The Book of the Elders Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Systematic Collection Saint Demiana it reached Nicodemus of the

it reached Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

Second Edition

people today who read them as the ancients did

early Church History

seeking counsel on the interior life

The Book of the Elders Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Systematic Collection Saint Demiana it reached Nicodemus of the"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