SOME NOTES ON AMMA SYNCLETICA’S LIFE AND SAYINGS

A paper

Presented to

Dr. Evan B. Howard

Early African Christian Studies-Cairo

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirement for the Course

Module 5

By

Christine Fawzy George

May 2015
 SOME NOTES ON AMMA SYNCLETICA’S LIFE AND SAYINGS

Amma Syncletica is one of the famous desert mothers, whose life and sayings were

documented not long time after her death. Moreover some of her sayings were

preserved in the Apophthegmata Patrum. However her life is considered an important

source for women asceticism in the late antiquity, but that didn’t prevent her existence

to be a point of question from some scholars due to the lack of sources about her. The

importance of her life is due to its simple form since it is free of exaggerations, and

the theological and ascetic principles included. The life was attributed to Athanasius

due to the similarities between her life and the life of Antony, but some scholars try to

find contextual evidences that bind the story with Evagrius Ponticus (346-399). In this

paper I will make a brief study about her life and sayings through the Alexandrian

context: theology, ascetic life and culture. I won’t argue her existence, and won’t

argue much about the relation with Evagrius.

Who is Syncletica:

Syncletica was born in a Christian family of Macedonian origin who left it and

decided to stay at Alexandria where Syncletica grew up. She had two brothers who

died, and one blind sister. She practiced the ascetic life in her house and refused to

marry although her parents wanted to. After their death, she took her blind sister and

went to live near the tombs outside Alexandria. Before she went she cut off her hair in

front of the priests as a sign of leaving all worldly glory. Her reputation spread among

people and she became a leader mother for many sisters. At the end of her life she was

subjected to probably cancer, and after three years and half of suffering she deserved

to continue her eternal life with the saints and angels.

Syncletica’s world view:

Syncletica grew up in a time (sometime between the fourth and fifth century), when

monasticism was flourishing everywhere in Egypt, and life of virginity was almost

established canonically. Syncletica also grew up in a society where every Christian

house at least has one virgin dedicated for God. In the Pseudo-Athanasius Canons, the

canon 97-98 mentions: “In every house of Christians it is needful that there be a

virgin, for the salvation of the whole house is this one virgin”. The canon then

describes how her parents are responsible to teach her the ascetic life while she is still

young. If she was obedient to them and showed love to this life, she shall be

appointed as virgin. If she was not to the age of thirty, she shall marry. 1

These canons were written by unknown author in a time between the late fourth

century and the fifth century2, but the presence of such canon shows that even before

it was written that it was common that the virgins were practicing asceticism in their

houses since they are very young under the supervision of their parents. It is not

surprisingly then to know from the life of Syncletica that while she was very young,

she began to train (αζκεω) her soul and body in the love of God.3

Syncletica also grew up in a time when monasticism was flourishing in Egypt for both

men and women. Ascetic women like Theodora who lived at the end of the third

century in the desert of Nitria, also amma Sara and many other women chose to spend

their ascetic life in the desert, the place where ascetic fathers chose to run away from

1
W. Riedel, W. E. Crum, eds. &trans., The Canons of Athanasius of Alexandria, The Arabic and
Coptic Versions, Oxford, 1904, 62-3
2
The full version of the canon is preserved in Arabic, which is translation from Coptic, and the Coptic
may has a Greek original version.
3
Pseudo- Athanasius, Vita Syncleticae, in E. B. Bongie, The Life and Regimen of the Blessed Holy
Syncletica, Part one: the Translation, 2001, §6
the faces of women.4 It is not strange also that Syncletica decided to continue her

ascetic life in the desert and not just to live with a virginal community in the urban.

The call: between Syncletica and Antony:

Many readers of Antony’s life starts his story from the point of his call and see the

reaction to this call a “dramatic literal obedience” to the command of renouncing the

world as Columba Stewart described it.5 The reading of Antony’s call as if it is a

decisive incident followed by a dramatic reaction, without taking into consideration

the period of oneself preparation to this call, is not an accurate reading.

Athanasius tells us that while he was going to the church, and before hearing the

biblical verse, he was already thinking about how the Apostles left all and followed

the savior.6 Antony in his deep heart wanted to follow the savior, and the twenty years

he spent with his family have prepared him to this desire as I will discuss below.

Athanasius described Antony’s child hood as follows: he was brought up in a good

Christian family, from them he learned the fear of God, and with them he used to

attend the church. He was obedient to them, and he was “attentive to what was read,

keeping in his heart what was profitable in what he heard”.7 The short paragraph

about Antony’s bringing up shows the importance of inner preparation for the work of

the Holy Spirit, and the importance of the role of the parents in preparing their

children for the love of God. This long preparation made Antony to have a strong

desire to follow God wherever He wants. When God saw his readiness He told him:

come and follow me.

4
S. Elm, Virgins of God the Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity, Oxford University Press, 1992, 261-
7
5
Columba Stewart, “Anthony of the Desert,” in Philip F. Esler, ed. The Early Christian World , 2 vol ,
New York: Routledge, 2000, , 1088
6
Athanasius of Alexandria, Vita Antony §2
7
Vita Antony §1
This understanding for Antony’s call will help in understanding Syncletica’s call as

well. It is hard to find this type of call followed by dramatic reaction as was described

before in the reading of Antony’s life. The question then: what is Syncletica’s call?

The author of Syncletica’s life tells us about her forebears that when they “heard of

the love of the Alexandrians for God and Christ” they immigrated to Alexandria.

Then he continues describing her family members: “She had a like-minded sister and

two brothers who were also esteemed for their religious way of life”.

With this description one can imagine how pious was the family of Syncletica, and

how they brought up their children in the fear and love of God. Thus within a family

like this, and at the same time, as I have discussed before, that it was a common habit

in Alexandrian families to train their daughters the ascetic life. The author of

Syncletica’s life didn’t mention when and where her call began, but due to her

training since she was very young, her heart was ready for the call, and she chose to

follow God outside the country.

In the monastic and missionaries literature, it is very dangerous to focus on the way of

the call. The call is a normal result of a long time of inner preparation, and oneself

training of God’s obedience, love and knowledge. It may be through an inner feeling,

a direct voice, or an angelic vision, whatever it is that doesn’t really matter, what

matters really is the long way before. There may be some exceptions for this point,

but these exceptions are not the general rule.

The call is not a certain incident that happen in a definite time, then one have to

accept or not, but the call is a process, it is the work of the Holy Spirit inside the man,

it doesn’t have a certain limit to stop, as the one shows his readiness to the work of

the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is going to show him what to do.
Women, demons, and gender transformation:

In the monastic literature, women were the source of evil and fornication. Devil takes

the shape of women to tempt the monk. Monks chose to live their ascetic lives in the

desert, an isolated place where they can escape from women. This is due to the fear of

devil of fornication which was tempting them through the appearance in a shape of

women, or through real women.8

The gender of the woman considered a problem in many of the early Christian

literature. Many of the holy women, who chose to live ascetic life in the desert in a

community of monks, were dressed as men to hide their gender. We have holy women

like Anastasia (Anastasios), Hilaria (Hilarion), Mary (Marinos), Matrona (Babylas),

Pelagia (Pelagius), Susannah (John), and Theodora (Theodoros). Some of those

women who lived in the desert as women in nature, were unwelcomed by some of the

brothers. Amma Sara, an ascetic woman who is considered as desert mother, one day

two old men tried to humiliate her as being a woman, but she answered them that

“According to nature I am a woman, but not according to my thoughts”. 9 In the

monastic literature, the ascetic female woman through her battle against fornication

and temptations, she achieves the virtue of a man. In other words, she achieves the

virtue of a gladiator in the cosmic battle, which is the image of the martyr in the

martyr literature.10 We find Amma Sara says to some brothers “It is I who am a man,

you who are women”11 which means although she is a woman in nature but she

received the honor of being a warrior due to her serious ascetic life, while other

brothers still didn’t. In the stories which are about women who dressed as men and

8
S. Elm, op. cit, 257-8
9
B. Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, The Alphabetical Collection, Oxford, 1975, 230
10
D. Brakke, The Lady Appears: Materialization of Woman in Early Monastic Literature, in Journal of
Medieval and Early Modern Studies 33(2003): 388
11
B. Ward, Ibid
lived between monks, at the end of these stories we know that the monks get ashamed

of themselves when they discovered the presence of ascetic women between them

after her death. This feeling is due to their image about women, and how those

women in reality had transcended them in their spiritual lives.12

In the case of Amma Syncletica, there is nothing mentioned about gender transformation.

When the author mentioned that she cut off her hair in front of a priest, the reason was not to

look like a man, but it was a sign of emptying herself.13 Also, however it is mentioned that

she was a disciple of Thecla, and she followed her in life and teachings14, but the author

mentioned nothing about Syncletica being male the same as Thecla. Syncletica in the

beginning of her ascetic life she rejected both males and females.15 Syncletica as Sara fought

against fornication and taught a lot about the battle of temptations and fornication, but nothing

is mentioned by the author or by her in her sayings about woman being male as what is

mentioned in Sara’s teachings.

However, the sense of the cosmic battle and ascetic women as gladiators exists in the voice of

her teachings. She compared ascetic women who chose to the desert life with soldiers, that

they have no excuse to move a step backward in their lives even if it looks a good one.16

When the enemy has raised his final weapon of illness against Syncletica, she endured

this suffering alone by means of her personal “courage”. At the final scene the enemy

failed to recognize her “manly” will.17

The word used for both “courage” and manly is ανδρειος (ανδρεια). The word in the

Christian literature carries the meaning of courage, it was used as a virtue, and several

martyrs were described as ανδριας, but also it is related to the manly attitude.18

12
D. Brakke , op.cit., 390-4
13
Vita Syncleticae §11
14
Vita Syncleticae §8
15
Vita Syncleticae §16
16
Vita Syncleticae §23
17
Vita Syncleticae §111, 112
18
See E. B. Bongie, Op.Cit, §111, footnote 116
Asceticism and Martyrdom:

In the Bohairic life of Pachomius, the author says: “Then faith increased greatly in the

holy Churches in every land, and monasteries and places for ascetics began to

appear, for those who were the first monks had seen the endurance of the martyrs”.19

One of the interpretations of the movement of monasticism is living as a martyr in a

time there is no persecution.20 Martyrdom in the Christian literature, both Byzantine

and Latin, is influenced by the literature of Revelation. The martyr is a solider in the

cosmic battle, which is fighting against the Satan, embodied in the pagan Emperor,

and through his martyrdom is the victory over the evil.21

In the life of Syncletica we find a good example showing the relation between

asceticism and martyrdom. The author of the story provided a comparison between

her and Saint Thecla as her model. Thecla was a Christianized woman who cut off her

hair and dressed as a man and followed Paul to be his disciple, she was tortured and

martyred. Her cult spread among Egypt and she became a model for many of the

ascetic women.22 Both Syncletica and Thecla, according to the narrator, contended

with the same struggle. He sees that the suffering and exertion of Syncletica is

equivalent to the suffering of Thecla. The object of their longing is the Savior, and the

both have the same enemy.23

19
A. Veilluex, Pachomian Koinonia The Life of Saint Pachomius and his Disciples, Vol.1, Michigan, 1980
§1
20
M. Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages,
Blackwell, 2003, 1
21
C. R. Moss, The Other Christs Imitating Jesus in Ancient Ideologies of Martyrdom, Oxford, 2010, 90-
92
22
S. J. Davis, The Cult of Saint Thecla A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity, Oxford, 2001, 83-
6
23
Vita Syncleticae 8
Syncletica provided warnings against those ascetic women who gave excuse to themselves

when having a step backward in their lives. She interpreted the parable of thirty, sixty,

hundered-fold (Mt 13:8), that one can go forward from the thirty-fold to the sixty-fold to the

hundred-fold, but not backward. Thus those who chose to live the desert ascetic life can’t find

excuse to live the virginal life in the world, even if the latter can be considered as thirty or

sixty-fold.24 In her illustration, she compared the ascetic woman with the soldier. The soldier

“is not awarded pardon because he left for a less strenuous campaign, but he has received

punishment because he ran away”

The epilogue about Syncletica’s illness was described as a savage torture from the

Devil against her. The Devil didn’t endure her strength in the battle with him so he

decided to show the weapons of bodily suffering. The author, in cleverness, closed the

story with the triumph of Syncletica over the Satan. He showed how with the same

weapon the Devil used against Syncletica, he was caught. “…in his search for a meal,

he became food himself he was caught, as if by a hook, by the weakness of her body;

for, on seeing a woman, he was contemptuous, for he failed to recognize her manly

will”25

Syncletica’s teachings:

Syncletica was living in Alexandria; when she left her home, she went to live near a

tomb outside the city. The closest ascetic area to Alexandria was Nitria, Kellia and

Scetis. Although many of the scholars try to find links between Syncletica’s teachings

and Evagrius’ teachings, I find it more logic that she was influenced by the ascetic

24
Vita Syncleticae §23
25
Vita Syncleticae §112
teachings in the communities at Scetic and Kellis and Nitria. Evagrius himself was a

part of these communities, and his ascetic treatises are influenced by their teachings26.

Practice and training:

The step by step training in the ascetic life is a mean theme in Syncletica’s teachings

and life. The author of her life confirmed that she reached this high degree of ascetic

life due to training. No one can seek the divine mystery without training, as no one

can build a tower very sturdy without knowing what is needed for the construction.27

Syncletica in her teachings highlights the importance of training through giving

example of no one can go advanced reading without learning the letters first, passing

through knowing vocabulary until he know how to read.28

When Syncletica was teaching about voluntary poverty, she said that the first step in

training is taking away gluttony and soft living, because they are the door to any

possessions’ loving.29 This training should be through some ascetic practice, like

fasting, sleeping on ground, ..etc.30 Gluttony for Syncletica is the first Devil’s trap

which is linked by fornication. 31

Gluttony in the monastic teachings is the first door for any other sin, especially

fornication. It was the main sin for Adam and Eve. Controlling one’s stomach is very

important. “And most important of all is control over belly, for thus is possible also to

control over the pleasures beneath the belly”.32 In Evagrius’ praktikos, which was a

26
W. Harmless, Desert Christians, An Introduction to The Literature of Early Monasticism, Oxford
University Press, 2004, 314
27
Vita Syncleticae §13
28
Vita Syncleticae §32
29
Vita Syncleticae §32
30
Vita Syncleticae §31
31
Vita Syncleticae §49
32
Vita Syncleticae §29
declaration of the monks’ habits in Egypt to those in the Holy Mountain, he put

gluttony on the top of eight deadly thoughts.33

Knowledge of God:

The ascetic Alexandrian fathers like Clement and Origen saw the aim of the ascetic

life, or the aim of sanctifying the body and the soul, is to reach the knowledge of God.

Clement for example in his book Christ the Educator, shows the importance of

exercise control over body, and to purify it, since the body is the eye of the soul, to be

able to walk in the path that leads to knowledge of God.34 The same for Origen in his

commentary on the Song of Song; he states that Song of Songs is the highest level of

knowledge, after one practiced through the Wisdom of Solomon and then the book of

Ecclesiastes.35 Evagrius of Ponticus also confirmed that by the purification of body

and the passionate part of the soul, the rational part will gain its knowledge.36 Amma

Syncletica was confirming throughout her teachings about training in the ascetic life,

and if the one was carless regarding self-purification and protection this will prevent

him from reaching the knowledge of God.37

Syncletica also classified people who try to live pure life into three levels:

The most advanced are those who are in the level of contemplation and gnosis. The

middle one is those who are still in the way of practical asceticism. The beginners are

those who live in the world and try to keep their purity.38

33
W. Harmless, Op. Cit., 332
34
Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator, in, S. P. Wood, trans., Fathers of The Church 23,
Catholic University of America Press, 1954, 93, § 2.1
35
J. Ch. King, Origen on The Song of Songs as The Spirit of Scripture, Oxford university Press, 2005,
165-6
36
See the glossary of Evagrius’ terms in W. Harmless, Op. Cit., 368-9
37
Vita Syncleticae §85
38
Vita Syncleticae §43
This classification follows the platonic classification which Origen used on the three

levels of understanding Scripture: according to body, according to soul, and according

to spirit.39

Vices verses Virtues:

Parker investigated the teachings of Syncletica, and she found that there are some

logismoi that are close to those of Evagrius.40

Evagrius’ eight thoughts are: gluttony, fornication, love of money (avarice), sadness,

anger, indifference (acedia), vainglory, and pride.41

While for Syncletica, according to Parker:

The beginner has to master first: fornication, gluttony, love of pleasure. Then for the

advanced there are: greed, love of money, indifference, and disobedience. The next,

arrogance is for the more advanced, whereas the four logismoi anger, rancor,

backbiting and determinism are very dangerous when neglected.42

Schaffer noticed in her study to Syncletica’s teachings that the genre depends on

contrarieties. “This technique works with notions that are opposite, contrasting or

mirror image (…) the material is organized by contrasting virtues with vices”.43

Depending on both Parker and Schaffer assumptions, I do further investigation in the

teachings of Amma Syncletica.

39
Origen of Alexandria, On the First Principles, §4.2.4
40
A.S.E. Parker., “The Vita Syncleticae: Its Manuscripts, Ascetical Teachings and its Use in Monastic
Sources,” Studia Patristica 30 (1997): 231-234.
41
W. Harmless, Op. Cit., 332
42
A.S.E. Parker.,Op. Cit., 233
43
M. Schaffer, The Life and Regimen of the Blessed and Holy Syncletica, Part Two: A Study of the Life,
Wipf and Stock Publication, 2005, 49-50
Syncletica’s style of teaching, when it comes to virtues and vices, it looks as it

follows a certain genre and certain logic. I noticed that it is deeper than putting a

virtue contrary to a vice for illustrating the idea. The following diagram illustrates my

idea.

The vice:
Malady/
Its danger.
Wound
Its consequences.

The virtue:
Treatment/
Its importance.
Healing
How to gain it practically.

Amma Syncletica’s teachings regarding virtues vice vices can be considered as

medical prescription. This idea can be noticed clearly throughout this quote: “But

another evil precedes this malady: disobedience. And thus, by means of the opposing

virtue of obedience, it is possible to cleanse the festering cancer of the soul”.44 There

are other examples about this idea: the case of pride and vainglory, the soul in this

case may “smitten with a wound hard to heal”45, and in the same context she

described a certain Psalm as a “healing utterance”.46 Also some other vices were

describes as causes for “wounds”, “injuries” and “diseases”.47

Another similar idea summoned by Syncletica that on the one side the Devil attacks

the person through the weapons of these vices, while on the other side Christ provides

a protection for each weapon. “Whatever weapons, therefore, the Enemy hurls at us,

44
Vita Syncleticae §51
45
Vita §49
46
ibid
47
Vita Syncleticae §65, 85, 102
the Lord has protected us with stronger armor both for our salvation and for the

downfall of the foe”48. This description of the vices verses virtues evokes the

eschatological image about the cosmic battle which has been discussed before.

Syncletica sees that vices can infect the man through two levels: Level one, is a

physical level through body and senses. These vices are gluttony, love of pleasure,

fornication, and love of money. While level two is more advanced since the vices

infect the man’s soul and mind, like: pride, anger. 49

Below is another diagram to apply the upper diagram on the virtues and vices which

are mentioned by Syncletica.

Malady Treatment

Negligence (acedia) fastens Vigilance: needed for protection

infection (vita 26, 28)

Level 1: Gluttony Voluntary poverty

Body / Consequences: Love of Pleasure Practice: Trained in austerities:

Senses and Fornication Fasting, ground sleeping, one

shall not go outside. (vita 24, 25,

Love of Money 31)

Level 2: Pride, Vainglory Humility:

Mind/ Soul Steals from the memory its “bind you together and contain

mistakes (vita 49) your virtues” (vita 56) it is the

Consequence: Disobedience beginning and end of all virtues

48
Vita Syncleticae §61
49
Vita Syncleticae §26, §49, §65
 (vita 57)

Practice: Living in a community,

decrease the degree of austerity,

self-rebuking (vita 50, 58)

Anger Love:

Vice among vices. Makes the With no love, one is a clanging

human act like a beast. It destroys cymbal. (vita 61)

reason (vita 61, 62, 63) Practice: giving timespan for the

Consequences: envy, sadness, emotions (vita 64)

malicious talk

Summary:

Syncletica’s life and teachings are from the important monastic literature. From one

side, it is from the oldest texts about women asceticism and from the other side the

richness of the story and teachings. Syncletica practiced the ascetic life since she was

very young, in a time when monasticism was flourishing in Egypt. She decided to live

in a tomb outside the city. Ascetic women started to gather around her, she began to

teach them until her death. The Vita resembles that of Antony in the call, the life and

the epilogue. Her teachings were assumed to be influenced by Evagrius Ponticus,

however they are simpler. Among her teachings Syncletica provides the malady and

the treatment and how to gain the virtues practically. Her teachings should be
revisited and read through the Alexandrian asceticism and theology, away of the deep

platonic thoughts like those of Evagrius.

Bibliography:

A. Veilluex, Pachomian Koinonia The Life of Saint Pachomius and his Disciples,
Vol.1, Michigan, 1980

A.S.E. Parker., “The Vita Syncleticae: Its Manuscripts, Ascetical Teachings and its
Use in Monastic Sources,” Studia Patristica 30 (1997):

Athanasius of Alexandria, Vita Antony

B. Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, The Alphabetical Collection, Oxford,
1975

Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator, in, S. P. Wood, trans., Fathers of The
Church 23, Catholic University of America Press, 1954

C. R. Moss, The Other Christs Imitating Jesus in Ancient Ideologies of Martyrdom,

Oxford, 2010

C. Stewart, “Anthony of the Desert,” in Philip F. Esler, ed. The Early Christian
World , 2 vol , New York: Routledge, 2000

D. Brakke, The Lady Appears: Materialization of Woman in Early Monastic

Literature, in Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 33(2003): 387 -402

J. Ch. King, Origen on The Song of Songs as The Spirit of Scripture, Oxford
university Press, 2005

M. Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism From the Desert Fathers to the Early
Middle Ages, Blackwell, 2003

M. Schaffer, The Life and Regimen of the Blessed and Holy Syncletica, Part Two: A
Study of the Life, Wipf and Stock Publication, 2005

Pseudo- Athanasius, Vita Syncleticae, in E. B. Bongie, The Life and Regimen of the
Blessed Holy Syncletica, Part one: the Translation, 2001

S. Elm, Virgins of God the Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity, Oxford University
Press, 1992

S. J. Davis, The Cult of Saint Thecla A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity,
Oxford, 2001
W. Harmless, Desert Christians, An Introduction to The Literature of Early
Monasticism, Oxford University Press, 2004

W. Riedel, W. E. Crum, eds. &trans., The Canons of Athanasius of Alexandria, The

Arabic and Coptic Versions, Oxford, 1904