The Church Fathers · c. 635–650
The Book of Perfection
Sahdona · 7th century
What it is
A long treatise on the monastic life whose second part turns to prayer, the reading of scripture, and the fear of God with unusual warmth.
Why it lasted
One of the finest Syriac spiritual writers, condemned for his christology and preserved only because the manuscripts survived in a Kurdish village.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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