Back to the Library
The Church Fathers · collected c. 350–500
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Apophthegmata Patrum
Anonymous
Read elsewhere
What it is
Short exchanges between monks and their visitors, usually beginning with a request for a word, and answered in one or two sentences that rarely explain themselves.
Why it lasted
The most widely read monastic book in Christian history, and the raw material of every later spirituality of humility and silence.
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.
Read next