Site of Saint Mary the Egyptian
One of The most famous legends regarding the area of the Baptism Site is about the life of Saint Mary the Egyptian. In her youth she chose to live the disreputable life of a lustful prostitute in Alexandria and later Jerusalem. One day, on the Feast of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, she tried to enter a church but a mystical force stopped her from going in. She realised that it was her sinful life that was preventing her from going into the church. She burst into tears and prayed to the Virgin Mary for help. She suddenly found she was able to enter the church and promised to change her ways and lead the life that the Virgin Mary had shown her. She abandoned her life of sin and went on to become a model of repentance.
After consulting the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem, she had heard a voice telling her: ‘Cross the Jordan and you will find rest’. She crossed to the east bank of the Jordan River, and spent the last 47 years of her life living alone, praying and fasting in the Jordanian desert where she could be close to God.
She met a priest and monk, named Zosimus, who had come out from his monastery to spend Lent in the desert. After they had talked and prayed together, she begged Zosimus to promise to meet her at the Jordan on Holy Thursday evening of the following year and bring with him the Blessed Sacrament. When the appointed evening arrived, Zosimus came to the spot that had been indicated. Mary appeared on the eastern bank of the river, and having made the sign of the cross, walked upon the waters to the western side. Having received Holy Communion, she raised her hands towards heaven, and cried aloud in the words of Simeon: “Now, Oh Lord, let your servant go in peace, because your word has been fulfilled and my eyes have seen your salvation”.
She then told Zosimus to come back after a year to the spot where he had first met her in the desert, adding that he would find her then in what condition God might ordain. He came, but only to find the poor saint’s corpse, and written beside it on the ground a request that he should bury her, and a statement that she had died a year before, on the very night on which he had given her Holy Communion, far away by the Jordan’s banks.
Zosima buried her, reportedly with the help of a lion, that helped him dig her grave with its paws.
The site associated with Saint Mary the Egyptian is in the ‘Zor’ area close to the place where Jesus was baptized.
