When Mary was twelve and due to her love for freedom, she decides to leave home. Mary was a girl, who did not know how to control her passions and fell into prostitution, she remained being a prostitute for 17 years, but she did not do it out of interest, or for money but for pleasure. No one could convince her of leaving this kind of life, on the contrary she found too many passions to fall into and stay there.
Certain day she decided to join a group of pilgrims who were headed towards the Holy Land, she only went out of curiosity, and she paid for the ticket with her body, prostituting herself with the sailors. When she arrived to the Holy City she mingled with the people and tried to enter the Saint Sepulcher church, but a strange force did not let her in and she listened a voice telling her that she did not deserve to go in because she led a life of sin. In that moment she realized that she could not get into the church and repented, she kneeled before the Virgin and she told her that if she let her in the saint church she would abandon that life of sin and she would devote to pray. She tried to enter and this time she succeeded. There she cried for a long time and asked for forgiveness to her sins.
After that, Mary decided to keep her promise and she left for the dessert where she lived a life of intense prayer and friendship with God. This period of time was not very easy for her, because for 17 years she felt tempted to continue with her prior life, but she trusted the Virgin’s love and she obtained strength to resist.
Long afterwards, abbot Zosimus found her there and gave her the Holy Communion. After that they agreed on meeting again so that Mary could receive the communion again, but when abbot Zosimus went back he found her dead in the dessert on a Holy Friday.
In this way a repented great sinner, with the help of God, today is a saint. She is remembered on April 1 and the fifth Sunday of Lent.
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