SHE was born at Alexandria in Egypt, of wealthy Macedonian parents. From
her infancy she had imbibed the love of virtue, and in her tender years
she consecrated her virginity to God. Her great fortune and beauty
induced many young noblemen to become her suitors for marriage, but she
had already bestowed her heart on her heavenly spouse. Flight was her
refuge against exterior assaults, and, regarding herself as her own most
dangerous enemy, she began early to subdue her flesh by austere fasts
and other mortifications. She never seemed to suffer more than when
obliged to eat oftener than she desired. Her parents, at their death,
left her heiress to their opulent estate; for the two brothers she had
died before them; and her sister being blind, was committed entirely to
her guardianship. Syncletica, having soon distributed her fortune among
the poor, retired with her sister into a lonesome monument, on a
relation's estate; where, having sent for a priest, she cut off her hair
in his presence, as a sign whereby she renounced the world, and renewed
the consecration of herself to God. Mortification and prayer were from
that time her principal employment; but her close solitude, by
concealing her pious exercises from the eyes of the world, has deprived
us in a great measure of the knowledge of them.
The fame of her virtue being spread abroad, many women resorted to her
abode to confer with bet upon spiritual matters. Her humility made her
unwilling to take upon herself the task of instructing, but charity, on
the other side, opened her mouth. Her pious discourses were inflamed
with so much zeal, and accompanied with such an unfeigned humility, and
with so many tears, that it cannot be expressed what deep impressions
they made on her hearers. "Oh," said the saint, "how happy should we be,
did we but take as much pains to gain heaven and please God, as
worldlings do to heap up riches and perishable goods! by land they
venture among thieves and robbers; at sea they expose themselves to the
fury of winds and storms; {094} they suffer shipwrecks, and all perils;
they attempt all, try all, hazard all; but we, in serving so great a
master, for so immense a good, are afraid of every contradiction." At
other times, admonishing them of the dangers of this life, she was
accustomed to say, "We must be continually upon our guard, for we are
engaged in a perpetual war; unless we take care, the enemy will surprise
us, when we are least aware of him. A ship sometimes passes safe through
hurricanes and tempests, yet, if the pilot, even in a calm, has not a
great care of it, a single wave, raised by a sudden gust, may sink her.
It does not signify whether the enemy clambers in by the window, or
whether all at once he shakes the foundation, if at last he destroys the
house. In this life we sail, as it were, in all unknown sea. We meet
with rocks, shelves, and sands; sometimes we are becalmed, and at other
times we find ourselves tossed and buffeted by a storm. Thus we are
never secure, never out of danger; and, if we fall asleep, are sure to
perish. We have a most intelligent and experienced pilot at the helm of
our vessel, even Jesus Christ himself, who will conduct us safe into the
haven of salvation, if, by our supineness, we cause not our own
perdition." She frequently inculcated the virtue of humility, in the
following words: "A treasure is secure so long as it remains concealed;
but when once disclosed, and laid open to every bold invader, it is
presently rifled; so virtue is safe so long as secret, but, if rashly
exposed, it but too often evaporates into smoke. By humility, and
contempt of the world, the soul, like an eagle, soars on high, above all
transitory things, and tramples on the backs of lions and dragons." By
these, and the like discourses, did this devout virgin excite others to
charity, humility, vigilance, and every other virtue.
The devil, enraged to behold so much good, which all his machinations
were not capable to prevent, obtained permission of God, for her trial,
to afflict this his faithful servant, like another Job: but even this
served only to render her virtue the more illustrious. In the eightieth
year of her age she was seized with an inward burning fever, which
wasted her insensibly by its intense heat; at the same time an
imposthume was formed in her lungs; and a violent and most tormenting
scurvy, attended with a corroding hideous stinking ulcer, ate away her
jaws and mouth, and deprived her of her speech. She bore all with
incredible patience and resignation to God's holy will; and with such a
desire of an addition to her sufferings, that she greatly dreaded the
physicians would alleviate her pains. It was with difficulty that she
permitted them to pare away or embalm the parts already dead. During the
three last months of her life, she found no repose. Though the cancer
had robbed her of her speech, her wonderful patience served to preach to
others more movingly than words could have done. Three days before her
death she foresaw, that in the third day she should be released from the
prison of her body; and on it, surrounded by a heavenly light, and
ravished by consolatory visions, she surrendered her pure soul into the
hands of her Creator, in the eighty-fourth year of her age. The Greeks
keep her festival on the 4th, the Roman Martyrology mentions her on the
5th of January.[1] The ancient beautiful life of S. Syncletica is quoted
in the old lives of the fathers published by Rosweide, l. 6, and in the
ancient notes of St. John Climacus. It appears, from the work itself,
that the author was personally acquainted with the saint. It has been
ascribe to St. Athanasius, but without sufficient grounds. It was
translated into {095} French, though not scrupulously, by d'Andilly,
Vies des SS. Peres des De certs, T. 3, p. 91. The antiquity of this
piece is confirmed by Montfaucon, Catal. Bibl. Coislianae, p. 417.
Footnotes:
1. She must not have lived later than the fourth century, for we find
her life quoted in the fifth and sixth; and as she lived eighty-four
years, she could not at least be much younger than St. Athanasius.
From the age in which she lived, she is thought by some to have been
the first foundress of nunneries, of religious women living in
community, as St. Antony was of men. On this head consult Helyott,
Hist. des Ord., and Mr. Stevens in his English Monasticon, c. 1, p.
16. However, St. Antony's sister found a nunnery erected when she
was but young, and this was prior to the time of Constantine the
Great.