Mary Lefko

BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1435 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.

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER
Mary looked like her mother. She had blond hair 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. 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. She 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 his mother's surname, Lefko.

EARLY LIFE
When she came to God's city with her mother, all she could bring was her clothes and the lavender oil she loved to rub on. His mother was not well known in Jerusalem and had come to Constantinople with as much gold as she could get. The poor woman lived in Thessaloniki during the reign of Emperor Manuel, and after the city's fall to Ottoman forces, she married a Jewish merchant, Matthan, and moved to live in Jerusalem. Upon their arrival in Constantinople, 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.