A Glimpse into the Wisdom of the Desert Mothers Bibliography and Prayer Practice for AT1 Students

Now therefore, lead me wherever you please; Lead me to salvation, Teach me what is true, And go before me th in the way of repentance. (, 4 C Egyptian ascetic)

To complement study of the , it is interesting to look at the question: Were there women among the desert-dwellers?

One of our primary resource treasures for the development of Early Christianity is the . This collection of sayings from around the 4th century, in its many editions, provides evidence for the lives of Early Christians, people who left the world as they knew it to follow the command of Christ in the desert. Most of them were men.

There can be no doubt, however, that the collection of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, and other Early Christian texts which have survived, were produced and handed on in a time when contributions made by women tended to be minimized and often destroyed. And yet the voice and wisdom of the women Desert Fathers persists to this day.

It may be true that there were few of them, but they are there. A trio of them still survive in the original collection 2 of whom we’ll explore today. Know this: When you see the witness or even the voice of a woman in an Early Christian text including the Bible, it is often the tip of the iceberg in terms of what it represents about women’s contributions. It could even be said that Patriarchal culture tended to invalidate the Word of God sent by the Spirit through Christians who were women--sometimes, ironically, even to protect them and their honor—or the Word itself. Be that as it may, this short talk will introduce you to a few bibliographic resources you can use to access this treasury of wisdom.

Enclosed here, for your further reflection, are sayings of just two of the Desert mothers, Theodora and Syncletica, who is pictured in the icon on the front, written by Eileen McGuckin.

We don’t know much about the lives of the Desert Fathers or Mothers, often what is remembered about them is idealized in hagiography, and conflicting stories about them have arisen in different texts. So, for example…

The Desert Mother Syncletica is sometimes thought to have come from Alexandria and to have begun her ascetical life within the home; this is probably how many women, like Macrina, sister of St. Basil, were able to begin their ascetical journey in the early centuries. In other stories, Syncletica is said to have come from Constantinople; and when engaged to be married, asked to first make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and managed to escape into the desert. She is known to have been a wise counselor of the soul and many of her sayings have survived.

Theodora of Alexandria was thought to have been the wife of a 4th century Roman Prefect of Egypt, and following her faith toward Christ into the desert, finally dressed as a man in order to enter a monastery. She was celebrated for being a colleague of Archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria, one of the Fathers of the Church, and for being consulted by many followers about the monastic life.

The Sayings of the Desert Mothers

One of the most familiar sayings from Syncletica concerns seeking the path of the ascetical life, which she describes as the “divine fire:”

“In the beginning the labor and toil is difficult for those who come to work for God in stillness and silence; later it becomes indescribable joy. Just as those who wish to start a fire are at first filled with smoke and shed tears, but they cannot reach the goal in any other way; so too are those who desire to start within themselves the divine fire—they ignite it with tears and toil, in stillness and silence.”

Here’s a teaching from Theodora which makes use of scripture:

“Just as no one dares offend anyone standing near the king, in the same way Satan can do nothing to us if we always have the memory of God in our heart. ‘Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.’ (James 4:8) My children, all of us—male and female—know about being saved. Through our own negligence, we stray away from salvation. First of all, we must observe the precepts known through the grace of the Lord. These are: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, and your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mt 22:37, 39) Whatever people say by the grace of the Spirit, therefore, is useful if it springs from love and ends in it. Salvation, then, is exactly this—the two-fold love of God and of our neighbor.”

In the Matericon, Theodora offers a collection of sayings of encouragement, instruction and advice that she was said to offer on request her fellow followers of Christ to contemplate throughout the day, while working and meditating.

Come to love our Lord Jesus Christ more deeply, and practice the labor of virtues. Sustaining this work with patience chases out despondency.

Dear beloved, strive to make the inner person a monastic, not just the outer one.

Love stillness. One who is not attached to the vanities of this world is strengthened in soul by stillness. Abstinence and silence, prayer and reading cleanse the mind. The strongest weapon for one living in stillness is unceasing remembrance of the All-good God.

Restrain the belly, the tongue and anger, my dear brethren, and your feet will not stumble over a rock.

Stillness and prayer are the best tools for virtue, because by cleansing the mind they give it sharp vision.

Prayer and stillness, abstinence and kneeling, my dear brethren, these cleanse the mind of all sins.

Stillness and ascetic labor for virtue, my dear child, purify the conscience with patience and generosity.

Psalmody and reading, fasting and vigils, stillness and silence, my child, all transform the soul to God.

Practical Advice from the Desert Mothers

Blessed Syncletica said: May your mind always be in the Kingdom of Heaven, and soon you will inherit it.

Blessed Theodora said: Fasting humbles the body, vigils cleanse the mind, prayer unites us with God.

Syncletica said: The life of a monastic, like Paradise, must be guarded by a flaming sword—of prayer and the remembrance of God.

Theodora said: If you think upon that which is good, you will be disposed to it. Human thought is not hidden from God. For this reason your thoughts must always be clean of all evil.

Syncletica said: If in any fall you say with humility: “Forgive me,” then it will be forgiven you.

Mother Syncletica’s Advice on Pridefulness and Judgment

The more that people in the world acquire, the more they hide it and say they are poor. But we, as soon as we have some little success in good deeds, instantly exalt ourselves, make a display of it and boast about it. For this reason, the little spark of goodness that we thought was ours is stolen away by the enemy. So, we do well not to say anything to anyone when we do good. Those who do the contrary suffer a greater loss because “even what they seem to have will be taken away.” (Lk 8:18)

Like wax melts by the fire, so the soul melts from praise and loses its firmness. But if heat melts wax, coldness makes it firm. And, if praise takes away strength of soul, mortification and stillness bring more strength to her virtues.

We must preserve the tongue and the ear—in other words, by not speaking idle or judging words, nor passionately listening to them. Do not listen to idle words and you will not be a receptacle for the sins of others. If you receive into yourself the stinking filth of idle conversations, by this, thoughts will defile your prayer, just as after listening to merciless slanderers, you too will look down upon others with suspicion.

If you acquire some virtues, by the grace of Christ, do not exalt yourself in the heart. Even if you have achieved them, pray this: We are unworthy servants; we have only done that which was our duty.” (Lk 17:10)

We must strive to renew the soul—not in that which is external and deceptive—but by paying special attention to that which is internal. We have cut our hair at the time of our tonsure, let us cut away also from the head the husk. Our hair was our worldly adornment: it represented honor, glory, property, sweet foods, and other pleasures. The husk represents evil thoughts, bad feelings, and judgmental dispositions. The head is our own soul. So let us remove the husk from it so that it will be orderly and beautiful.

A Short Bibliography for Further Study on the Lives and Teaching of Desert Mothers

Editions of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, the Apophthegmata Patrum and Collections of the Sayings Arranged for Daily Contemplation

Keller, G. R., Oasis of Wisdom: the Worlds of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2005).

Ward, Benedicta, trans., The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: the Alphabetical Collection (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cisterican Publications, 1984).

Merton, Thomas, The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century (New York: New Directions, 1960).

McGuckin, John Anthony, The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul’s Ascent from the Desert Fathers and Other Early Christian Contemplatives (Boston, Mass.: Shambala Publications, 2002).

The Lives and Teaching of the Desert Mothers

Swan, Laura, The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 2001).

Ward, Benedicta, Harlots of the Desert: A Study of Repentance in Early Monastic Sources (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1987).

Elm, Susanna, Virgins of God: The Making of in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).

Cloke, Gillian, This Female Man of God: Women and Spiritual Power in the Patristic Age, AD 350-450 (London; New York: Routledge, 1995).

Palladius, The Lausiac History (New York: Paulist Press, 1964).

Vivian, Tim, trans, Journeying into God: Seven Early Monastic Lives (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1996).

Pseudo-Athanasius, The Life and Regimen of the Blessed and Holy Syncletica / by Elizabeth Bryson Bongie (Eugene, Ore.: Wipf & Stock, 2003).

Abba , Matericon: Instructions of Abba Isaiah to the Honorable Nun Theodora (Safford, Ariz.: St. Paisius Serbian Orthodox Monastery, 2001).

Examining the Prayer-life or Askesis of the Desert Fathers and Mothers

Chryssavgis, John, In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (Bloomington, Ind.: World Wisdom, Inc., 2008).

Harmless, William, Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Burton-Christie, Douglas, The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).

Early, Mary, The Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from the Women of the Wilderness (Harrisburg, Penn.: Morehouse Publishing, 2007).