Synclétique d'Alexandrie
v. 270-v. 350 4th century Feast day: January 5
The dry beginnings of prayer: smoke that stings the eyes before the fire catches.
Who was Synclétique d'Alexandrie?
Daughter of a wealthy Alexandrian family, she gave her inheritance to the poor when her parents died and withdrew with her blind sister to a disused tomb at the edge of the city. Women came asking her for a word; she who sought silence became one of the few desert mothers whose teaching is preserved in the Sayings. Wasted by illness in her old age, she endured without complaint and died at about eighty.
In their own words
For those who set out toward God the struggle is hard at first, and long; afterwards comes a joy no words reach. It is with them as with people lighting a fire: the smoke takes them first and their eyes run. So it is through tears and toil that the divine fire is lit in us.
Many live in the mountains and carry on as though they were in the city, and they lose what they came for. One can dwell in a crowd and be alone in one's mind; one can live alone and dwell in the crowd of one's own thoughts.
One sorrow is of use and another does harm. There is also a sorrow that comes from the enemy, which some name accidie; that spirit is driven out above all by prayer and by the psalms.