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The Church Fathers · c. 555–559
Lives of the Monks of Palestine
Cyril of Scythopolis · c. 525–c. 559
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What it is
Seven lives of the founders of the Judean desert monasteries, written by a monk who interviewed survivors and consulted archives, with dates given precisely.
Why it lasted
The most reliable monastic biography of antiquity — a hagiographer who behaved like a historian.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
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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