Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Monasticism

The Man of God lacks the prodigious Miracles and extravagant feats of asceticism typical of Syrian saints. He does nothing extraordinary, except live as a poor person, begging for his daily bread and praying constantly in the church. What is most powerful in the Syriac version is its description of the effect his story has on Rabbula, who, from the moment he hears it, devotes himself exclusively to the poor and strangers. The story's focus then becomes, not so much the Man of God, but how one reacts to the presence of the holy in one's midst.

In the Early Middle Ages, the Irish temperament 'individualistic, poetic, and deeply loyal to family 'produced great and learned saints and a unique monastic literature. Before the Norman Invasion, the isolation of the island allowed the development of traditions quite different from those of the continent or Britain. The rules, maxims, litanies, and poems of early Irish monks convey the spirituality of the Isle of Saints in the sixth to eighth centuries.

This practical guide to the spiritual life, cherished by monks, beguines, and lay folk for eight centuries, can still lead men and women to God.

The Golden Epistle first appeared in s1145 and has been ascribed to several different authors, among them Bernard of Clairvaux and Guigo the carthusian. Today its author is known to have been William of Saint Thierry, a Cistercian monk of the abbey of Signy and a friend of Saint Bernard.

It was read continuously throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times, especially y lay men and women seeking guidance in their spiritual...

Always a vigorous champion of papal reforms, Bernard of Clairvaux toward the end of his life saw one of his own monks raised to the papal throne as Eugene III. While acting as the new Pope's political and spiritual counsellor, the Great Cistercian abbot was tireless in advancing Eugene's policies and in defending his authority and prestige.

Both as a monk and as a strategist, Bernard realized that political astuteness needs the complement of sober and honest reflection. In Five Books on Consideration he defines 'consideration' for the Pope by examining the practical and the...

Throughout the christian world, women have chosen to lead disciplined lives of prayer and asceticism. Descriptions of early role-models 'Macrina, the two Palas and Melanias, Radagunde 'and others by contemporaries, usually men, provide details of their austerities, their aspirations, and their relationship with the Church and the world, not least with male authority figures.

Written in the fifth century, during one of the most formative periods of christian monasticism in Egypt and Palestine, The Ascetic Discourses show a strong influence of the Scripture, both Old and New, and of Early monastic writers. They are marked by a faithfulness to tradition, yet equally by a note of originality distinctive to the Gaza region. Abba Isaiah has set forth a practical guide for monks, ever aware of the challenges that interpersonal relationships present within monastic communities.

John Chryssavgis is a Professor of Theology at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox...