The Nicene Age · AD 313–400

Amma Alexandra

d. c. AD 373 · Recluse of the tombs · Alexandria's outskirts

The Nicene Age

Who Amma Alexandra was

The servant-girl who, learning that a man was mad with love for her, walled herself into a tomb outside the city rather than — as she told Melania the Elder through the window — 'grieve a soul made in the image of God.' Ten years she lived on bread passed through the opening, spinning flax, praying the hours, seeing no face of man or woman; when she died the community found her, Palladius says, laid out as if asleep. The Lausiac History's most absolute renunciation, made by its least powerful figure.

Verified single attestation

Lausiac History 5 only.

Also listed in women and desert fathers & mothers.

Common questions

When did Amma Alexandra die?

Amma Alexandra is dated d. c. AD 373 in the archive, which places Amma Alexandra in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

Which early sources mention Amma Alexandra?

Amma Alexandra is named in 1 primary-source passage catalogued here, drawn from Palladius of Galatia. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Amma Alexandra from?

The archive associates Amma Alexandra with Alexandria's outskirts.

Who were Amma Alexandra’s contemporaries?

The archive links Amma Alexandra to 2 other figures, including Amma Talis and Amma Piamoun. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Primary-source mentions (1)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

The Lausiac History 5

c. AD 420
She shut herself in a tomb, receiving the necessities of life through a window, and for ten years never met the eyes of woman or man: 'that I might not,' she said, 'grieve a soul made after the image of God.'
Palladius of Galatia · 5 · source text

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