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
in the way of repentance. (Mary of Egypt, 4th C Egyptian ascetic)

To complement study of the Desert Fathers, 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
Apophthegmata Patrum. 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 well 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 womens 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 honoror 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 dont 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 firethey ignite it
with tears and toil, in stillness and silence.
Heres 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 usmale and femaleknow 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 thisthe 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 swordof 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 Syncleticas 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 earin 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 soulnot in that which is external and deceptivebut 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, David 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 Souls 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 Asceticism 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 Isaiah, 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
Christian Monasticism (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).