THE CONVERSION AND LIFE OF MARY THE HARLOT
Two elders set off from Aigaion to Tarsos in Cilicia. By the providence of God, they came to an inn where they could rest, for the heat was intense. There, they found three younger men who had a harlot with them, going to Aigaion. The three elders sat discreetly apart; one of them took the holy gospel out of his traveling bag and began to read aloud.
When the harlot saw the elder begin to read, she came and sat down near him, forsaking the youths. The elder drove her off, saying to her, “Wretched woman, you seem very indecent. Are you not ashamed to come and sit near us?” In reply, she answered, “Oh father, please do not treat me with loathing. Even if I am filled with every kind of sin, the master of all, our Lord and God, did not send away the harlot who came to him.”
The elder answered her, “But that harlot remained a harlot no longer.” She said to him, “My hope is in the Son of the living God that from this day forward, neither will I continue in this sin.” Forsaking the youths and everything she had, she followed the elders. They placed her in a women’s monastery called Nakkiba, near Aigaion.
I saw her as an old woman of great experience. It was from her that I heard all this, and her name was Mary.