The Book of the Elders Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Systematic Collection Saint Demiana Every monastery exudes the scent

Every monastery exudes the scent of holiness

The study of the Trinitarian persons and their relation became subject to abstract concepts and deductions

Saint John the Little was a monk and hegumen of Scetis (Wadi Natrun) during the first great period of early Egyptian monasticism

Second Edition

The Book of the Elders Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Systematic Collection Saint Demiana Every monastery exudes the scent"Sugg. Donation" In the early part of the fourth century, a few Christians, mostly men and some women, began to withdraw from "the world" to retreat into the desert, there to practice their new religion more seriously. The person who aspired to "renounce the world" first had to find an "elder," a person who would accept him as a disciple and apprentice. To his elder (whom he would address as abbafather) the neophyte owed complete obedience; from his