Venerable Syncletica of Alexandria

Venerable Syncletica of Alexandria is one of the few women whose sayings were preserved alongside those of the Desert Fathers in the Apophthegmata Patrum. Born around 270 in Alexandria to wealthy, pious parents who had emigrated from Macedonia, she was noted for her beauty but from her youth desired only to serve God, refusing marriage. After her parents' death she distributed her inheritance to the poor and, together with her blind sister, withdrew into a family burial vault to live in asceticism. Reports of her holiness drew many women seeking spiritual guidance, and around her formed one of the earliest known communities of female ascetics. Her teachings on humility, fasting, and spiritual warfare were preserved both in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and in a Life traditionally attributed to St. Athanasius of Alexandria. At eighty she was afflicted with a severe illness borne with patience for more than three years before her repose around 350.