A translation of all existing documents from the cenobitic monasteries of Pachomius (292-346). '...a major contribution to patristic scholarship on the highest level of scientific accuracy' -Speculum. '...it is unlikely that these fascinating and unparalleled volumes will be superseded...'-The Catholic Historical Review. 'This series is recommended to anyone interested in early history and spirit of cenobitism and religious life' -Spiritual Life. '...they deserve a place on the bookshelf of every scholar interested in the patristic period' -Patristics.

Saint John the Little was a monk and hegumen of Scetis (Wadi Natrun) during the first great period of early Egyptian monasticism. The Apophthegmata preserve some fifty sayings by or about him (see CS 59, 85 '96). In addition, Zacharias, eighth-century Bishop of Sakha, wrote his Life, more than seventy percent of which is composed of material not found in the Apophthegmata. John bears witness to the formative period of early Egyptian monasticism. His Life, with its emphasis on obedience and compassion, offers a lively witness to the earliest monastic trad...
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The abbot, the community, and obedience in the Rule of Saint Benedict as compared to its source, The Rule of the Master, to see Saint Benedict's originality.

After living the Rule and studying it for many years, the author introduces it to those who are encountering it for the first time. The relationship of Benedict's Rule to other early monastic legislation is treated thoroughly but the book is designed for those who are seeking a guide for christian living in this little rule for beginners'.

St. AEthelwold (904/9 -984), abbot of Abingdon and bishop of Winchester, made the first translation of the Rule of Saint Benedict into English (or, indeed, into any vernacular language) as part of the tenth-century English Benedictine Reform. This movement dramatically affected the trajectory of religious life in early medieval England and influenced the ways in which secular power was conceived and wielded in the kingdom. AEthelwold's translation into Old English reworks Benedict's Latin text through numerous silent additions, omissions, and instances of explanatory material, revealing an ...
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Useful Servanthood introduces English-speaking readers to Abba Ammonas, disciple and successor of Saint Antony of the Desert and a prominent figure of fourth-century Egyptian monasticism. As a director of souls, Ammonas's approach to spiritual formation was a creative example of the spiritual gift of discernment. By examining Ammonas's writings and his ecclesial and political milieus, Dr. McNary-Zak shows how discernment functioned both in the abba-disciple relationship of the desert monks and in the life of the wider Christian community. Thus, Ammonas serves as a model for spiritual...
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The pearlers we meet in this book were early monks of Syria, Mesopotamia (Iraq), and Persia (Iran), They saw themselves as pearl-divers and pearl-merchants searching, through asceticism and prayer, for the precious pearls of mystical experience. Their quest led them into the wilderness, to a state of silent solitude in remote caves and hermitages. Working from Syriac manuscripts in the British Museum and the Vatican Library, and from the Greek monastery of Saint Catherine in the wilderness of Sinai and the Coptic monastery of the Syrians (Der es-Suriani) in the Egyptian desert, Brian E. Col...
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