The Desert Literature
The literature beyond the Apophthegmata through which the desert became known — the two great travelogues, Palladius’ Lausiac History and the anonymous Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, and St. John Cassian’s Institutes and Conferences, which carried the desert to the Latin West. This section treats the sources as texts, with attention to what each can attest.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Egyptian desert monasticism)
This section treats the desert’s literature as a body of sources. The first file, the-lausiac-history-and-the-historia-monachorum.md, treats the two eyewitness travelogues — Palladius’ Lausiac History (c. 419–420) and the Historia Monachorum (a journey of 394–395) — and what these accounts, with their reporting, their marvels, and their agendas, can and cannot attest (§3.5). The second file, cassian-and-the-desert-in-the-west.md, treats St. John Cassian carrying the desert to Gaul in the Institutes and Conferences (deferred to his own collection), and the later transmission through Benedict and, in the East, the Philokalia.
Contents
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| the-lausiac-history-and-the-historia-monachorum.md | Palladius (c. 419) and the anonymous Historia Monachorum; what these travelogues attest (§3.5) |
| cassian-and-the-desert-in-the-west.md | Cassian’s Institutes and Conferences carrying the desert to Gaul (deferred); the Philokalia and later transmission |
See Also
- The Desert Fathers (master README)
- The Sayings and Their Collections — the desert’s other great source
- St. John Cassian — the individual collection deferred to