St Mary of Egypt: When Women
Refuse to "Know Their Place"

Dr. Alexander Roman  alex@unicorne.org 

It has been said that if women, rather than men, ran the world, there would be no wars, famine or other "man-made" catastrophes. Who could argue with that? Men like to justify what they consider to be their "superior" status on the basis of their intelligence, strength and social skills.  However, women share all those qualities as well - with the exception that they have more of them. The Fifth Sunday of the Great Fast is dedicated to the strength and depth of women's spirituality.

St Mary of Egypt did not only struggle with this world with its injustices.  She also struggled against the invisible world of evil, vice and temptation.

Living in a time (have things ever changed?) of great sexual immorality and corruption, St. Mary joined thousands of other Christians in turning their back on the world to seek God by naked faith and spiritual struggle in the desert.

Some may think that to be a form of escapism.  In actual fact, from a spiritual point of view, this was not that at all.  

The desert was considered to be the place where evil dwelt.  Nothing could grow in the desert and water was scarce.  After 40 days and nights in the desert, Christ Himself was tempted by the devil there.

To go to the desert was, for the thousands of Christians who went there, a declaration of war on the devil and all his works.

It was in the desert that Christians faced the Evil One and committed themselves to do battle against him with the Sword of the Spirit that is continual prayer, rejection of the world, solitary living, spiritual reading and meditation.

Men and women lived in different types of monastic communities.  Some lived in large groups or monasteries.  The Egyptian Thebaid once counted 20,000 Monks (referring to both men and women) in one locale.

Others lived in smaller huts, two or three together, since where two or three are gathered, there Christ is as well!  

Still others decided to live as hermits in caves where they spent their days in prayer and manual work until their death.

St Pachomius the Great codified and established a number of monastic rules for both men and women, rules that were later developed by St Theodore the Studite and especially by St Basil the Great in his "Asceticon."

An Angel of the Lord appeared to St Pachomius and presented him with the monastic garb that is worn to this day. 

He told him that this special clothing would help his Monks focus their attention and their lives on God and Christ.

Monks have told me that their cowls actually do help them focus in prayer as it "blocks out" the world around them.  

The "Analavos" or "Polystavrion" is like the western Scapular (Naplechnyk) that represents the taking up of the Cross of our Lord.

The prayer rope that the Monk wears wrapped around his arm is a symbol of the Sword of the Spirit that is continual prayer to Jesus:  Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!

The Angel also told Pachomius that his monks should say the Jesus Prayer 100 times in each of the 24 hours of the day and 300 times at 3:00 pm in the afternoon in memory of the Death of our Lord on the Cross.

St Basil established 300 Jesus Prayers as the equivalent of one of the 20 parts or "Kathismata" of the Psalter.

The full monastic rule of the Jesus Prayer as applied to the Daily Office or Horologion is:

• 6 times 300 prayers for Vespers

• 12 times 300 prayers for Matins

• 3 times 300 prayers for all other Hours.

Monks also divided the Psalms into groups of 12 Psalms, with three extra for the first and last sections, and so said one group at the beginning of each hour, day and night!

They worked with their hands and prayed a short prayer to continue in their close union with God.

One Holy Father wrote that he worked by weaving baskets.  He could weave 17 good baskets a day, praying his short prayer all the while.  

As he needed to sleep a little (!), he gave two baskets to a friend who prayed over him while he slept . . .

St Mary of Egypt was a Venerable Mother and Monastic who struggled according to similar rules of prayer and work.

She lived as a solitary.  Of course, she was far away from any Church, but God ensured that St Abraham brought her Holy Communion before the end of her very holy life.

She faced the devil and defeated him with the Cross of Christ and the power of His Divine Name.

She suffered all sorts of deprivations with courage, resolution and determination.

Her soul became red hot with love for God and her spirit became pliable, like heated metal on an anvil, in His Hands that formed her into a true Temple of the Holy Spirit.

She was permeated with the uncreated Divine Energies of God and the Lord worked miracles through her, His servant.

A tradition exists within Orthodox monasticism that a woman, who could not find a community of women monastics, could, in fact, "lie" about her gender to be received into a male community.

There is even an Archimandrite of the Kyiv Caves Lavra, St. Dositheus, with an interesting story.

He was actually a "she."  St Dosithea fooled everyone to become head of the Lavra!  She even blessed St Seraphim to go to Sarov.  It was only after her death that her true gender was discovered.

St Nina of Georgia evangelized the peoples of the Caucasus mountains, taking over from the missionaries who were relatives of Barabbas himself!

She performed great miracles with her Cross made of grapevines which is now in Moscow.

She is entitled, "Equal to the Apostles."  She did everything the Apostles did, with the sole exception that she did not have episcopal consecration and the powers that went with it.

St Mary Magdalene is another "Equal to the Apostles."  She was actually a woman of status and standing and there is no evidence to suggest she was ever a prostitute.  

According to tradition, Mary Magdalene was invited to Rome to have dinner with the Emperor.

During that dinner, Mary actually tried to convert the old despot!

But when she got to the Resurrection of Christ, the Emperor was said to have interrupted her.

"Come now, Madame, a man could not rise from the dead, especially after having suffered a death by crucifixion, than this white egg could turn red!"

Mary Magdalene then picked up an egg off the table and said, "But, Your Imperial Highness, an egg can turn red . . ."

At that, the egg turned red in her hands!

Early icons of St Mary Magdalene have her holding an egg.  

This began the tradition of "egg-writing" in Orthodoxy, much like "icon-writing."

These are not the quaint "Easter eggs" that we see sold in the stores, let us remember.

The red-coloured egg has a whole theology behind it.  St John of Damascus says that the egg represents the world.  The red colour represents the Blood of Christ having fallen to the ground and saved the world.  The hardness of the yoke inside represents the death of sin through the death of Christ.  The breaking of the egg represents the Resurrection of Christ.

The Ukrainian tradition has developed a very sophisticated art-form of Pysanky or eggs with spiritual inscriptions on them, all thanks to St Mary Magdalene!

The veneration of the Mother of God, especially in the Ukrainian Church, is also tied to a special honour, above that of men, that is given not only to the Person of the Virgin Mary, but to the gender of which She is the most pre-eminent member!

Women are saints, martyrs, teachers, nation-builders and have served Christ in many, many other ways.

It is time, in my view, for women to come into their own in the Church and this issue needs to be raised and debated.

In the 1920's, when Patriarch Sergius signed a concordat with the bolsheviks, a group of women in a Russian parish decided to demonstrate their annoyance at this.

Coming to their bishop at the end of the Liturgy, instead of kissing the Cross he held, the women, instead, spit on his shoes, one by one.

An underground Bishop heard about this.  He said, "Women did that?  Thank God for our Mothers and Sisters.  If it wasn't for them, who would defend our Church?"

Who indeed . . .