Camp St. Mary, a catechetical summer camp for Catholic children, was founded near the Okatee River in Beaufort by Bishop Walsh in 1928. Father James Linehan organized the religious vocation camp for children of Beaufort missions who were in need of catechetical instruction. The priests of the diocese and the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy provided religious teaching to the area children. In 1931, Bishop Walsh chose to prioritize the camp as a diocesan project.
After obtaining funds, he purchased property across the river from the original campsite in Okatie, for an enlarged camp with permanent buildings. Two barracks for sleeping, a dining hall and kitchen, a sisters’ convent, and a chapel were erected, as well as a boat dock with a diving platform on the river. Once the permanent buildings were erected, Walsh officially designated the site as Camp St. Mary. The camp operated into the early 1980s.
Other Orthodox Christian Camps
Besides Camp St. Mary of Egypt, there are various other Orthodox Christian camps that offer enriching experiences for children and youth. Here are a few examples:
- All Saints Camp is the official camp for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA, located in Emlenton, PA.
- Antiochian Village is located in Ligonier, PA about 1.5 hours southeast of Pittsburgh. The Village is accredited by the American Camp Association (ACA), and offers year round programming including Family Camps, Winter Camp, Adult Camp, and of course four two-week sessions of summer camp.
- Camp St. Nicholas is located in Frazier Park area of Mt. Pinos (approximately 85 miles north of Los Angeles) with 3 one-week sessions each summer serving campers ages 7-17. Camp St. Nicholas also hosts a Winter Camp weekend for grades 7-12 over President's Day weekend each February.
- Camp St Mary of Egypt is held at Aldersgate Camp & Retreat Center in Turner, Oregon with a one-week session each summer, and a Winter Camp Weekend for grades 7-12 in January.
- Camp St. Raphael is held at Crosspoint Camp on Lake Texoma on the Oklahoma/Texas border (about 2.5 hours north of Dallas and south of Oklahoma City) with three one-week sessions each summer and a WAMP weekend in January for grades 7-12.
- Camp St. George is held at Ewalu Camp and Retreat Center in Strawberry Point, Iowa with a one-week session each July for ages 9-17.
- Camp St. Thekla is held at Asbury Hills Camp and Retreat Center in Cleveland, South Carolina, with two one-week sessions each July for campers ages 9-17, and a Winter Camp weekend each February for grades 7-12.
- Camp Emmanuel offers participants an opportunity to retreat away from everyday life and to gain experience in a nurturing Orthodox Christian community.
- Saint Timothy Summer Camp is is an Orthodox Christian Summer Camp in the Upstate NY District of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Detroit.
- St. Nicholas Summer Camp is the summer camping program for the southern areas of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Detroit.
- Village Up North is held at Camp Tannadoonah on Birch Lake in southwest Michigan with a one-week session each August for ages 9-17.
- St. Mary Church Camp is a Pan-Orthodox camp hosted by St.
- Camp Fanari is a ministry of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, and is set in the wonderful setting of our very own St.
These camps provide opportunities for young people to connect with their faith, build community, and experience personal growth within an Orthodox Christian environment.
Житие преподобной Марии Египетской († 522). Память 14 апреля
Rev. Fr. Gary Kyriacou: A Profile
Rev. Fr. Gary Kyriacou began his ministry at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral on December 1, 2022. He received his bachelor’s degree in Film Production and Screenwriting from California State University at Northridge (1995). In 1992, he met Presvytera Christie at St. Sophia Summer Camp while he was working for Universal Studios. His work with Universal led to a job with DreamWorks, but his calling to the priesthood intensified.
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He and Presvytera married on July 6, 1997, and the newlyweds moved to Holy Cross seminary 3 weeks later. Father received his Master of Divinity from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and was ordained to the Diaconate at St. Sophia Cathedral (May 27, 2001). On June 1, 2001 he was assigned to Ascension Cathedral in Oakland, and on September 9, 2001, was ordained to the Holy Priesthood, and worked closely with Fr.
Rev. Fr. Gary Kyriacou was assigned to serve Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Camarillo, California in August of 2004. During his service as the Proistamenos of Saint Demetrios, he guided the parish through a successful capital campaign. The community purchased 4.1 acres and was able to move from a former Air Force chapel to an interim location of the city’s public library, ultimately arriving “home” at the Agape Building in 2015. The two-story, multi-use structure houses a chapel, reception hall, conference room, offices and classrooms.
While serving St. Demetrios, Rev. Fr. Gary Kyriacou was appointed to FDF as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Thousands of faithful gather each year for the Folk Dance Festival, which is the largest gathering of Greek Orthodox youth in the world. On November 2019, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America appointed Rev. Fr. Gary Kyriacou as the Director of Ionian Village, the official international summer camping ministry of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. It is located on a private facility on the shores of the Ionian Sea in the western Peloponnese.
Rev. Fr. Gary Kyriacou gathered a team of young adults to lead youth from around the world in a life-transforming summer experience by bringing them closer to the Orthodox faith and exploring the rich Hellenic culture and history.
His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos expanded the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries in the Metropolis of San Francisco and in February of 2021, Rev. Fr. Gary Kyriacou was designated as the Pastor of Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Metropolis of San Francisco. In this role, Rev. Fr. Gary Kyriacou worked with Clergy, lay leaders, parents, young adults and children to further develop youth ministry programs. He collaborated with a Young Adult on his first project. The program, Journey to Lent, brought 600 participants together, weekly, via Zoom, during the darkest days of Covid 19 isolation.
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Keeping young people connected to Christ and each other through the ministries of the Church is one of Rev. Fr. Rev. Fr. Gary Kyriacou and Pres. Christie enjoy living in Southern California, where they both were born and raised. Returning to serve the Cathedral that introduced them to each other is truly by God’s Divine Providence. St. Sophia gave them their life together. In return, they now feel blessed to give their all back to St. Sophia. The Kyriacou family enjoys going to the beach, rooting for the Dodgers, and watching movies. They love sushi, traveling, playing Apples to Apples, and spending summers at St.
The Story of St. Mary of Egypt
The story of St. Mary of Egypt is a powerful testament to repentance and transformation. The barest backbone of her story is this: St. Mary was a prostitute in Alexandria during the sixth century who joined a group of pilgrims heading to Jerusalem but found her way blocked when she tried to enter the Holy Sepulcher. After begging for forgiveness, she went out into the desert for 40+ years where she became sanctified through repentance, and finally received holy communion from a monk before she died.
Her life story was written down by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem in the seventh century. He vouches for its authenticity, but it was originally told by an elder, Zosima just after her death on April 1, 522. It’s important to recognize that her story is told by monks living in monasteries. It’s a story told within the context of monasticism.
The Elder Zosima (whose name was later used by Dostoevsky for the Brothers Karamazov) is a monk’s monk from childhood, renowned for his spiritual life. Many people sought out his council. When he turned about 53 years old, he became tormented with the thought that he was perfect. He had accomplished every kind of asceticism, so no one had anything left to teach him. But an angel came and called him to venture out to a hidden Monastery on the Jordan River, where the monks could instruct him there.
During the Lenten Fast all the monks went out into the desert where they could dwell with God while fasting, always singing, and eating very little food. Before Pascha, they returned, and no one asked anyone else how they had spent their time. Zosima himself went further into the desert with the hope of finding someone who could satisfy his thirst and his longing for God.
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While stopping to pray about 20 days into his journey, he thought he saw a devil out of the corner of his eye, and he was afraid. He saw a naked form gliding south with dark burned skin and white hair. He called out, but it fled away. Zosima ran after it and called again, “Why do you run from me, an old man and a sinner?” The form hid itself and said, “Forgive me Fr. Zosima, for I am a woman, and I am naked, just throw me your riassa so I can cover myself and ask for your blessing.”
They both threw themselves on the ground asking for each other’s blessing. As Mary was praying for him, Zosima looked up and saw that she was raised about a forearms distance from the ground and stood praying in the air. So, he fell back to the ground, crying, “Lord Have Mercy on me!” He begged her to tell him her story, how she managed to live out there. But she replied, “your ears will not be able to bear the vileness of my actions, from me who was the chosen vessel of the devil.
So, St. Mary tells her story from the beginning by saying that she ran away from home at 12 years old where she found work in the streets of Alexandria by selling her body. She says she insatiably gave herself up to sensuality and lived like that for 17 years. She was on fire and often refused the money given to her. She wanted as many men as possible doing for free what gave her pleasure. She wasn’t rich.
First of all, Mary is a woman who knows the power of her body. She demonstrates a fierce independence throughout her life before and after her conversion, but this part of her personality is sanctified over time. It is never repressed. At first her body was transactional, but she decided what she wanted. There are no pimps or madams in this story. She guided her own path, and she was aware of her power. Her big problem was that her passions began to rule her.
One day, she curiously followed a crowd running to the sea heading to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Cross. Although she had no money for her berth, she was willing to give a ride to get a ride. The young men readily took her with them. She says she seduced everyone and taught them every depravity.
After arriving in Jerusalem, she tried to enter the church, but was stopped by some force and was brushed aside by the crowd. There is the great diaphanous barrier at the Holy Sepulcher. As much as she tries to enter, she struggles in vain. Everyone enters but her. Everyone else passed through the gate, but she alone was not accepted until she was utterly exhausted.
She has a deep feeling of “Thou shalt not pass here.” She has this dreadful feeling of being left out, of being left behind. If she was a bridesmaid, her lamp was not prepared and her wick was not trimmed. After this first flutter of remorse, she notices an icon of the Theotokos and cries out to the Virgin, “Help me, I have no one else to help me,” she cries! “I will never again defile my body.
After she prostrates and kisses the ground with trembling, she returned to her icon and asks the Mother of God to lead her by the hand along the path of repentance. She hears these words, “If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest.” A stranger gives her money for three loaves which she takes on her journey.
After heading out into the desert of the Jordan, forty-seven years pass by. For the first seventeen (the same amount of time as her prostitution), while she slowly picks away at her bread she fought wild beasts, mad desires, and passions in her mind. She missed meat and wine. She burned for thirst and felt the urge to sing satanic songs. But she returned to her remembered icon and implored the Theotokos to chase away her evil and distracting thoughts. At last, calm descended. But then her thoughts pushed her toward lust again, as she lay prostrate for days at a time, until a calm sweet light descended and chased away her thoughts, her logismoi.
Then come years living on herbs, insects and locusts, like John the Baptist. She feeds on whatever she can find in the desert. She suffered greatly from the sun and the frost, from cold and from extreme heat. Though her body became naked and leathery, almost mummified, she didn’t just turn into a hag. Instead, she became luminous as she wrestled with her demons because, well, that’s what you do in the desert. That’s what Jesus did. But St. Mary followed him from the proverbial 40 days to 40 plus years. She learned nothing from books but understood the Word of God who is alive and active in the Holy Spirit.
She begs Father Zosima to tell no one what he has heard until God has delivered her from this earth. “In one year,” she says, “you shall see me again. In one year, at sunset, please, bring the Holy Eucharist to the banks of the Jordan River so that I may receive. A year later at the appointed time, St. Mary comes walking across the Jordan River to Fr. Zosima after he has been laid up sick. He falls down before her, but she calls out for him to get up because he is carrying the Holy Eucharist. “Bless me Father,” she cries out.
When she had received the Eucharist, she cried “Lord, lettest now thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for my eyes have seen thy salvation.” And she crossed back the way she came. The elder is filled with joy and terror, finally realizing how far from perfection he really was. Again, one year later, he returned to his original meeting place and found the saint lying dead, her hands crossed, and her face turned to the East. Zosima cries and kisses her feet, not daring to touch anything else. For a long time, he lay there and wept. Then he saw instructions written in the ground near her head, that he was to bury her there and return her to the earth. But he was too weak.
She recognized her own sickness and her need to be healed. She followed the path of humility, obedience, and grace. She went from being a monster, and an apparition, to Zosima’s inspiration. He was utterly blown away by her. But she reminds him of his authority and his duty as a priest to bring her holy communion. She makes her first full confession. She receives holy communion, and then she dies.
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