St. Mary of Egypt

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this module is to teach sixth graders about the life of repentance through the lives of the saints. In week 1, students will learn about St. Moses the Strong; week 2: St. Mary of Egypt; week 3: Paẽsia and week 4: St. Augustine. In week 5, students will complete a capstone project.

INTRODUCTION - 5 Minutes

Feast: April 14 Born: 344 AD, Egypt, Died: 421 AD, Palestine, Israel

Give each student a copy of the saint's picture (found in the attached activities)

Allow students to guess what each part of the icon could symbolize and why. After you share the story, go back and affirm any correct assumptions that the students made. Clarify any wrong guesses.

HOLY SCRIPTURE - 10 Minutes

"For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." 2 Corinthians 4:6-7

In this bible verse, explain to students that God has an amazing, unexplainable way of using His Holy Spirit as light. He uses His Holy Spirit to shine on someone even when they are living in darkness. Tell students that they will see how God will bring St. Mary of Egypt to repentance and eventually to bring others to repentance.

LIFE OF THE SAINT - 15 Minutes

Tell the general description of the Saint's life (found below in Appendix)

CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 5 Minutes

Explain to students how God purposely used the moment of not letting her through the church door. It was God's way of getting her attention because she was distracted by earthly sin. It was God's unpredictable way to get her to repent.
Her story reminds us how our God -- in His boundless love for mankind-- reaches out to us in ways that are often unexpected and life-changing, while at the same time it offers us hope that even the worst sinner can find salvation and holiness through sincere repentance.

DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 5 Minutes

Define the 3 coptic words on the picture (Saint Mary of Egypt)
Explain the details in the icons: white hair, Zosima giving her communion, the river
Why is there a lion with some icons of St. Mary of Egypt?
Make a connection by asking students what other saint is famous for having a lion in his icon? Answer: St. Paul the Hermit because lions dug his grave, and St. Mark

APPLICATION (Action) - 5 Minutes

Have students privately reflect on a temptation in their life and ask for this saints intercession to help them overcome it.

CONCLUSION - 5 Minutes

Mary, the sinful woman, became a teacher and giver of grace; Zosimas, the priest and monk, became a disciple
Another beautiful story of repentance, and proof that the Theotokos St Mary guides us all to her Son when we ask for her intercessions; especially when we are far away from Him.
St. Mary became a vessel of grace.
Our progress in trying to be better Christians and trying to give up sin is a road into the life of God

RESOURCES/HOMEWORK

Option 1: Quiz

Option 2: Coloring page (See attached Activities below)

APPENDIX

Life of St. Mary of Egypt

She began her life as a young woman who followed the passions of the body, running away from her parents at age twelve for Alexandria. There she lived as a harlot for seventeen years, refusing money from the men that she had relations with, instead living by begging and spinning flax.

One day, however, she met a group of young men heading toward the sea to sail to Jerusalem for the veneration of the Holy Cross. Mary went along for the ride, seducing the men as they traveled for the fun of it. But when the group reached Jerusalem and actually went towards the church, Mary was prohibited from entering by an unseen force. After three such attempts, she remained outside on the church patio, where she looked up and saw an icon of the Theotokos. She began to weep and prayed with all her might that the Theotokos might allow her to see the True Cross; afterwards, she promised, she would renounce her worldly desires and go wherever the Theotokos may lead her.

After this heart-felt conversion at the doors of the church, she fled into the desert to live as an ascetic. She survived for years on only three loaves of bread and thereafter on scarce herbs of the land. For another seventeen years, Mary was tormented by "wild beasts---mad desires and passions." After these years of temptation, however, she overcame the passions and was led by the Theotokos in all things.

Following 47 years in solitude, she met the priest St. Zosima in the desert, who pleaded with her to tell him of her life. She recounted her story with great humility while also demonstrating her gift of clairvoyance; she knew who Zosima was and his life story despite never having met him before. Finally, she asked Zosima to meet her again the following year at sunset on Holy Thursday by the banks of the Jordan.

Zosima did exactly this, though he began to doubt his experience as the sun began to go that night. Then Mary appeared on the opposite side of the Jordan; crossing herself, she miraculously walked across the water and met Zosima. When he attempted to bow, she rebuked him, saying that as a priest he was far superior, and furthermore, he was holding the Holy Mysteries. Mary then received communion and walked back across the Jordan after giving Zosima instructions about his monastery and that he should return to where they first met exactly a year later. When he did so, he found Mary's body with a message written on the sand asking him for burial and revealing that she had died immediately after receiving the Holy Mysteries the year before (and thus had been miraculously transported to the spot where she now lay). So Zosima, amazed, began to dig, but soon tired; then a lion approached and began to help him, that is, after Zosima had recovered from his fear of the creature. Thus St. Mary of Egypt was buried. Zosima returned to the monastery, told all he had seen, and improved the faults of the monks and abbot there. He died at almost a hundred years old in the same monastery.