Location:Ename (indicated in the text itself) - Date:1290 (Hoebeke, 1987: 751) - Commission: /

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Dutch biography of Saint Mary egyptiaca (+421). She was born in Egypt and fled at the age of 12 to Alexandria. There she joined a pilgrim fleet. During this trip to the Holy Land, she lived as a prostitute. Once arrived in Jerusalem, she wanted to enter te Holy Sepulchre to celebrate the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross. But when she tried to enter the building, she was stopped by an inexplicable divine power. After this event Maria egyptiaca commited her life for forty-seven years to penance in the wilderness with only her body covered by her own hair.

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