Overview

"By the fourth century A.D., devout Christians--men and women alike--had begun to retreat from cities and villages to the deserts of North Africa and Asia Minor, where they sought liberation from their corrupt society and the confining shell of the social self. The Desert Fathers is the perfect introduction to the stories and sayings of these heroic pioneers of the contemplative tradition. Selected and translated by Helen Waddell, The Desert Fathers opens a window onto early Christianity while presenting us with touchingly human models of faith, humility, and compassion. With a new Preface by the Cistercian monk, writer, and revered teacher of contemplative prayer M. Basil Pennington, author of O Holy Mountain and Challenges in Prayer. ""God is our home but many of us have strayed from our native land.  The venerable authors of these Spiritual Classics are expert guides--may we follow their directions home."" --Archbishop Desmond Tutu"

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9780375700194

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I'm afraid my appreciation does not lie in the direction of scholarly treatises on the remote lives of the desert fathers, who sought - in their need for asceticism - the loneliness which bred fanaticism and heroism. Fragmentary - bits of biographical data - extracts from their teachings - translations of accounts of their philosophy and lives. While recognizing the skill with which the material is handled, I could not feel that the sale, through bookshop channels, was likely to go beyond a very small and limited group. (Kirkus Reviews)

Three centuries after the death and resurrection of Christ, devout Christians began increasingly to renounce the corrupt world in which they lived and sought solitude and the contemplative life. These were the desert fathers - and mothers - who would spend years in single cells, praying and fasting in an effort to become more holy. This edition of the classic, together with a preface by the Cistercian monk M Basil Pennington, tells the stories of the first hermit Paul, John Moschus, the 'monks of Egypt', and Mary and Pelagia, both prostitutes who became believers. This is an absorbing, intriguing and sometimes amusing account of those who spent much of their lives pondering its deepest questions. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

"Helen Waddell (1889–1965), author and translator, was born in Tokyo and educated at Victoria College and Queen's University, Belfast, and at Somerville College, Oxford. She was once described as ""the Middle Ages' most persuasive interpreter"" by the president of Columbia University, where she was a fellow. She wrote, among others, the nonfiction books The Wandering Scholars and Medieval Latin Lyrics; the novel Peter Abelard, Beasts and Saints; and, in 1936, The Desert Fathers, a translation of her own selections from a seventeenth-century Latin collection by Heribert Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum (""Lives of the Fathers,"" 2nd edition, 1628). M. Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O. (1931–2005), was Abbot of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. He authored over 20 books, including O Holy Mountain and Daily We Touch Him."

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