DESERT FATHERS

DESERT FATHERS. The expression is used to signify the original Egyptian fathers of monasticism (q.v.) who flourished from the late 3rd c. to the early 5th c., in particular those gathered around SS. Antony and Macarius in Egypt (qq.v.). Macarius’s settlements at Nitria and later at Scete provided most of the stories and sayings recorded in one of the original source books of monastic spirituality, the Sayings of the Fathers (Apophthegmata Pateron or Gerontikon). The Desert Fathers have remained the standard for later Orthodox monks, their words and gestures functioning as paradigmatic. Another of their communities also included a number of women, such as Synkletiki and Sara.