The Life and Conduct of the Holy and Blessed Teacher Synkletike

Publication Data: Etna, CA: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 2015
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 82
Dimensions (l × w × h): 21.3 cm × 13.8 cm × 0.6 cm
Additional Information: full-color illustrations
ISBN: 978‒1‒938943‒04‒1

   
St. Athanasios the Great
Translated and with annotations by Monk Chrysostomos

“This life of St. Synkletike presents a brief account of her early years and her initial monastic struggles.There then follows a lengthy discourse on her teachings, given to certain female disciples (aspiring or tonsured nuns, as the teachings themselves confirm). The teachings are presented as though she gave them orally, after great initial reluctance, in a single session, though it is likely that this long discourse is actually a compilation of teachings given over a long period of time. Finally, the life recounts her last days and the patient endurance she showed amid the illnesses that led to her death. [...]Concerning the authorship of this work, it was traditionally attributed to St. Athanasios of Alexandria (†373), who wrote the life of St. Anthony the Great, the so-called ‘Πατὴρ τοῦ Μοναχισμοῦ’ (father of monasticism). While the prevailing consensus, today, is that St. Athanasios did not, in fact, write the Life of Amma Synkletike, this matter is, in the end, one of secondary importance. Those things that matter, for anyone seeking the spiritual counsel of this great desert Mother, are the content of her life and the timeless relevancy of her insights.”
—“Translator’s Introduction”

CONTENTS

Introduction
   1‒3. Author’s prefatory words
   4‒10. Early life
   11‒20. Monasticism
   21. The beginning of her teachings
   22. On love
   23‒29. On chastity and fornication
   30‒35. On poverty
   36. On avarice
   37‒39. On concealment of one’s virtue
   40‒42. On sorrow
   43‒44. On the loftiness of the monastic calling
   45‒46. On evil thoughts
   47‒48. On attentiveness
   49‒51. On conceit
   52‒55. On despair and pride
   56‒59. On humility
   60‒61. On toil for virtue
   62. On anger
   63‒65. On rancor and calumny
   66‒67. On guarding the senses
   68‒70. On disdain
   71‒76. On love, poverty, and almsgiving
   77‒78. On secular life and monasticism
   79. On teaching
   80. On tonsure and renunciation
   81‒88. On fate and discernment
   89. On spiritual “accounting”
   90‒91. On the future life
   92‒93. On concern for the soul
   94. On remaining in one’s place of repentance
   95. On fasting
   96. On desire, pleasure, and sorrow as the source of all vice
   97. On different forms of monasticism
   98‒99. Concerning patience amid illnesses
   100‒101. On moderation
   102. On asceticism amid illness
   103. The conclusion of her teachings
   104‒107. The beginning of her illness
   108‒109. Teachings on carelessness
   110‒113. The Saint’s end
Index