jusepe DE RIBERA, 1591–1652
St Mary of Egypt, c. 1651
)il on canvas
Height: 88 cm (34.6 in); Width: 71 cm (27.9 in)
Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri, Neapel
José de Ribera (January 12, 1591 –
September 2, 1652) was a Spanish
Tenebrist painter and printmaker, better known as Jusepe de Ribera. He also was
called Lo Spagnoletto ("the Little Spaniard") by his contemporaries
and early writers. Ribera was a leading painter of the Spanish school, although
his mature work was all done in Italy. More on José de Ribera
Approximately one year before her death, she recounted her life to Saint Zosimas of Palestine, who encountered her in the desert. When he unexpectedly met her in the desert, she was completely naked and almost unrecognizable as human.
Mary of Egypt, covered in golden hair, being handed a cloak by Zosimus
British Library
She asked Zosimas to toss her his mantle to cover herself with, and then she narrated her life's story to him. She asked him to meet her at the banks of the Jordan, on Holy Thursday of the following year, and bring her Holy Communion.
Pedro de Orrente, (Murcia, 1580- Valencia, 1645)
The last communion of Saint Mary Egyptian, Circa 1616-1617
Oil on canvas
167.8 x 115 cm
Caylus, Madrid
Pedro Orrente (1580–1645) was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period. Orrente appears to have
studied with el Greco in Toledo, where he painted a San Ildefonso before the
apparition of St Leocadia and the Birth of Christ for the cathedral. He often
moved, painting in Murcia and Cuenca. In Valencia, he painted for the
Cathedral. He set up a school, and among his pupils were Esteban March and
García Salmerón. In Madrid, he painted works transferred to the Palacio del
Buen Retiro. He traveled to Seville, where he met Francisco Pacheco. Returning
to Castille, died in Valencia and buried in the parish de San Martín. Known for
paintings of animals and landscapes, as well a history paintings. More on Pedro Orrente
When he fulfilled her wish, she crossed the river to get to him by walking on the surface of the water, and received Holy Communion, telling him to meet her again in the desert the following Lent. The next year, Zosimas travelled to the same spot where he first met her, some twenty days' journey from his monastery, and found her lying there dead. According to an inscription written in the sand next to her head, she had died on the very night he had given her Communion and had been somehow miraculously transported to the place he found her, and her body was preserved incorrupt.
Father Zosimas could not think how to to bury the saint, for he was weak and had no tools. But just then a lion appeared, and willingly dug her grave with his paws. Covering St. Mary’s feet with tears and kisses, the holy elder committed her to the earth with prayers.
He buried her body with the assistance of a passing lion. On returning to the monastery he related her life story to the brethren, and it was preserved among them as oral tradition until it was written down by St. Sophronius. More on Mary of Egypt
Russian icon of S. Mary of Egypt, 17th century
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