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In the early part of the fourth century, a few Christians, mostly men and some women, began to withdraw from "the world" to retreat into the desert, there to practice their new religion more seriously. The person who aspired to "renounce the world" first had to find an "elder," a person who would accept him as a disciple and apprentice. To his elder (whom he would address as abba-father) the neophyte owed complete obedience; from his abba, he would receive provisions (as it were) for the road to virtue. In addition to the abba's own example of living, there was the verbal teaching of the elders in sayings and tales, setting out the theory and practice of the eremitic life.In due course, these sayings (or apophthegmata) were written down and, later, collected and codified. The earliest attempts to codify tales and sayings are now lost. As the collection grew, they were first organized alphabetically, according to the name of the abba who spoke them, in a major collection known as the Apophthegmata Patrum Alphabetica. A supplementary collection, the Anonymous Apophthegmata, followed. Later, both collections were combined and arranged systematically rather than alphabetically. This collection was created sometime between 500 and 575 and later went through a couple of major revisions, the second of which appeared sometime before 970.This second revision was published in an excellent new critical edition, with a French translation, in 1993. Now, in The Book of the Elders, John Wortley offers an English translation of this collection, based entirely on the Greek of that text.

There were two Bernards of Clairvaux. The first was the genuine Bernard who lived from 1090 to 1153, and wrote letters, sermons, and treatises that are of major consequence in the history of the twelfth century. The second is a host of writers, most of whom have not been identified, who wrote treatises attributed to the genuine Bernard, but that were not from his pen. This volume, the first complete translation in more than three hundred years, presents one of the most important texts in the history of medieval Latin spirituality. Written between 1170 and 1190 by an unidentified Cistercian monk-priest, Meditationes piisimae, "Very Devout Meditations," became one of the most popular and widely distributed pieces of spiritual literature in the whole of the Middle Ages. The work survives in at least 670 manuscripts, with the complete English translation of the treatise published in 1701.

Abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Perseigne, Adam was a 'director of souls' in the late twelfth century. By his letters he counselled clerics and kings, nuns and nobles with affection, respect, and candor. Because his monastery lay in Normandy, he enjoyed close ties with Norman England and acted as an adviser to the crusader-king, Richard the Lion-hearted. Yet this intimate of the high-born was himself the son of a serf.Nothing certain is know of the education by which Adam rose from the peasantry, but he is an example of the way in which a young man could improve his station by entering clerical life. After being ordained priest, Adam found favor at the witty and sophisticated court of the Countess of Champagne.In his letters, Adam reveals that at some point he began to seek a disciplined life of prayer and entered a monastery of cannons regular. Dissatisfied there, he transferred to a Benedictine monastery, and then to a Cistercian abbey, likely Pontigny. His final choice may have been guided in large part by his great personal devotion to the infant Jesus and to His Mother, the patroness of the Cistercian Order. Marian devotion had grown rapidly in the twelfth century and was echoed in secular life by the increasing chivalric regard for ladies which found its greatest expression at the court of Champagne. In several of his letters Adam speaks tenderly of the virtues and graces of Saint Mary, giving eloquent voice to the popular love and admiration which swept across western Europe in the twelfth century.

In the gospel of Saint Matthew, Jesus is "Emmanuel," God-with-us, or, as Jesus himself puts it, he is "I-Desire," "Coming-I-Will-Heal," and "I-Am-with-You-Always." The brief commentaries collected here, initially presented by Cistercian abbot Mark A. Scott in a series of chapter talks to his monastic community, will welcome the reader into an intimate encounter with the love of Jesus, as the evangelist Matthew presents him in chapters four through nine of his gospel. These reflections also weave insights from the Rule of Benedict along with reflections on monastic life offering to all ecclesial communities and individual Christians rich nourishment for their loving Jesus in return.

This study follows the transmission and reception of Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogus miraculorum (1219-1223), one of the most compelling and successful Cistercian collections of miracles and memorable events, from the Middle Ages to the present day. It ranges across different media and within different interpretive communities and includes brief summaries of a number of the exempla.

Mystagogy: A Monastic Reading of Dionysius Areopagita proposes an interpretation of the Pseudo-Dionysian corpus in light of the liturgical and ascetic tradition that defined the author and his audience. Characterized by both striking originality and remarkable fidelity to the patristic and late neoplatonic traditions, the Dionysian corpus is a coherent and unified structure, whose core and pivot is the treatise known as the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Given Pseudo-Dionysius' fundamental continuity with earlier Christian theology and spirituality, it is not surprising that the church, and in particular the ascetic community, recognized that this theological synthesis articulated its own fundamental experience and aspirations.

Defining spirituality as 'the dynamic unity between the content of a faith and the way in which it is lived by historically determined human beings', Vauchez steps outside the clerical world usually studied to trace the religious mentality of the laity, the ordinary and often illiterate majority of Christians.

In the theological skies of both the Greek and the Latin Church between the seventh and the fourteenth centuries usually know as the Middle Ages, a number of remarkable men appeared. They centered their lives in Christ and searched for an understanding of the faith which they shared and which their forebears had carefully explained over the first five centuries of Christianity. Yet in the process of trying to understand christian doctrine, the two great halves of Christendom grew apart. Differences in language and events led to differences of emphasis, teaching and practice, and sometimes to conflict. Written for readers with no background in theology or medieval history, Many Mansions brings to life this colorful and exciting period in the history of the Church. Understandings and misunderstandings which continue into the present day are carefully treated in easily understood terms. Illustrations taken from the periods and places under discussion provide visual reinforcement to the narrative.

Jacob Panhausen stands as a major but little-studied figure in the renewal of the Premonstratensian Order during the crucial decades of the sixteenth century when the very survival of religious life hung in the balance. His career (1540-1582) as abbot of Steinfeld in Germany spanned the whole era of the Council of Trent and its aftermath, and he died the same year that Saint Norbert was officially canonized.This volume presents the first English translation of two Latin texts by Jacob Panhausen, A Loving Exhortation to Prelates and Those in Their Charge and Treatise on Monastic Life and Religious Vows. The introduction offers a biographical and analytical overview of this outstanding Norbertine reformer, illuminating a crucial time in the renewal of the Premonstratensian Order during and after the Council of Trent. Intended as they were for his confreres at Steinfeld and other abbeys, they show his zeal for reform, his dedication to the monastic tradition, and his humanistic and exegetical concerns.

The best-known Cistercian of the twentieth century reflects on the teaching and life of the most renowned Cistercian of the twelfth century. Three essays written in the 1950s explore the relation of contemplation and action in the monastic vocation and in the life of Christians.

Taking up Saint Bernard's unfinished sermon-commentary, Gilbert ruminates on verse 3:1-5:10 in forty-eight sermons, leaving the task to be finished by John of Ford. This volume contains sermons 16 through 32.To encounter a person who makes holiness attractive is an enviable experience. Such a person was Gilbert of Hoyland, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Swineshead in Lincolnshire, a friend of Aelred of Rievaulx, and the continuator of the sermons on the Song of Songs begun by Bernard of Clairvaux. When the great saint of Clairvaux died in 1153, his sermon commentary had reached only the first four verses of chapter three of the Canticle. Gilbert took up the task, but left the commentary unfinished at his death. It was brought to completion by another English abbot, John of Ford. Those who know and admire Bernard's eloquence and contemplative insight will enjoy making the acquaintance of his successors. While conscious of continuing Bernard's work and remaining true to his spirit, they infused their sermons with their own personalities and shared their own rich experiences of God. As Lawrence C. Braceland says in his introduction to this first English translation of Gilbert's work, 'Gilbert is an experience. He has found the Beloved.'

The monk Grimlaicus (ca. 900) wrote a rule for those who, like himself, pursued the solitary life within a monastic community. Never leaving their cell yet participating in the liturgical life of the monastery through a window into the church, these enclosed sought to serve God alone. Beyond the details of horarium, reception of newcomers, diet, and clothing, Grimlaicus details practical measures for maintaining spiritual, psychological, and physical health, and for giving counsel to others. Scripture, the Rule of St. Benedict, and the teachings of early ecclesial and monastic writers form the kernel of Grimlaicus's wise and balanced rule, presented here for the first time in English translation.

Nil Sorsky (1433/34-1508), founder of the Sora Hermitage and initiator of 'scete ' life in among Russian Christians, is closely identified with the Orthodox contemplative prayer known as hesychasm, 'stillness. ' In these translations, Nil's own voice speaks across five hundred years to modern readers. The introduction and notes accurately place him within the Russian monastic tradition and identify the Slavic sources on which he drew. This introduction to the life and works of pre-modern Russia's outstanding teacher and writer allows English readers to share in celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Nil's death, to be marked in Russia by a symposium in the cloister of first his tonsure, by special seminars, and learned conferences.

From the rich tradition of the Anglo-Saxon Church of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, Benedicta Ward has selected prayers and passages for meditation from both Latin and Anglo-Saxon sources. The mixture of Latin and Celtic Christian cultures, distilled and appropriated by the Germanic Anglo-Saxons, produced a distinctive English spiritual tradition which embraced kings and princesses, abbesses and monks, cowherds and poets, soldiers and beggars, and birds and animals. `It is possible through these passages to walk with these men and women as friends and see how their lives became filled with the life of Christ, in pain and desolation as well as in wonder, love, and praise. '

The Epistle to the Romans was a favorite text of medieval commentators, especially in an age concerned with the theology of grace. William of Saint Thierry's Exposition is a thoroughly monastic text. In it the twelfth-century monk is concerned, not with dialectic or scholastic disputation, but with something far more personal: humility of heart and the recovery of the image of God in fallen humankind. Only when a person is open to God's grace can growth occur. William is convinced of this. He hopes to convince us of it. He sings the praises of God's grace. He combs Scripture for insights on the workings of grace. Several times in the course of the commentary, he shifts from narrative to address God directly. In doing so, he adds a personal, intimate touch to a literary genre which was soon to become settled in the impersonal methodology of the Schools.

Guerric of Igny (d. 1157) ranks with Bernard of Clairvaux, Aelred of Rievaulx, and William of Saint Thierry as one of 'the four evangelists of Cîteaux'. Yet he is known only through these Liturgical Sermons and a scattering of historical references.Born probably at Tournai and educated in the humanities and theology at the noted cathedral school there, he visited the cistercian abbey of Clairvaux as a seasoned scholar, with no intention whatever of abandoning academic life for the cloister. Urged to stay by the always persuasive Abbot Bernard, however, 'without delay or looking back, the cleric became a monk, the master a schoolboy'.In 1138, again at Bernard's suggestion and despite his own protestations that he lacked the requisite wisdom and health, Guerric was elected as the second abbot of Igny, a daughter house of Clairvaux near Rheims. There he wrote the sermons which reveal the quality of his education, the profundity of his theology, and the pervasiveness of his cistercian spirit.The Liturgical Sermons of Guerric of Igny are published in two volumes: Book One contains Sermons 1-21; Book Two contains Sermons 22-54.

Guerric of Igny (¿1157) ranks with Bernard of Clairvaux, Aelred of Rievaulx, and William of Saint Thierry as one of 'the four evangelists of Citeaux'. Yet he is know only through these Liturgical Sermons and a scattering of historical references.Born probably at Tournai and educated in the humanities and theology at the noted cathedral school there, he visited the Cistercian abbey of Clairvaux as a seasoned scholar, with no intention whatever of abandoning academic life for the cloister. Urged to stay by the always persuasive Abbot Bernard, however, 'without delay or looking back, the cleric became a monk, the master a schoolboy.'In 1138, again at Bernard's suggestion and despite his own protestations that he lacked the requisite wisdom and health, Guerric was elected as the second abbot of Igny, a daughter house of Clairvaux near Rheims. There he wrote the sermons which reveal the quality of his education, the profundity of his theology, and the pervasiveness of his Cistercian spirit.The Liturgical Sermons of Guerric of Igny are published in two volumes: Book One contains Sermons 1-21; Book Two contains Sermons 22-54.