In the year 356, a 12-year-old Egyptian girl named Mary ran away from her rich home and settled in Alexandria, quickly becoming skilled in bartering her body to get what she needed or wanted. Seventeen years later, a large band of pilgrims headed for the Holy Land was passing through and she joined them to look for customers. At their destination, she tried to follow the crowd into the church but something supernatural prevented her from entering. She wept at the foot of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, repented, and prayed for permission to enter the church so she could renounce her former life. She entered, kissed a relic of the true cross, then fled to the desert. She was baptized in the Jordan River, then she lived the rest of her life as a hermit.
CHALLENGE
Once St. Mary of Egypt was stopped at the door to the church, she turned to the Mother of God to plead her case. Keeping her vow after kissing the relic of the cross, she prayed to ask Mary to lead her on the path to repentance, and she obediently followed where she was led and walked the path to sainthood. Today, pray to Blessed Mother and ask that she lead you on the path you need to walk to sainthood.
Our #1 best-seller, Letters From the Voyages of St. Frances Cabrini is a collection of 17 of Mother Cabrini’s letters to her missionary sisters, beautifully re-typeset from the original 1945 edition. Combining lessons of faith and wisdom with vivid descriptions of her adventures, it’s sure to be read again and again.
