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Desert Fathers

Desert Fathers

Desert Fathers (251 AD - 500)

The Desert Fathers (along with Desert Mothers) were early Christian hermits, ascetics, and monks who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt beginning around the third century AD. The Apophthegmata Patrum is a collection of the wisdom of some of the early desert monks and nuns, still in print as Sayings of the Desert Fathers. The most well known was Anthony the Great, who moved to the desert in 270–271 AD and became known as both the father and founder of desert monasticism. By the time Anthony died in 356 AD, thousands of monks and nuns had been drawn to living in the desert following Anthony's example — his biographer, Athanasius of Alexandria, wrote 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 Mt. 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.

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Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 28: On holy and blessed prayer

On holy and blessed prayer, mother of virtues, and on the attitude of mind and body in prayer. 1. Prayer by reason of its nature is the converse and union of man with God, and by reason of its action upholds the world and brings about reconciliation with God; it is the mother and also the daughter o... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 29: Concerning heaven on earth, or godlike dispassion and perfection

Concerning heaven on earth, or godlike dispassion and perfection, and the resurrection of the soul before the general resurrection. 1. Here are we who lie in the deepest pit of ignorance, in the dark passions of this body and in the shadow of death, having the temerity to begin to philosophize about... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 2: On detachment

1. The man who really loves the Lord, who has made a real effort to find the coming Kingdom, who has really begun to be troubled by his sins, who is really mindful of eternal torment and judgment, who really lives in fear of his own departure, will not love, care or worry about money, or possessions... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 30: Concerning the linking together of the supreme trinity among the virtues

Concerning the linking together of the supreme trinity among the virtues.[513] 1. And now, finally, after all that we have said, there remain these three that bind and secure the union of all, faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love,[514] for God Himself is so called.[515] 2. And (as fa... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 3: On exile or pilgrimage

1. Exile means that we leave forever everything in our own country that prevents us from reaching the goal of the religious life. Exile means modest manners, wisdom which remains unknown, prudence not recognized as such by most, a hidden life, an invisible intention, unseen meditation, desire for hu... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 4: On blessed and ever-memorable obedience

1. Our treatise now appropriately touches upon warriors[49] and athletes of Christ. As the flower precedes the fruit, so exiles[50] either of body or will always precedes obedience. For with the help of these two virtues, the holy soul steadily ascends to heaven as upon golden wings. And perhaps it ... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 5: On painstaking and true repentance

On painstaking and true repentance which constitute the life of the holy convicts; and about the prison. Once John outran Peter;[102] and now obedience precedes repentance. For the one who came first is a symbol of obedience, and the other of repentance. 1. Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repe... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 6: On remembrance of death

1. Every word is preceded by thought. And the remembrance of death and sins precedes weeping and mourning. Therefore, this subject comes in its proper place in this chapter. 2. The remembrance of death is a daily death; and the remembrance of our departure is an hourly sighing or groaning. 3. Fear o... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 7: On mourning which causes joy

1. Mourning, according to God, is sadness of soul, and the disposition of a sorrowing heart, which ever madly seeks that for which it thirsts; and when it fails in its quest, it painfully pursues it, and follows in its wake grievously lamenting. Or thus: mourning is a golden spur in a soul which is ... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 8: On freedom from anger and on meekness

1. As the gradual pouring of water on a fire completely extinguishes the flame, so the tears of true mourning are able to quench every flame of anger and irritability. Therefore we place this next in order. 2. Freedom from anger, or placidity, is an insatiable appetite for dishonour, just as in the ... Read More
Desert Fathers

(The Ladder of Divine Ascent) Step 9: On remembrance of wrongs

1. The holy virtues are like Jacob’s ladder, and the unholy vices are like the chains that fell from the chief Apostle Peter. For the virtues, leading from one to another, bear him who chooses them up to Heaven; but the vices by their nature beget and stifle one another. And as we have just heard se... Read More
Desert Fathers

Desert Father Quotes

Before anything else we need humility. Dorotheos Humility protects the soul from all the passions and also from every temptation. Dorotheos Judge not him who is guilty of fornication, if you are chaste, or you will break the law like him. For He who said Do not commit fornication said also Do not ju... Read More
Desert Fathers

Stories from the Desert Fathers

Abba Agathon Abba Peter, the disciple of Abba Lot, said, One day when I was in Abba Agathon’s cell a brother came in and said to him, “I want to live with the brethren; tell me how to dwell with them.” The old man answered him, “All the days of your life keep the frame of mind of the stranger which ... Read More
Desert Fathers

The Ancient Fathers of the Desert: Section 1

SECTION 1 Abba Antonios said: "The time is coming when people will be seized by manias and will behave like madmen. And if they see anyone acting reasonably, they will rise up against him saying: 'You are insane.' And they will have accurately said this to him, for he will not be like them." * * * S... Read More
Desert Fathers

The Ancient Fathers of the Desert: Section 2

V. Rev. Chrysostomos, trans. SECTION 2 A highly respected elder of our own days was visited by a young man tempted with lustful desires. Questioning the man about the sincerity of his intent to overcome such temptation, the elder asked him if he was willing to obey without question the advice he was... Read More
Desert Fathers

The Ancient Fathers of the Desert: Section 3

SECTION 3 A woman of sin once made up her mind, and wagered with her friends, that she could, without fail, succeed in leading into her nets a hermit, who lived on a mountain far from the city and about whom it was said by all that he was a holy man. She wore a thick veil, which hid her attractivene... Read More
Desert Fathers

The Ancient Fathers of the Desert: Section 4

SECTION 4 "When people honor you, humble yourself all the more at that moment, and say in your mind: 'If they truly knew who I were, they would show me no regard at all.' In this way, you will not cause injury to your soul," a wise elder said. * * * In the era that asceticism flowered in Egypt, ther... Read More
Desert Fathers

The Ancient Fathers of the Desert: Section 5

SECTION 5 "A certain youth," Abba John of Likopoulos relates to us, "swept away by the pleasures of the world, had sunk into the mud of dissoluteness. It happened, however, that he came to his senses, like the prodigal son, and sought the way of return to his Father's house. He left the world, to fi... Read More
Desert Fathers

The Ancient Fathers of the Desert: Section 6

SECTION 6 In an age when political considerations and supposed historical determinants mark so much the study of the history of God's people, we people of the modern times seldom understand the dedication of the Orthodox forefathers, whether Greek, Russian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, or whatever,... Read More
Desert Fathers

The Ancient Fathers of the Desert: Section 7

SECTION 7 A certain elder, who was asked by the brothers what condemnation is and what it means to speak ill of another, gave the following explanation: "In the case of speaking ill of someone, one reveals the hidden faults of his brother. In the case of condemnation, one censures something obvious.... Read More

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