Mary Lefko

## **BIOGRAPHY**

Fallen Noble of Jerusalem

Born in 1432 in **Jerusalem** as a daughter of an **Jewish** family, **Mary Lefko** was the daughter of **Matthan**, a wealthy **Jewish** merchant with a reputation in **Judea**. It was a challenge for **Mary** that her mother was a **Greek** **Orthodox**. Her father and mother often quarreled, and her father's interference with her mother's religious views forced **Mary** to emigrate with her mother to Constantinople in 1451, one of the last **Greek Orthodox** lands to remain in the **East**.

## **EARLY LIFE**

Mary's mother, she was a **Greek** commoner. The poor woman lived in **Thessaloniki** during the reign of Emperor **Manuel II**, and after the city's fall to **Ottoman** forces, she escaped to **Nicea** to meet with her fellow **Greeks** that remained in there. Someday she met with a well-known **Jewish** trader named **Matthan** in one of the markets in **Nicea**, and they quickly fell in love. **Matthan** found her so beautiful, they were so much in love. She returned to **Jerusalem** with **Matthan** to live with **Matthan** from now on. Her mother saw this as a kind of salvation from her poor life. One month after their meeting they got married in a synagogue in **Jerusalem** by a Rabbin, althought **Mary**'s mother was an **Orthodox Christian**. Although their marriage was good at first, as the years passed, the cultural and religious differences between them began to be felt and the arguments grew harder day by day. The main reason for their arguments were because of their diffrent religions and because **Mary**'s father wanted to convert **Mary**'s mother to Judaism and the love between them ended exactly after **Mary** was born. **Mary** looked like her mother. She had blond hair, green eyes and a beautiful face just like her mother's. Although she tried to cling to **Greek** ties, she was brought up in **Jewish** culture by his **Jew** father. Having been baptized as an **Orthodox** at a young age, she was at odds with her father. This was because her mother had her baptized in an **Orthodox** church in **Jerusalem** without her father's knowledge, which angered him greatly because he was wanting **Mary** to be a follower of the **Jewish** faith just like him. This event made her father's insistence on converting her mother to the **Jewish** religion even more oppressive. **Mary**'s father was a traditionalist who valued his money and pride, and he began to lack any real love for his wife, especially after **Mary**'s birth. Naive and optimistic, **Mary** always cried in her room as she listened to her parents' religious discussions, which took place at least once a week.

### Her Relationship With Mark

At somepart of his life, **Mary** did met with a **Jewish** boy who was only one year little than her. **Mark** was the only children of a **Jewish** family of great wealth. His both parents were traders with a high reputation in **Judea**, just like **Mary**'s father **Matthan**. One day, **Mark**'s family went on a business trip by lefting their son in home, and on the return trip, their ship sank and they both died on a stormy night. Their entire wealth went to their son, **Mark**, and this incident deeply affected the young man. **Mark**'s family had many business acquaintances, and many came to **Mark**'s house to pay him condolences, one of which was merchant **Matthan**. Thinking they might have a potential marriage in the future, **Matthan** brought his daughter **Mary** with him to meet **Mark**. **Mark** fell completely in love with **Mary**'s beauty that day and that's how their relationship started, but **Mary** never truly loved her. **Mary** wasn't in love with him, she just loved him as a person, but that was a very difficult truth for young **Mark**, who had lost his entire family.

## **LATER EVENTS**

When **Mary** came to God's city with her mother, all she could bring was her clothes and the lavender oil she loved to rub on. Her mother was not well known in **Jerusalem** and had come to Constantinople with as much gold as she could get and take from her husband without his knowledge. Upon **Mary**'s arrival in Constantinople with her mother, they bought a house with the little money they had, and has since then she is planning to save her dynasty by marrying his daughter to a wealthy nobleman. **Mary** was sensitive and compassionate. She loved her mother very much, and this love caused him to immigrate to Constantinople, away from her father with her mother. Here she tried to continue his life by using her mother's surname, **Lefko**.