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Monasticism in Egypt: Images and Words of the Desert Fathers
Christian monasticism began in Egypt over 1600 years ago, in the barren desert between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, from where it spread far and wide through various Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant traditions. But in the deserts of Egypt, sixteen centuries after the Desert Fathers, monasticism still thrives, and it is to these isolated monasteries in one of the world's most inhospitable environments that photographer Michael McClellan here turns his lens. Through his peaceful and timeless black-and-white images, McClellan reveals the quiet, spiritual world of today's desert fathers in the Coptic monasteries of the Red Sea Mountains, Wadi al-Natrun, and Upper Egypt, and in the Greek Orthodox monastery of Saint Catherine at the foot of Mount Sinai. Illuminating the photographs are extracts from the Paradise of the Fathers, tales of the Desert Fathers collected by Saint Palladius.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
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December 14, 2015
This wonderful book is a quick and quiet read with nice photos which can be found here on the author-photographers' website: http://www.michaelmcclellan.com/galle...
The monastic way (following in the footsteps of Christ; renouncing the world to focus completely on God and spiritual purification) in Christianity started in Egypt under St. Anthony the Great who was considered "the Monk of all Monks" and who was one of the earliest Desert Fathers. St. Anthony, who came from a wealthy family, renounced his inheritance, gave his riches to the poor, and spent most of his life afterwards living in a cave in the Egyptian desert. Even though it was an extremely austere life, like a number of early Christian ascetics, he lived to be 100 years old. If you go to Egypt you can still see where he lived. Egypt was the home of Christian asceticism, and the inspiring example of many Egyptians to give up everything including their families to follow Christ branched out West to as far as the British isles, east into the Middle East, and north as far as Russia.
The Christian monastic life grew from persecution and a dislike for the things of the world (human society) which never last. It was vacating the temporal and the trivial for the eternal and the spiritual. When early Christians would not conform to the Roman state and wanted to live faithful to their God, many decided to move into isolation and anonymity. One of the first places they fled to was the Egyptian Desert. This book contains photos, sayings and stories from the Early Church and Desert Fathers of the East and of Egypt. It shows that the tradition continues into the postmodern era.
The end of the book includes a write up by Otto Friedrich August Meinardus, a historian on Coptic (Egyptian) Christian about the history of various Egyptian monasteries which grew exponentially, receded to small numbers, and have now made a comeback in modern times.
This book's little nuggets of wisdom are wonderful and so inspiring during my current faith journey.
Warning: There are a few typos in the manuscript, but they don't distract in understanding the text.
The ancient monasteries talked about in this book can be found here. A few monasteries even have websites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
The monastic way (following in the footsteps of Christ; renouncing the world to focus completely on God and spiritual purification) in Christianity started in Egypt under St. Anthony the Great who was considered "the Monk of all Monks" and who was one of the earliest Desert Fathers. St. Anthony, who came from a wealthy family, renounced his inheritance, gave his riches to the poor, and spent most of his life afterwards living in a cave in the Egyptian desert. Even though it was an extremely austere life, like a number of early Christian ascetics, he lived to be 100 years old. If you go to Egypt you can still see where he lived. Egypt was the home of Christian asceticism, and the inspiring example of many Egyptians to give up everything including their families to follow Christ branched out West to as far as the British isles, east into the Middle East, and north as far as Russia.
The Christian monastic life grew from persecution and a dislike for the things of the world (human society) which never last. It was vacating the temporal and the trivial for the eternal and the spiritual. When early Christians would not conform to the Roman state and wanted to live faithful to their God, many decided to move into isolation and anonymity. One of the first places they fled to was the Egyptian Desert. This book contains photos, sayings and stories from the Early Church and Desert Fathers of the East and of Egypt. It shows that the tradition continues into the postmodern era.
The end of the book includes a write up by Otto Friedrich August Meinardus, a historian on Coptic (Egyptian) Christian about the history of various Egyptian monasteries which grew exponentially, receded to small numbers, and have now made a comeback in modern times.
This book's little nuggets of wisdom are wonderful and so inspiring during my current faith journey.
Warning: There are a few typos in the manuscript, but they don't distract in understanding the text.
The ancient monasteries talked about in this book can be found here. A few monasteries even have websites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
Displaying 1 of 1 review