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St. Mary of Egypt

Elizabeth Hudgins

acrylic on wood panel

10 1/2" x 15"

2000

This icon, more than any other I've done, challenged my faith and my ability as an iconographer. How was I going to present the face of one who had been a major sinner turned saint? She, who had seduced pilgrims, became a repentant pilgrim/saint, spending more than thirty years in the desert repenting and praying. Even her clothes rotted from her. How could I show this haggard being, so filled with peace and repentance that even a priest, one who had devoted himself to God yet never knew His grace, was filled with the sense of forgiveness, peace, and joy when he came upon her in the desert and saw the love of God in her face? I spent many hours in prayer that I would somehow show the burning of the day and the freezing of the night and the holiness of the woman who came here, to the desert, to worship God who had saved her from herself.