The Marriage of Syncletica, Essay Example

As I considered the story of Syncletica, a series of questions arose in my mind. I wondered, who was Syncletica, that is, what kind of person was she? Why did she so want to avoid marriage to a wealthy man? Once she had fled into the desert, what was the result of her conversion—how did she change as a person, if she did? And then, finally, what can I learn from her story?  This paper addresses these questions and presents my answers to them.

The first impression of Syncletica is that of a young woman who is very strong willed. She was the daughter of an important man in Constantinople, where the traditional role for women of her class must surely have been to become a wife and mother. Yet, she says, she “did not wish to enter into marriage” (Syncletica, p. 48). She has a slightly sneaky or manipulative aspect to her character. She does not openly defy her father, but merely tells him she’s taken a vow to make a pilgrimage as a virgin, so the wedding must be delayed. I have the sense that her mother must have died some time earlier, because this young woman seems well used to getting her own way with her father. She seems pampered, somewhat spoiled, a little arrogant in her conviction that she knows better than her father, but, most of all, extremely determined. It seems clear she has a complex plan to escape her proposed marriage from the first, and she carries out that plan almost ruthlessly, without real regard for the consequences to her father, or to the servants who are supposed to protect her. Will her father’s wrath descend on them? She does not say, and does not appear to consider that in any way. Her manipulative nature appears to extend even to the holy monk she begs to give her a habit. While she smartly does not use feminine wiles on him, she instead virtually buys her monkish habit with her father’s money. She is a young woman determined to get her own way.

But why was she so determined to avoid marriage? Did she want to avoid being dominated by men? There certainly would have been few alternatives to marriage open to a woman of her class—maybe none at all. But my sense is that it was less fear of men—after all, she was quite good at manipulating men to get what she wanted—than it was that she craved the freedom to walk her own path. In marriage in Constantinople, she would have been constrained by society as much as by her husband, and she would be severely restricted in her actions. Thus, she planned and manipulated, and got her own way one last time. She broke free of her family, her servants, and even the holy monk who provided her with a habit and books and a blessing. She stepped out into the desert to follow God’s will. To me, this is when her real conversion began. Until this moment, she was consumed by her plans to escape. She does not say how difficult it was for her to step into the wilderness alone, but it must have been hard.

So what did she convert to? From that initial young, arrogant woman, she converted to a woman who was humble to the point of invisibility. She avoided the mastery of men and society, but instead placed all her strong will at the feet of God. At the time of the narrative, she has spent twenty-eight years trusting not in her own abilities and knowledge, but rather in God’s willingness to protect and guide her. For a young woman as determined to have her own way as she was at eighteen, this must have been a long, painful path to utter trust and reliance on God. Yet, in that submission to God, she clearly has found joy, beauty, and her proper role in life. This raises an additional question. For twenty-eight years she has not seen another person’s face—so why did she (or God) reveal herself to this one traveler? Why to him? And why at this time?

I believe that her revelation to this traveler was made at this time because at last her conversion was truly complete. She was fully submissive to God’s will, so that she refused to share any of the gifts the traveler brought, lest God then remove the sustenance He’d provided her. She had achieved the serenity and closeness to God she had sought, and though that may have originally been intended as an escape from a life she did not want, in fact it had become a life that she was deeply thankful for. Certainly if she had wanted to leave the wilderness and return to the society of humanity, she could have done so. But instead of a desire to return, the narrator noted, “It was possible to look at her face and see it give off flashing sparks of light” (Syncletica, p. 51).  He also noted, “I was astounded at her beauty: it was a wonder how, having spent so many years in such spiritual discipline and solitude, she remained at the peak of her youthful beauty” (Syncletica, p. 52).

Syncletica’s story reveals one important aspect of becoming closer to God. Could she have experienced the same conversion, say, by entering a nunnery (had one existed), or by marrying as her father wished? I believe not. She went into the wilderness and avoided contact with other humans for a reason; I believe that reason was the need for simple silence. Surrounded by people, she would have been distracted from her goal of becoming closer to God. Only alone, in the silence of Nature, could she focus her attention on hearing God’s voice, without the distraction of other people. Her story, presented to this traveler to be revealed only after her death, could inspire others to seek their own path to Oneness, but though she might inspire, she had no desire to lead others. Instead, her disappearance after this one encounter, indicates that she continued walking her path to God until her death.

I believe the lesson of her story is one of learning to listen to God’s voice, rather than the voice of other people. By doing so, Syncletica did enter into marriage in spite of fleeing from it as a young girl. In marriage a man and a woman become “one flesh.” While Syncletica did not marry a man, she did become “one flesh” with another: She married God.