Desert Fathers

Background

The Desert Fathers were Christians who, from the late third century to about the fifth century, devoted themselves to prayer and asceticism (the voluntary restraint of one's desires), living alone or in groups chiefly in the deserts of Egypt but also in those of Palestine and Syria. They were called abba, meaning "father." There were also women hermits (monastics who withdrew from the world to live in seclusion); they were called amma ("mother") and are commonly known as the Desert Mothers.

Two factors are commonly cited as giving rise to this movement. One was a desire to carry the martyr ideal of the persecuted early church forward into a life of daily self-denial. The other was a reaction against the growing stability and worldliness of the church within the empire after persecution ended with the Edict of Milan in 313.

Development

• Anthony (c. 251–356) is said to have given away his possessions and gone into the desert after hearing the words of Matthew 19:21, "go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor." The Life of Anthony (mid-fourth century), written by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, was widely read and made desert monasticism known throughout the Roman world.
• Pachomius (c. 292–348) founded a community at Tabennisi in Upper Egypt in the early fourth century, where members ate, worked, and prayed together according to a rule. This form of life is called cenobitic (communal) monasticism, as distinguished from the solitary eremitic life.
• In the fourth century, hermit communities multiplied in the region of Nitria and Scetis in Lower Egypt. Figures such as Macarius of Egypt and Evagrius were active there.
• The brief anecdotes and teachings of the Desert Fathers are believed to have been compiled around the fifth century into the Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum). Their principal themes are humility, silence, unceasing prayer, fasting, manual labor, and refraining from judging one's neighbor.

Legacy and Influence

John Cassian introduced the monastic tradition he had learned in Egypt to what is now southern France in the early fifth century. His writings influenced the sixth-century Rule of Benedict and thereby became a foundation of Western monasticism. Augustine wrote in his Confessions that hearing the story of Anthony played a part in his conversion. In the East, the spirituality of the Desert Fathers became a root of the monastic and prayer traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church venerate many of them as saints.

Assessment

Assessments differ by tradition.

• The Catholic and Orthodox churches hold the Desert Fathers in high esteem as models of monastic life and spirituality.
• In the Reformation tradition, Martin Luther and John Calvin criticized monastic vows (promises made to God) and asceticism as bound up with the idea of merit. They nevertheless sometimes distinguished the piety of the early hermits themselves from later monastic institutions.
• In the Methodist tradition, John Wesley is known to have read early Eastern spiritual writings, such as the homilies transmitted under the name of Macarius, favorably in connection with his understanding of sanctification.

Opinions are also divided within Korean Protestantism. Some read the sayings of the Desert Fathers as resources for meditation and spiritual formation. Others, in connection with the contemplative prayer controversy, voice concern that their tradition of silent prayer may be at odds with a Bible-centered faith.