Sarah of the Desert

Venerable Sarah of Egypt (also called Amma Sarah) was one of the first desert mothers, known from the "Sayings of the Desert Fathers" and from the Matericon. She lived in Egypt and spent some sixty years in strict asceticism. She is remembered on 13 July (26 July on the new calendar) by the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches. The Episcopal Church in the United States remembers her, with Theodora and Syncletica, on 5 January.

Life

Our sources do not agree on her time: one says the fifth century, another that she died in the year 370. She is said to have lived in her cell near a great river, probably the Nile, at which she would never look, by a Serbian source not far from Alexandria. She led a life of strict abstinence, without wine and without laughter, and did not leave her cell except to go to church. According to the old account, she was for a long time warred upon by a demon of fornication, for thirteen years, and never prayed that the struggle depart from her, but only said: "Lord, give me strength". Once, when she was attacked more strongly, she went into her cell to pray, without yielding to the temptation, and the spirit appeared to her and said she had conquered. She replied that it was not she who had conquered, but Christ her Lord. By the example of her life she drew many women to monasticism. She did not live in total solitude and received visitors. Once monks from Scetis came to her, she gave them a basket of fruit, and they honoured her by eating the bad fruit and leaving her the good. It is also told that two great elders came to her from the mountain of Pelusia, wishing to humble her, and when she told them that by nature she was a woman but not by mind, they went away edified.

Her sayings

Among her preserved sayings are: she puts death before her eyes before climbing a ladder; it is good to give alms for the sake of men, for even if one does it to please men, through it one can begin to seek to please God; and better than asking God to show you everything men know is to ask Him to give you a pure heart toward all. She said she feared three things: the moment the soul parts from the body, the moment she will be set before God, and the final decree on the day of Judgment. She also urged: be as though dead, do not fear men's dishonour nor the glory of the world, but in stillness, withdrawn in your cell, remember unceasingly only God and death, and you will be saved.