The Canons of Our Fathers

Journal Data

TypeSOURCE_BOOK
PublisherOxford University Press (GB)
ISBN-139780199582631
Open LibraryOL20224008W
Total publications1
Coverage period2014 - 2014
LanguageEN

This book provides a resource for the history of Christian monasticism. It contains the full translation of a newly discovered set of very ancient monastic rules, together with the original text in Coptic. It paints a detailed picture of the way that monks and nuns lived in Christian Egypt in the fourth and fifth centuries AD. The rules are accompanied by four preliminary chapters discussing their historical and social context and their character. These rules were found quoted in the writings of the great Egyptian monastic leader Shenoute (ca. 347–465). Designed for a federation of monks and nuns who banded together about 360 CE—forming the so‐called “White Monastery Federation”—the rules date back to the fourth and fifth centuries. New historical evidence is presented for the founding of the Federation