Today our featured book is the two volume set “The paradise or garden of the holy fathers : being histories of the Anchorites, recluses, monks, coenobites and ascetic fathers of the deserts of Egypt between A.D. CCL and A.D. CCCC circiter” compiled by Athanasius archbishop of Alexandria, Palladius bishop of Helenopolis, Saint Jerome and others.
In 1888, while on a visit to the ancient city of Nineveh, current day Mōṣul, Wallis Budge was shown a very ancient (13th or 14th century) Syriac manuscript of the Book of Paradise by the seventh century monk Ânân-Îshô. Upon examination Budge found that this volume contained a collection of works on the history of Christian monasticism in Egypt. Given permission to have a copy made he returned to the British Museum and translated the works into the two volume set found in our library. Truly an adventure worthy of Indiana Jones.
DLWA Call Number: BX2734 .A619 1907
Worldcat: Link
- Title: The paradise or garden of the holy fathers
- Language: English
- Setting: Third Century North Africa
–DLW