Primary source · Greek (Latin version by Rufinus)
The History of the Monks of Egypt (Historia Monachorum in Aegypto)
Anonymous (a Jerusalem party of 394) · c. AD 400
What this text is
The travel narrative of seven monks who toured the Thebaid — eyewitness sketches of Apollo of Hermopolis with his five hundred brethren, John of Lycopolis, and the desert's living legends.
Public-domain translations
Working translation (from the Greek)
We saw also in the Thebaid, in the borders of Hermopolis, a father named Apollo, who had five hundred monks under him at the foot of the mountain. None among them was gloomy — he taught that the brethren must give thanks at all times. (HM 8)
Manuscript witnesses
Greek tradition and Rufinus's Latin
Latin version c. 404; medieval copiesThe Greek original and Rufinus's early Latin adaptation, which carried the work west.
Provenance
Written after a tour of the Egyptian ascetics in the winter of 394–395
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Historia Monachorum in AegyptoA.-J. Festugière, 1961The critical edition of the Greek.
- The Lives of the Desert FathersNorman Russell & Benedicta Ward, 1980English translation with introduction.