The sayings in this volume are taken from The Paradise, or Garden of the Holy Fathers, being histories of the Anchorites, Recluses, Monks, Cenobites and Ascetic Fathers of the deserts of Egypt between A.D. 250 and A.D. 400, compiled by Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria: Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis: St. Jerome and others. These sayings were translated, out of the Syriac by Ernest A. Wallis Budge (1857 - 1934). In his translation of these early Christian texts Budge, who had been for thirty years Keeper of the Assyrian & Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum, and was thus fully conversant with the complex intertwining of the ancient civilisations of the near East, opened a window on to a remarkable phenomenon that took place during the turbulent years of the declining Roman Empire. This phenomenon was the emergence of Christian monasticism and the development of formal spiritual disciplines as an integral part of Christian practice. In doing so he has provided a means for readers other than classical scholars to engage with an enigma that otherwise would remain forever obscure.

Foreword by: Allan Armstrong