diff --git a/src/node.js b/src/node.js
index 2ac9db46e6..7f16c8201d 100644
--- a/src/node.js
+++ b/src/node.js
@@ -675,6 +675,23 @@ var posixModule = createInternalModule("posix", function (exports) {
     });
     return promise;
   };
+
+  exports.catSync = function (path, encoding) {
+    encoding = encoding || "utf8"; // default to utf8
+
+    var
+      fd = exports.openSync(path, process.O_RDONLY, 0666),
+      content = '',
+      pos = 0,
+      r;
+
+    while ((r = exports.readSync(fd, 16*1024, pos, encoding)) && r[0]) {
+      content += r[0];
+      pos += r[1]
+    }
+
+    return content;
+  };
 });
 
 var posix = posixModule.exports;
diff --git a/test/mjsunit/test-sync-cat.js b/test/mjsunit/test-sync-cat.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6e2ff30942
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/mjsunit/test-sync-cat.js
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+process.mixin(require('./common'));
+
+var fixture = path.join(__dirname, "fixtures/x.txt");
+
+assert.equal("xyz\n", posix.catSync(fixture));
\ No newline at end of file