This book recounts the asceticism and admirable lifestyle of monks in the 4th century and gathers their wisdom. The eighth edition of "Instructions of the Fathers" still contains the complete collected sayings of the Desert Fathers, the monks who retreated into the desert as hermits in the early centuries after Christ. A selection from the Latin tradition is also included. The defining characteristic of the texts is their diversity: alongside sayings that illuminate a life situation directly and vividly from the Gospel, there are those that originate from the pre-Christian Egyptian world, as well as others that can be attributed to the theological thought of Alexandria. What unites them all is the word related to the moment and to life. The statements of the monastic fathers demonstrate not only a deep familiarity with the Holy Scriptures but also...