he fourth-century ascetic flight to the desert indelibly marked Christianity. The faithful who did not embrace the austerity of the desert admired those who did and sought them out for counsel and consolation. The 'words' the monks gave were collected and passed around among those too far away or too feeble to make the trek themselves - or lived generations later. Previously available only in fragments, these Sayings of the Desert Fathers are now accessible in its entirety in English for the first time.

'We have a great deal to learn from their integrity and their unrelenting courage, from their vision o f G o d - s o holy, so great, possessed of such a love, that nothing less than one's whole being could respond to it,' wrote Archbishop Anthony of Sourzah in the preface. 'If we wish to understand the sayings of the Fathers, let us approach them with veneration, silencing our judgements and our own thoughts in order to meet them on their own ground and perhaps to partake ultimately - if we prove to emulate their earnestness in the search, their ruthless determination, their infinite compassion - in their own silent communion with God.'

Benedicta Ward graduated from Manchester University with a degree in history and received a D. Phil, from Oxford University. Among her many books and articles are Miracles and the Medieval Mind, the Prayers and Meditations of Saint Anselm, and two companion volumes to the present work: The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers, a translation of the shorter Anonymous Series of apophthegmata, and The Harlots of the Desert, a translation of the lives ofpenitents and study of contrition in the early Church. A member of the Anglican religious community of the Sisters of the Love of God, she lectures and does research at Oxford.

Common terms and phrases:

Abba John anchorite Apophthegmata Patrum asceticism cell Cistercian Cronius Desert Fathers Egypt Fathers John the Dwarf Macarius of Alexandria Nitria Scetis synaxis Terenuthis Thebaid