The theme of "sexual disguise"Vogt, Kari. "The 'Woman Monk': A Theme in Byzantine Hagiography." (1995). was popular, especially in early monasticism. Numerous female hermits living alone in the desert dressed identical to male hermits. Mary of Egypt, who was born in Alexandria in the early fifth century, is one popular example of an "emasculated female saint."Heron, Onnaca. "The Lioness in the Text: Mary of Egypt as Immasculated Female Saint." Quidditas 21, no. 1 (2000): 3. In depictions of her after her conversion to ascetic life, both in visual art and in personal accounts, Mary is portrayed as seemingly genderless. When she stripped herself of all aspects of her previous identity, she also seemed to have shed her gender. Thecla, a contemporary of the apostle Paul, shaved her head and adopted a man's dress in order to prove her devotion and piety.Betancourt, Roland. Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages. Princeton University Press, 2020. She, like Mary of Egypt, shed her female identity in pursuit of a devoutly religious lifestyle.
