Память преподобной Синклитикии

The Monk Syncletikia was born in Egypt in the city of Alexandria, where her parents, people of a noble family, known for their piety and very rich, moved from Macedonia 255. When she reached girlhood, many noble and rich young men, enchanted by the extraordinary beauty of her face and her universally recognized good character, sought to marry her. But she did not want to get married, since her youth she had been burning with love for the Heavenly Bridegroom, Christ God. That is why she cared not about the external decoration of herself, but about the internal, purifying her soul with fasting, chastity and purity of mind, in order to appear pleasing to the eyes of Christ. Directing her entire mind towards God, she won victory over the invisible enemy, the devil, who incites people to sin. After the death of her parents, she distributed all her property to the poor and wretched, and she herself renounced the world, having reached extreme poverty for the sake of God, took with her her sister, deprived of sight, and settled in the grave monument of her relative. She considered the monastic rank so great that she did not know how to thank God for it, who had favored her. In the first years of her ascetic life, she surpassed many, but hid her exploits. She not only ate little bread and a meager measure of water, but her bread was made from bran. She increased her fast if the enemy raised an attack against her. The fame of her exploits attracted many wives to her, who asked her for edification. For a long time she answered their requests with silence, but persistent prayers forced her to give instructions to many ascetics who had gathered around her and formed a community. At the end of her life, she suffered from the tempter the same thing that the once righteous Job suffered, for severe illnesses befell her, and her whole body was covered with scabs, exhausted and eaten away by ulcers and worms. So she suffered for three years and six months, not allowing the doctor to help her and only placing her hope in God alone. When the time came for her departure from this life, she saw in a vision the holy Angels and the face of the bright virgins calling her to them, and saw the villages of paradise. After this vision, turning to the nuns, she predicted the day and hour of her separation from her body. It was to take place three days after this. As she said, so it was: for three days later, at the hour appointed by her, she was separated from her much-painful body and fierce ulcers and passed, like a martyr, to the Lord into a painless life, which the saints enjoy in heaven 256. She lived on earth for about eighty years in many labors and exploits; now he resides in the eternal heavenly abodes. Macedonia is a province of the Roman Empire in the south of the Balkan Peninsula, north of Greece. Venerable Syncletikia died around 350. You might be interested in: