The Desert Fathers and Mothers

• ABOUT:
  • ECOLE glossary entry:

  • Farag Rofail Farag: Sociological and Moral Studies in the Field of Coptic Monasticism, (1964). Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1964. Broader than the title suggests.
  • Violet MacDermot: The Cult of the Seer in the Ancient Middle East -- A Contribution to Current Research on Hallucinations Drawn from Coptic and Other Texts, (1971). UCLA, 1971. A very peculiar book with a completely misleading title: it is concerned almost exclusively with the spiritual practice of the Desert Fathers, and nearly half the book is primary sources in translation. Written at the height of XX Century scientific interest in "altered states of awareness", it cautions against assuming that one can milk the patristic literature for tips on how such states may be attained. The emphasis on ascetic experience as part of the "history of medicine" gives the book a rather odd flavour, but it is interesting nonetheless. Read with caution.

• WORKS:
  • Heribert Rosweyde, SJ, (editor): Vitæ Patrum. This huge collection, compiled in 1628, contains
    1. Many primary sources which were written in Latin (e.g. by Jerome).
    2. Ancient Latin translations of Greek sources (e.g. the Sayings of the Fathers translated by Paschasius).
    3. Some Renaissance translations into Latin of various Greek sources (e.g. John Moschus translated by Ambrose of Camaldoli).
    Translation from Latin to English by Rev. Benedict Baker. [UNDER CONSTRUCTION] --- Vitae Patrum

  • Apophthegmata Patrum Ægyptiorum. Fragments of the Coptic text with English translation in Alla I. Elanskaya: The Literary Coptic Manuscripts in the A. S. Pushkin State Fine Arts Museum in Moscow, [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994], p. 11.