'I have plucked the finest flowers of the unmown meadow and worked them into a row which I now offer to you', wrote John Moschos as he began his tales of the holy men of seventh-century Palestine and Egypt. This translation offers readers contemporary insights into the spirituality of the desert.

Convent Autobiography reveals how English Catholic women wrote about themselves, their families, and their lives in a period where it was illegal to practice Catholicism in England. These nuns went into a two-fold kind of exile for their beliefs. They moved abroad and they "died to the world", trying to cut ties with family and friends. Yet their convents needed support from outsiders to thrive. The nuns studied here reveal how they navigated this through their letters, printed works, paintings, and prayers. Often times these women wrote anonymously, a common practice for nuns, monks, and devout people of many religious persuasions up until the twentieth century. But anonymity was not just a neutral way of signalling humility or deep religious belief; it could allow people to write about themselves a lot more than they would have while writing under their own name. Exploring how some nuns exploited this to shape their convent's chronicle around their own points of view, Convent Autobiography holds up a mirror to the think about the double-edged role of anonymity throughout history.

In the half century since its first publication in English, this small book has become a classic of medieval theology. Directing his attention to 'perhaps the most neglected aspect' of Cistercian mysticism, the great French medievalist and philosopher Etienne Gilson directs attention to 'that part of [Bernard's] theology on which his mysticism rests', his 'systematics'.Cistercian Publications brings this important book back into print in celebration of the nine-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Saint Bernard, hoping that new generations of scholars will find it food for thought and further research.

For some thirty years Eric Dean, as a layman, husband, parent, Presbyterian minister, Lafollette Professor of Humanities at Wabash College, and as an ecumenical oblate of a Benedictine abbey has reflected on and put into practice the Rule of St. Benedict. In Saint Benedict for the Laity he comments on how the Rule "has important things to say even to those of us who - because we are already committed to lives in the secular sphere - can never think of a monastic vocation. The rule can speak to us of values which, even apart from the daily structures of monastic life, are relevant to our own lives in 'the outside world.' "

C. Ellis Nelson has collaborated with and collected the works of ten leaders experienced in congregational affairs to design and produce a resource that helps ministers and lay leaders understand the dynamics of congregations. The result is an engaging collection that will help pastors and church leaders invigorate their congregations.

Three times longer than the Rule of Saint Benedict and in parts identical to it, the "Regula Magistri "encompasses the entire existence, material and spiritual, of the monastic community and its members. First English translation.

Traces the growth of the Hare Krishna movement in the U.S., describes the experiences of individual followers, and analyzes recruitment patterns, activities, and leadership of the movement.

'My thoughts on the spiritual exercises proper to cloistered monks'; the ninth prior of La Grande Chartreuse ( '1180) articulates the monastic contemplative tradition in distinctively western terms.

'...reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. These make a ladder for monks by which they are lifted up from earth to heaven. It has few rungs, yet its length is immense and wonderful, for its lower end rests upon the earth, but its top pierces the clouds and seeks heavenly secrets.'

Here, the charming, mature stories from the internationallly beloved monk are accompanied by original art. Like the parables of Jesus, these tales repeatedly unfold new levels of meaning if we are willing to sit with them.

For fifteen centuries Benedictine monasticism has been governed by a Rule that is at once strong enough to instil order and yet flexible enough to have relevance fifteen hundred years later. This unabridged edition includes the Latin and English translation with commentary. The paperback version has facing page translation.

Written during the last decade of Merton's life, these articles reflect his mature thought on monastic life in community and in solitude. Appealing to the monastic dimension in al of us, his reflections have meaning for those living outside as well as inside monastery walls, fellow travellers on the same journey he took, aware of the fragility and imperfections, as well as the great potential for growth and love, within each human person.

Classic work of ecclesiastical history, exercising original and independent judgement. Volume II also available.

Has the art of accompaniment been lost in Western culture? Could non-judgemental accompaniment be the answer to rising levels of isolation and loneliness? Could spending time with others from different or marginalised backgrounds reduce feelings of 'otherness' and lead to a more open, trusting society? Exploring the themes above, this welcoming book offers models of relationships, interdependence, and community for individuals who are marginalised from society. It emphasises the importance of being with people and time spent in physical activity and in the natural world, without demands being put on expressing feelings or even speaking out loud. It draws on the author's own vast experience and work with those on the edge of society - including living in a Christian community which welcomes those in terms of crisis, living in a Palestinian village, working with adults with autism and as chaplain to Gypsies and Travellers - providing a varied, insightful and heart-warming view on the benefits of accompaniment.

Shenoute the Great (c.347-465) led one of the largest Christian monastic communities in late antique Egypt and was the greatest native writer of Coptic in history. For approximately eight decades, Shenoute led a federation of three monasteries and emerged as a Christian leader. His public sermons attracted crowds of clergy, monks, and lay people; he advised military and government officials; he worked to ensure that his followers would be faithful to orthodox Christian teaching; and he vigorously and violently opposed paganism and the oppressive treatment of the poor by the rich. This volume presents in translation a selection of his sermons and other orations. These works grant us access to the theology, rhetoric, moral teachings, spirituality, and social agenda of a powerful Christian leader during a period of great religious and social change in the later Roman Empire.

Spanish colonization of Latin America in the sixteenth century continues to provoke scholarly debate. Spanish missionaries employed various strategies to convert indigenous inhabitants to the Catholic faith, including operating schools, organizing choirs, and establishing charitable brotherhoods known as confraternities. In Charity for and by the Poor, Laura Dierksmeier investigates how the reformed Franciscans' commitment to evangelizing Mexico gave rise to an extensive network of local confraternities and their respective care institutions. She finds that these local groups were the chief welfare providers for the indigenous people during the early colonial period and were precursors of the modern social security system. Dierksmeier shows how the Franciscan missionary imperative to promote the works of mercy and charity inspired the goals, governance, and operations of indigenous confraternities, their hospital and orphan care, and their contributions to the moral economy, including releasing debt prisoners and lending money to the poor. Focusing on the inner logic and daily practices of indigenous confraternities, Charity for and by the Poor highlights their far-reaching effects on Mexican society. Dierksmeier argues that confraternities are best studied within the religious framework that established them, and she does so by analyzing confraternity record books, lawsuits, last wills, missionary correspondence, and parish records from archives in Mexico, Spain, the United States, and Germany. The confraternity became an essential institution for protecting the indigenous population during epidemics, for integrating the various indigenous classes from the former Aztec Empire into the emerging social order, and for safeguarding indigenous self-governance within religious spheres. Most notably, Franciscan-established confraternities built social structures in which the poor were not only recipients of assistance but also, through their voluntary participation, self-empowered agents of community care. In this way, charity was provided for and by the poor.

During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther took the biblical maxim "be fruitful and multiply" and used it within the realm of marriage as the cornerstone of his new Christian community. By denying the spiritual superiority of celibacy and introducing new tenets regarding gender, marriage, chastity, and religious life, Luther challenged one of the key expressions of Catholicism--monastic life. Yet many religious living in cloistered communities, particularly women, refused to accept these new terms and successfully opposed the new Protestant culture.
Focusing primarily on a group of Dominican nuns in Strasbourg, Germany, Amy Leonard's "Nails in the Wall" outlines the century-long battle between these nuns and the Protestant city council. Using their charm, wealth, and political and social connections, the nuns were able to sustain their Catholic practices. Leonard's in-depth archival research uncovers letters about and records of the nuns' struggle to maintain their religious beliefs and way of life in the face of Protestant reforms. She tells the story of how they worked privately to keep Catholicism alive--continuing to pray in Latin, smuggling in priests to celebrate Mass, and secretly professing scores of novices to ensure the survival of their convents. This fascinating and heartening study shows that, far from passively allowing the Protestants to dismantle their belief system, the women of the Strasbourg convents were active participants in the battle over their vocation and independence.

Although an ascetic ideal of leadership had both classical and biblical roots, it found particularly fertile soil in the monastic fervor of the fourth through sixth centuries. Church officials were increasingly recruited from monastic communities, and the monk-bishop became the dominant model of ecclesiastical leadership in the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium. In an interesting paradox, Andrea Sterk explains that "from the world-rejecting monasteries and desert hermitages of the east came many of the most powerful leaders in the church and civil society as a whole."

Sterk explores the social, political, intellectual, and theological grounding for this development. Focusing on four foundational figures--Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom--she traces the emergence of a new ideal of ecclesiastical leadership: the merging of ascetic and episcopal authority embodied in the monk-bishop. She also studies church histories, legislation, and popular ascetic and hagiographical literature to show how the ideal spread and why it eventually triumphed. The image of a monastic bishop became the convention in the Christian east.

"Renouncing the World Yet Leading the Church" brings new understanding of asceticism, leadership, and the church in late antiquity.

A French historian and curator of the manuscript department at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Benjamin Guerard (1797-1854) made a considerable contribution to the study of medieval French cathedrals and monasteries. Having studied at Dijon, Guerard became a banker in Paris, before studying at the Ecole royales des chartes where he trained as an archivist. He was a founding member of the Societe de l'histoire de France, and this publication was part of the society's first series of documents inedits. Guerard was elected to the Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and became the director of the Ecole des chartes in 1848. This collection of the medieval charters of the Abbey of Saint-Pere at Chartres was published in Paris in 1840. Volume 1 contains the Prolegomena describing the founding of the abbey, the size of its demesne, its feudal rights, and official structure.

The Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Noyers, first edited in 1872, remains a vital source for the political, economic and cultural history of this important Benedictine foundation in Anjou. Its 661 charters, ranging in date from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, attest to numerous central events in the life of the abbey, including its foundation and the election of its abbots. They also provide a wealth of information concerning the foundation's properties and possessions, its benefactors and its tenants. Each charter is carefully annotated to reflect differences among the extant evidence, and two full indices of personal and geographic names aid in searching. Appended here as well is a short life of St Gratian. This reissued edition makes this valuable resource once again widely available to scholars of medieval monastic and political history.

A French historian and curator of the manuscript department at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Benjamin Guerard (1797-1854) made a considerable contribution to the study of medieval French cathedrals and monasteries. Having studied at Dijon, Guerard became a banker in Paris, before studying at the Ecole royales des chartes where he trained as an archivist. He was a founding member of the Societe de l'histoire de France, and this publication was part of the society's first series of documents inedits. Guerard was elected to the Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and became the director of the Ecole des chartes in 1848. This collection of the medieval charters of the Abbey of Saint-Pere at Chartres was published in Paris in 1840. Volume 2 contains Guerard's transcriptions of the charters, dating from the twelfth to the mid-fifteenth centuries.

Australian Jesuit Tom O'Hara has written a number of books in Jesuit spirituality. He has many years experience in the practice of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius through directing retreats This book is his most detailed examination of the Exercises and connects with many writers in the Jesuit tradition and a comprehensive understanding of St Ignatius' life.

The Lost Abbey of Eynsham will be of interest not just to local historians but to those with an interest in the development of monasticism and medieval art and architecture, particularly the Romanesque. Eynsham was one of the few religious foundations in England in continuous use from the late Saxon period to the Dissolution. Its first Benedictine Abbot was the internationally renowned scholar and teacher, Aelfric, and it was frequently visited by medieval kings given its close proximity to the royal hunting lodge of Woodstock. Hugh of Avalon, later canonised, was appointed Bishop of Lincoln at a royal council at Eynsham in 1186. Shortly afterwards the abbey achieved fame with the Vision of the Monk of Eynsham which is said to have influenced Dante. Its reputation was further enhanced when Eynsham acquired an important relic, the arm of St Andrew in 1240. In the later Middle Ages, the abbey went into decline and was beset by scandal. It surrendered to the Crown in 1538 and the huge structure was gradually demolished and pillaged for its building materials. Now, nothing remains in situ above ground. This book aims to rescue this important abbey from obscurity by summarising its history and examining the material remains of Eynsham Abbey, most of which have never been published before.

Monastic Wales - new approaches is an interdisciplinary collection of essays written by some of the leading scholars working on aspects of medieval Welsh history. The chapters in this volume consider the history, archaeology, architecture and wider cultural, social, political and economic context of the religious houses of Wales between the Norman conquest in the eleventh century, and the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth.

If you have not read Heather King before, her honesty may shock you. In this remarkable memoir, you will see how a convert with a checkered past spends a year reflecting upon St. Therese of Lisieux--and discovers the radical faith, true love, and abundant life of a cloistered 19th-century French nun.

Recorded during a seven-month stay in a Trappist monastery in Genesee, New York, Henri Nouwen's record of his spiritual journey is an insightful and compassionate inspiration to all who seek to know themselves better.