The Day-to-Day Life of the Desert Fathers In Fourth-Century Egypt [Paperback]

Lucien Regnault (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1879007347 | ISBN-13: 978-1879007345 | Publication Date: April 1, 2000 | Edition: 1

Founders of Christian eremitism, these heroes of asceticism and virtue earned a reputation as much by their lifestyle as by their writings which have been translated into all languages and distributed throughout the world.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About the Author

Lucien Regnault entered the novitiate of the Abbey of Solesmes in 1941, and worked as a librarian and professor of Patristics before being named Novice Master and Prior of his monastery. For more than forty years he has studied the ancient monks of the Near East and published their apothegms.

Product Details

• Paperback: 257 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press; 1 edition (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879007347
• ISBN-13: 978-1879007345
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #737,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST INTRODUCTION TO THE CHRISTIAN HERMIT AND CENOBITE DESERT FATHERS OF EARLY EGYPT BY WORLD RENOWNED AUTHORITY IN THIS FIELD, March 18, 2007

By 

C. Scanlon "least helpful reviewer" (among us humans) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Day-to-Day Life of the Desert Fathers In Fourth-Century Egypt (Paperback)

With all due respect to the well known work in this regard by Benedicta Ward, please study the opus of Dom Lucien Regnault, monk of Solesmes, who dedicated his fruitful lifetime to the study of the Desert Fathers, writing numerous authoritative studies and collections of their sayings in his own translation, visiting the region where they lived, worked, fasted, fought and prayed.

Dom Lucien Regnault did this monumental labor all while serving Solesmes as Novice Master and later as Prior, leading there as ascetic and prayerful and humble a life as humanly possible. Although many of his most valuable works are now tragically out of print, several collections and commentaries may still be located at solesmes dot com. I know I am clinging to my collection of his five volume Sentences des peres du desert as carefully as I keep what I have left of Father Ernesto Cardenal`s community gospel meditations from Solentiname.

Until you are able to find Dom Regnault's other works and translations, this present volume is an excellent introduction to the history and life of these pioneering Christian monks who responded to the compromises the Church was making with the Emperor Constantine (including regarding his unChristian usage of violence and warfare) by following Christ out into the desert to fast and to pray in great solitude, peace and poverty.

Perhaps the ancient monk best known by the public now is Saint Anthony (not of Padua, but of the Desert) whose life and temptations were novelized by Gustave Flaubert (of Madame Bovary fame) subsequent to his visits to Egypt. But here Dom Regnault introduces us to all that can be historically and actually and empirically known of these great and holy men and women, supplemented by his own livng of their lifestyle, which grants his writing an insight and perception and mystery not otherwise found in other authors, except perhaps for Trappist hermit Father Thomas Merton's own writings on the Desert Fathers and Pre-Benedicitine monks, which are published still by Cistercian Publications.

Briefly, this present work introduces us to every aspect of these great monks lives, including maps, and including spiritual and psychological bases for their search and their practices. As the title promises we learn everything about their daily life, including diet and community, when not living for years in absolute solitude, about which we also read. We see the kinds of animals and spirits they might encounter, and how demons and such were perceived in thier time, or rather what phenomenom they expressed in these terms, and how we might express the same experience in our time.

This work is therefore a great way for any student to study our deepest Christian spirituality as practiced by these holy men and women. An excellent and comprehensive bibliogrpahy with suggestions for further readings expands the very substantial text well planned and presented by Dom Regnault. You may find yourself thirsting to study French to read more by this author, or on a plane to Egypt to study Coptic to pursue these holy spirits in the desert! You will not be disappointed. Please read this book to find the true path to the meaning and message of our Gospel and our Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, to make the Beatitude of His all self sacrficing Peace.