Desert Fathers

Coptic icon of Anthony the Great

Monastery of the Syrians, in Wadi el Natrun

Desert Fathers is the name for early Christian monks, who left the villages of Egypt, when Christans were persecuted under Diocletian. They then either lived alone, as hermits, or they formed small groups who lived in monasteries. The settled in the desert. in Egypt and Syria. Most of them went to the Scetes desert, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Alexandria. The most well-known of their monasteries are located in Wadi El Natrun, Nitria and Kellia. The movement started in the 3rd century. The Apophthegmata Patrum is a collection of the wisdom of some of the early desert monks and nuns, in print as Sayings of the Desert Fathers. The most well known was Anthony the Great, who moved to the desert in AD 270–271 and became known as both the father and founder of desert monasticism. By the time Anthony had died in AD 356, thousands of monks and nuns had been drawn to living in the desert following Anthony's example, leading his biographer, Athanasius of Alexandria, to write that "the desert had become a city." The Desert Fathers had a major influence on the development of Christianity.

The desert monastic communities that grew out of the informal gathering of hermit monks became the model for Christian monasticism. The eastern monastic tradition at Mount Athos and the western Rule of St Benedict both were strongly influenced by the traditions that began in the desert. All of the monastic revivals of the Middle Ages looked to the desert for inspiration and guidance. Much of Eastern Christian spirituality, including the Hesychast movement, had its roots in the practices of the Desert Fathers. Even religious renewals such as the German evangelicals and Pietists in Pennsylvania, the Devotio Moderna movement, and the Methodist Revival in England are seen by modern scholars as being influenced by the Desert Fathers.

Desert Fathers Media

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  "Saint Macarius and a Cherub" from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt

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  StPakhom

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  Icon of Arsenius the Great, notable Desert Father

Bibliography

• Athanasius of Alexandria (1892). "Life of St. Anthony" . In Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry (eds.). A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series. Vol. 4. Buffalo, New York: Christian Literature Publishing Company.
• Binns, John (2006). "Modern Spirituality and the Orthodox Church". In Angold, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge History of Christianity. Volume 5: Eastern Christianity. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 580–599. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521811132.025. ISBN 978-0-521-81113-2.
• Burton-Christie, Douglas (1993). The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508333-0.
• Chryssavgis, John (2008). In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (rev. ed.). Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom. ISBN 978-1-933316-56-7.
• Egan, Harvey D. (1996). An Anthology of Christian Mysticism (2nd ed.). Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0-8146-6012-6.
• "Cassian, John". The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 1. (1991). New York: Oxford University Press. 
• Guillaumont, Antoine (1979). "Une inscription copte sur la prière de Jesus". Aux origines du monachisme chrétien: Pour une phénoménologie du monachisme. Spiritualité orientale et vie monastique (in français). Vol. 30. Bégrolles-en-Mauges, France: Abbaye de Bellefontaine. pp. 168–183.
• Harmless, William (2000). "Remembering Poemen Remembering: The Desert Fathers and the Spirituality of Memory". Church History. 69 (3): 483–518. doi:10.2307/3169395. ISSN 1755-2613. JSTOR 3169395. S2CID 162955580.
•  ———  (2004). Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/0195162234.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-516222-6.
• Irvin, Dale T.; Sundquist, Scott W. (2001). History of the World Christian Movement. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-08866-6.
• Keller, David G. R. (2005). Oasis of Wisdom: The Worlds of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0-8146-3034-1.
• McGinn, Bernard, ed. (2006). The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 978-0-8129-7421-8.
• Merton, Thomas (1960). Wisdom of the Desert. New York: New Directions (published 1970). ISBN 978-0-8112-0102-5.
• Meyendorff, John (1974). St Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality. Translated by Fiske, Adele. Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press. ISBN 978-0-913836-11-8.
• Nes, Solrunn (2007). The Uncreated Light: An Iconographical Study of the Transfiguration in the Eastern Church. Translated by Moi, Arlyne. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-1764-8.
• Parry, Ken; Melling, David J.; Brady, Dimitri; Griffith, Sidney H.; Healy, John F., eds. (1999). The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-631-23203-2.
• Peterson, Michael D. (2008). "Hesychasm". The New Westminster Dictionary of Church History. Volume 1: The Early, Medieval, and Reformation Eras. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. 304–305. 
• Riddle, John M. (2008). A History of the Middle Ages, 300–1500. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-5409-2.
• Rock, Stella (2006). "Russian Piety and Orthodox Culture, 1380–1589". In Angold, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge History of Christianity. Volume 5: Eastern Christianity. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 253–275. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521811132.012. ISBN 978-0-521-81113-2.
• Waddell, Helen (1957) [1936]. The Desert Fathers. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-06008-5.
• Ward, Benedicta, ed. (1984). The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection (PDF) (rev. ed.). Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications. ISBN 978-0-87907-959-8. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
• Ware, Kallistos (2000). The Inner Kingdom. Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press. ISBN 978-0-88141-209-3.
• Wilfong, Terry G. (1998). "The Non-Muslim Communities: Christian Communities". In Petry, Carl F. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Egypt. Volume 1: Islamic Egypt, 640–1517. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press (published 2006). pp. 175–197. ISBN 978-0-521-47137-4. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
• Wortley, John, ed. (2012). The Book of the Elders: Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Translated by Wortley, John. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0-87907-201-8.