This corresponds closely to the preceding Sunday: just as the fourth Sunday is dedicated to St. John Climacus, the model of ascetics, so the fifth celebrates St. Mary o f Egypt, the model of penitents. Her life, recounted by St. Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem – sets before us a true verbal ikon of the essence of re­pentance. In her youth St. Mary lived in a dissolute and sinful way at Alexandria. (K. Ware, The Lenten Triodion).