Publisher's Synopsis
This introduction to Monastic Life in the First Centuries of Christianity was originally a course given to the novitiate of the Abbey of Venière. It is, therefore, not a presentation of the results of the cutting edge of the current research on the ancient monasticism, nor is it an exhaustive accumulation of information on the subject, nor the elaboration of original thought. It is simply an introduction to the monastic tradition of the first Christian centuries and a key to reading and understanding the ancient monastic texts by oneself.
