2020-01-17

Science of the Saints, 18-I (5 Jan.), Holy Nun Syncletica


The Nun Syncletica was a native of Alexandria, Egypt, the daughter of rich parents, pretty, and from her early years she thought only about things pleasing to God. Loving the purity of virginity, she declined to enter into marriage, and spent all her time in fasting and prayer. After the death of her parents she distributed her inheritance to the poor, and having accepted monasticism together with her blind sister, she withdrew into one of the crypts belonging to her kin. News about her ascetic deeds quickly spread throughout the vicinity, and many pious women and girls came to her to live under her guidance. During the course of her ascetic life the saint zealously instructed her sisters by word and by deed. In her eightieth year of life she was struck by an intense and grievous illness. The nun bore the outcome of her ordeal with true Christian endurance. The saint died in about the year 350, at age 83.

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