"Monasticism
in Egypt:
Images and Words of the Desert Fathers"
by Michael McClellan
I . . . ordered your
photography book and have it
on my coffee table. It's a gem!
-- Carolyn Silva, Los Gatos,
California
It touches my heart to see
such sacred images and read the inspired words of the desert fathers.
-- Felipe Jain, Providence, Rhode
Island (from the guestbook)
Our long-awaited book is finally available! Published by the
American University in Cairo Press, this beautfully printed, hardbound, "gift
book" contains all the photos contained in our on-line gallery, as well as a few
others. Each photo is "illustrated" by quotations from the Desert Fathers as
recorded by Palladius in Paradise of the Fathers, and there is extensive
information about the development of monasticism in Egypt (including a special section on
St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai) written by the noted German scholar of the Coptic
and Eastern Churches, Dr. Otto Meinardus. We are confident you will find this book a true
blessing as it brings to life the words of the ancient saints of the Egyptian desert by
showing the Desert Fathers of today who walk those same paths and live in the same places
as those monks of 1600 years ago. This volume, incidentally, is the first of several we
plan to publish over the coming years on monasticism throughout the world, both in the
Christian tradition and in other traditions.
Here's a review of the book from the publisher's catalog:
Christian monasticism began in Egypt over 1600 years ago, in
the barren desert between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, from where it spread far and
wide through various Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant traditions. But in the
deserts of Egypt, sixteen centuries after the Desert Fathers, monasticism still thrives,
and it is to these isolated monasteries in one of the world's most inhospitable
environments that photographer Michael McClellan here turns his lens. Through his peaceful
and timeless black-and-white images, McClellan reveals the quiet, spiritual world of
today's desert fathers in the Coptic monasteries of the Red Sea Mountains, Wadi al-Natrun,
and Upper Egypt, and in the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine at the foot of Mount
Sinai. Illuminating the photographs are extracts from the "Paradise of the
Fathers," tales of the Desert Fathers collected by Saint Palladius.
You can also read what other reviewers
had to say about McClellan's work in Egypt.
To order a copy of this book at a discount, click here to go to Amazon.com where your credit card order will be taken
securely on-line! The proceeds from this book go to support the monastery
documentation project. If you have any other questions, please feel free to e-mail us and we'll get
right back to you!
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