A daily drop of wisdom from the men and women who turned to the desert for spiritual testing and transformation on their journey toward God.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
True Austerity
Benjamin, who was a priest in Cellia, said that some brothers went to a hermit in Scetis and wanted to give him some oil. But the hermit said, "Look, there is a little jar of oil which you brought me three years ago. It is still where you put it."
Benjamin said, "When we heard that, we were amazed by the hermit's austerity."
Born about 380 A.D. in Alexandria, Egypt, to a well-respected Christian family of Macedonian heritage, Syncletica was well-educated and was said to be beautiful. When her parents died, she sold all her possessions, cut her hair as a sign of consecration and moved with her blind sister to the family tomb outside Alexandria to begin her life of ascesis. Women soon began to gather around her and she agreed to be their spiritual mentor.
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