Pelagia the Harlot
Pelagia the Harlot’s (4th century) early life is best summarized by the contemporary Vitae Patrum (Book 1, 22):
‘The foremost actress of Antioch, the star of the local theatre. She was seated on a donkey and accompanied by a great and fanciful procession. She seemed to be clothed in nothing but gold and pearls and other precious stones… as they passed by us the air was filled with the scent of musk and other most delicious perfumes… with her head bare, and the outlines of her body clearly visible, nothing over her shoulders as well as her head’.
Pelagia, then known professionally as Margaret, was a mixture of actress and prostitute (the former was a slang term for the latter until Victorian times), and a vain and worldly woman. Her appearance on a donkey is a sinful parody of Christ, and her attire deliberately evokes the apocalyptic Whore of Babylon (Revelation 17 & 18). Like Mary of Egypt, however, Pelagia reformed, taking instruction from Bishop Nonnus and showing her contrition by declaring ‘I, my lord, am an ocean of sins and a sink of iniquity’. She was baptized in her original name, Pelagia, by Nonnus himself.
Truly repenting of her former career, Pelagia immediately sold all of her fine garments and jewels, ‘the rewards that Satan has given’, giving the proceeds to the poor, and battled the devil’s temptation as she lay contrite in her uncomfortable cell. She traveled from Antioch to the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, disguised as a monk and adopting the masculine form of her name, Pelagius. She lived as a recluse in drag for four years, successfully passing as a man before dying one night and shocking those who knew her when it was discovered that Pelagius was, in fact, Pelagia.