the fifth week, because of the vigil for the Great Canon. Wine is

allowed — and, according to some authorities, oil as well — on

observances:

pentance. In her youth St. Mary lived in a dissolute and sinful way at Alexandria. Drawn by curiosity, she journeyed with some pil­ grims to Jerusalem, arriving in time for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. But when she tried to enter the Church o f the Holy Sepulchre with the others, an invisible force thrust her back at the threshold. This happened three or four times. Brought to sudden contrition by this strange experience, she prayed all night with tears to the Mother of God, and next morning she found to her joy that she could enter the church without difficulty. After venerating the Cross, she left Jerusalem on that same day, made her way over the Jordan, and settled as a solitary in a remote region of the desert.

Here for forty-seven years she remained, hidden from the world, until she was eventually found by the ascetic St. Zosimas, who was able to give her Holy Communion shortly before her death. Some modern writers have questioned the historical accuracy of St. Sophronios’ narrative, but there is in itself nothing impossible about such a story. In the year 1890 the Greek priest Joachim Spetsieris found a woman hermit in the desert beyond the Jordan, living almost exactly as St. Mary must have done.73 On this Sunday the first Canon at Mattins is based on the story of

the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 1 6 : 1 9 - 3 1 ) : like the parable of the

Good Samaritan on the previous Sunday, this is applied symbolically to the repentant Christian.