Bay 21 - Key

Index to panels:
(Click captions below to open detailed view in this window
or click the relevant panel on the diagrams to the left to open in a new window).

1) Mary, as a prostitute in Alexandria, welcoming customers
2) Customers approaching Mary's door
3) Customers approaching Mary's door (Contd.)

4) Mary leaving her home in Alexandria
5) Mary travelling by ship to Jerusalem (left panel of pair)
6) Mary travelling by ship to Jerusalem (right panel of pair)

7) Mary approaching the Church ??
8) The Church, with the True Cross displayed on an altar
9) Mary repulsed from the Church ??

10) Pilgrims adoring the True Cross (left panel of pair)
11) Mary is barred from entering the church (centre panel of pair)
12) Unidentified scene

13) Mary prays to an image of the Virgin
14) Now cleansed of sin, Mary is able to enter the church (left panel of pair)
15) Attendant clergy in the Church of the Holy Cross (right panel of pair)

16) Mary buys three loaves of bread
17) Mary prays in the Church of John the Baptist
18) Unidentified scene

19) Mary crosses the Jordan
20) Mary, on her arrival in the desert
21) Mary, now naked after many years living in the desert

22) Father Zosima gives Mary his cloak, to cover her nakedness
23) Zosima gives Mary the Eucharist
24) Death of Mary

25) The lion, watching Zosima prepare the body (left panel of pair)
27) Zosima prepares Mary's body for burial (right panel of pair)
26) The lion helps Zosima bury the saint's body

28) Censing angel (bad photo)
29) Mary's soul in Abraham's bosom
30) Censing angel

For an on-line version of the standard vita of Mary of Egypt (attributed to Sophronius), see the Medieval Source Book. The Golden Legend version is just a condensed version of this Orthodox text. Other variants existed in 13th century Europe, including Old English and French vernacular versions and a Castillian text which is known from a late 12th or early 13th century manuscript (MS. Escorial III-K-4). This latter is of particular interest since the only tituli to appear in this window (the word "EGIPCIACA" in panels 18 and 20) use the medieval Castillian form for "of Egypt", rather than the French or Latin versions - suggesting a possible familiarity with this vernacular text. This same spelling is also used in the titulus of the clerestory window at Chartres dedicated to the saint (bay 142).

Grodecki Bay #: ?
Clement & Guitard pp. 37-40
Cahier & Martin vol.? p. ?