Desert Fathers The Desert Fathers were quiet, fourth century hermits who went to extremes, leading a strenuous pursuit of spiritual rigor in the empty wastelands of Syria, Egypt and Palestine. Who were they? Desperate fools or the first radical Christians? And what relevance can they have for us today? A quaint oddity from our past or a pure, uncomplicated pattern for today?
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers is a selection of quotations taken from the Apophthegmata Patrum (which means Sayings of the Fathers). The Sayings of the Desert Fathers recounts isolated encounters with holy men and women who lived in the deserts of Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Arabia during the fourth and fifth century. These individuals forged Christian monasticism.
