Wild Woman: A Footnote, the Desert, and My Quest for an Elusive Saint

Runaway. Castaway. Prostitute. Hermit. Desert dweller. Saint. Boundary breaker. Archetypal wild woman. In the corner of a library, in a dusty stack of books, in the footnote of an obscure text, journalist Amy Frykholm discovered a short citation about Mary of Egypt, all but unknown to most, and herself a footnote in ancient history. Not knowing why or from where, Frykholm felt called by this ancient woman’s story. Thus begins the story of her decades-long search to uncover the truth about the woman who, by her own devices, figured out how to acquire what she most wanted–and when she did, discovered that it wasn’t enough.

With a scholar’s eye and a mystic’s heart, Frykholm offers a look at an elusive and dynamic figure from history while offering insights into our own inner–and potentially rewilded–lives. In search of Mary, the author traveled throughout Egypt, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, walking deeper and deeper into the desert, across thresholds of space and time, to find the meaning of Mary of Egypt’s life–as well as her own embrace of the wild and sacred within.