St. Syncletica of Alexandria (Amma Syncletica)

An Alexandrian of good family who gave her inheritance to the poor, cut her hair and withdrew to a family tomb outside the city, where other women came to her for teaching. Her sayings in the Apophthegmata are about measure and discernment: an asceticism without moderation “is determined by the enemy,” obedience in community is better than self-chosen austerity, and one can be a solitary in a crowd or crowded with thoughts in the desert. The Life written in her name, once ascribed to St. Athanasius but anonymous and later, says she died after years of a cancer of the mouth borne in silence.

Why he matters: The best-attested of the Desert Mothers, she gives women a voice in the founding wisdom of Christian monasticism: the passions, discernment, and the slow fire of prayer.