Mary of Egypt, a penitent prostitute and figure of female autonomy and authority, is a disconcerting and unconventional saint, especially in an Anglo-Saxon context. She is not the kind of model of idealized female virtue normally favoured by leading churchmen in Anglo-Saxon England, and yet her life occurs in the manuscript of AElfric's Lives of Saints, probably the most influential vernacular collection of saints' lives of its period. The story of Mary has been unduly neglected by students and teachers of Old English, but, with its gripping and intense narrative, it raises exciting issues in...